CT Portrait/Mural Artist- How to portrait-part 1

From who’s eyes are these?- Part 1″

Step by step portrait of Katy Perry.

ct portrait mural painter mjp studios katy perry (1)

First we new a good photo.

I picked Katy Perry because I liked the quality of the photo and because she is a well known celebrity that most people would recognize.

Supplies that I use.

Supplies for portrait drawing

Bristol board 300 or 400
Pencil erasers
Pencil sharpener
Kneaded
eraser
Graphite pencils h,b,2b & 4b.
Mechanical pencil dark
Small softening
brush
Black & white charcoal pencils.
Paper towels or soft t- shirt
rags.
Grayscale value finder.

Fixative spray

You can project your image from a photo or use the grid system. In this case I used a projector to get the basic image sketched out rough with a h pencil.

Ct portrait Mural Artist MJP Studios (4)

Initial rough sketch h pencil

For me as an artist drawing is foundational. Drawing is very important part of portrait work. A painting is only as good as the drawing underneath. I always start with the eyes. If the eyes aren’t right than I usually will not continue and will start another project.

Focusing on the eyes with 4b-2b just drawing lines, no fading or blending at tis point.

Starting detail on one of the eyes.

Working on the detail of both eyes. Notice the paper or tissue below as to not smudge the rest of the drawing.

Up until now its all been hard line. I have started to do some blending above the eye lashes and eyebrows, below the bottom lash and in the corner of the whites of the eyes. I have not used any white charcoal at this point.

In the next part 2 we will begin working on the rest of the face.