How to draw a portrait from photo

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Portrait drawing demo by Yong Chen. This lesson is to show my students the process of drawing a portrait from a photo reference. Throughout the entire demonstration, I enforced the concept of “Shapes”. I liked my students to think about shapes instead of the person in the photo. Shapes are large and small. Begin with the large shapes, then develop small shapes within the large shapes. Each shape has size, proportion, and value (darkness or lightness of color). And between each large shape or small shape, they have connections, contrasts, and harmonies. Thinking about “Shapes” can simplify the thought process and eliminate other unrelated distractions.

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26 Comments
  1. seth ph88 says

    👌👍🏼👍🏼❤️😎

  2. diy buddy says

    If you can't don't give did like instead learn from him

  3. Brillian! Simply brilliant…

  4. Ak Malik says

    master you are a graet person .i am a fan of you ….i learned in your video how to present your own thoughts to onther person .i am waiting for nex one

  5. Laba Mthem says

    What kind of pencil do u use ❤

  6. Fly Lice says

    No matter how many times I draw this image with you, I could never get the spirit out of her eyes. It is so difficult to draw eyes!

  7. psx jeff says

    Say less mean most 'WOW' !!!

  8. World's Best Whistler says

    Crazy

  9. Midori irodiM says

    Only thing that is bugging me is he never placed the "shape" that is supposed to be the philtrum.

  10. Gàbor bà says

    Great! Thank you!

  11. MR PumA says

    What material did you use to draw the portrait?

  12. Eugenia Botezatu says

    6 GRANDE EEEEEEEEH IMMENSO ❤❤❤❤👍👍👍👍👍👍👍 MAESTRO OOOOOHHH

  13. Asif Khan says

    Amazing , i Watch ur lovely painting again and again.
    I,m ur big fan Yong Chen 👍

  14. Asif Khan says

    U r very intelligent thx for teaching i have just a question plz can u explain how to drow from a litle picture to a big picture, i mean how can we measure it.

  15. JDPlayZ says

    I take my art serious so to see the students faces and them yawning makes me mad if it were me I would smile

  16. DMX Zooom says

    SHIT DRAWING SKILLS! I DRAW BETTER THEN YOU!

  17. Aaron Chandler says

    Mr. Chen, do you practice drawing details separately? Thank you!

  18. xhoi dosti says

    hi everyone ,if anyone else wants to learn about steps to draw pencil portraits try Skyarza Portrait Coach Star ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some unbelievable things about it and my mate got excellent success with it.

  19. Hana Bibi says

    Could you please draw bts they are a Kpop boy band it’s okay if u can’t thanks for drawing this i love you❤️❤️

  20. Tim King says

    Thanks for posting – looking forward to trying this method – I noticed that the subjects in your portrait demos are all closed mouthed – no toothy grins

  21. r u srs says

    thank you sm for sharing 🙂 really helped me alot

  22. Paulo De Leon says

    Not certain about the points made but ,if anyone else wants to learn about steps to draw pencil portraits try Loctavan Amazing Drawing Strategy ( search on google ) ? Ive heard some super things about it and my brother in law got cool results with it.

  23. Beedalius Saiquintus says

    "Oh, I forgot the ear"
    Draws ear in a simple stroke and look exactly like in the picture. There's no errors in art, only beautiful mistakes

  24. EDM says

    The fact that you make statements like "it looks like i got that right", and that you openly admitted you had forgotten the ear highlight a rather important fact: people make mistakes. I took art classes with people who never openly stated their mistakes, so most of the students built up an image of the teacher as someone who is able to draw perfectly without effort or error, and that is very intimidating for most people. You show people that mistakes are ok, that they can be corrected, and that you can learn from it.

  25. SK ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS says

    Wow nice

  26. Alfreda66 says

    I have been drawing from photos for a long time and still struggle with proportion and composition. This wonderful tutorial really helps simplify the challenges. Thanks so much for sharing!

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