Make a Portrait Drawing Look Like Engraving

Hello my friends! Today I'm making this video to share with you the process of creating a portrait drawing using pen and ink. Because English is not my first language and this is the first time I talk in my video so I could not avoid making mistakes and I hope you understand for that. This is a technique that use cross contour combined with varying light waves to create a lighting effect for the artwork and the result will look like a classic engraving piece in traditional printmaking techniques. Let's get started to explain and analyze this technique in more detail with a portrait drawing demonstration. Before creating any piece of visual art with any medium or subject matter, I always prioritize spending a lot of time on sketching. For portrait drawing, one of the most powerful tools to create a good sketching is the constructive drawing method. With this method, we start by using very basic and simple shapes. Define the proportions and the connection between all elements in a drawing before we work on the fine details. In terms of portrait drawing, you can refer to the Loomis method, one of the most effective portrait drawing methods used by artists today. You can find the book Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis on Amazon or in bookstores. For getting started, I usually simplify the form into basic shapes with simple lines, measure proportions and define the positions of facial features. For example, the measurement from the top of the forehead to the eyebrows is equal to the distance from the eyebrows to the bottom of the nose. After completing the basic forms, I begin to use curved lines to represent the natural shape of the head and the facial features. And the next step, we will talk about cross contour. Cross contour is a method of drawing parallel lines that follow the surface and the 3D structure of a subject. To make it easier to draw cross contours for this portrait, firstly, I would like to simplify the portrait to a basic form, something like a cube, and start drawing multiple parallel straight lines following this form. By observing the top of the human head, you can see it looks like a spherical form. Therefore, I will draw a sphere on top and use parallel curved lines to express the cross contours on the entire form. Now we have the directions to follow, and I can start to apply the cross contour on the surface of the portrait to create a sense of the three-dimensional structure. We can also analyze further for the facial features or smaller parts of the face. Let's take the nose for example. The nose can be simplified into a simple form with planes like this. The tip of the nose looks like a sphere, so I add this sphere into the structure and begin drawing cross contours. It's kind of tricky for drawing the transition between the tip and the bottom of the nose. Here, you may need to change the direction of the lines to create a smooth transition in this position. And now let's talk about the overall shading. For doing this, we can use pencils to define the key shading components. For you to visualize the concept of shading easier, let's take a look at the sphere drawing right here. The light in this work comes from the top left, so the highlight area will be at the top left as well. Keep going and we have the direct light, the mid-tone, the core shadow, and to emphasize the depth, we will also add the reflected light at the bottom right of a subject. And now let's move to the portrait drawing we're working on. You can use pencils to create a very light layer of shading, but don't make it too dark because it will be very hard for you to erase the sketching later. Now it's time to start working on pen and ink. I'm going to combine a mix between solid and broken lines to express the overall value before working on the shading components. The solid lines will be drawn in the areas of mid-tone, core shadow, and reflected light, while the broken lines will be in the areas of direct light. For the highlight, I want to make it really bright, so I'm not going to draw anything on these areas. Or if you want to, I will just use some very small dots to capture the high value. In my work, I usually start with the darkest areas, or we can say the lowest value areas, like the corner of the eyes, the area between the lips, and the eyebrows. This practice helps me to control the value better in the following steps. In the next step, we will draw the hair around to balance the values before adding any shading to the face. Based on the sketching, cross contour, and the overall shading in the previous steps, I will start working on the hatching layer by using a combination of solid and broken lines as mentioned earlier. All the lines will be parallel to each other, and the spacing between the lines is about one millimeter. At this point, I will draw with very thin lines, just enough to express the overall light in dark areas. Based on the cross contour sketching, I can complete the overall shading for the entire face. After finishing the overall shading, I will erase any unnecessary sketching, leaving only a few lines to mark the positions of the key shading components. Shifting the attention to the darkest areas once again, and I start shading the eyes, the nostrils, the area between the lips, and the eyebrows. Shading these areas first gives me a key value as a foundation to develop other shading areas later. Now we can apply the shading on the dark areas on the face like the side of the head, the bottom of the nose, and under the chin. To do this, I will increase the line thickness in the dark areas, especially in the core shadow. You don't need to achieve the exact value you desire, just enough to define the core shadow and the transition between light and dark areas. Now it's time to focus on balancing the values and adding depth to the drawing. Moving your hand slowly and carefully, this step always makes me feel relaxed and stressful at the same time. One serious mistake can ruin the whole drawing, but it's still enjoyable to see the drawing developed. For drawing hair with engraving style technique, drawing every single hair is recommended. Yes, every single hair strand. To create a strong consistence between the cross contour lines on the face and the parallel lines on the hair. And now we are approaching the final step, which is cross hatching. An extra layer to enhance the depth of the drawing, increase the contrast between the key shading components, and make the drawing look more lively. To create the cross hatching lines, first we need to define the direction of the hatching lines. The line's direction in the cross hatching layer will be angled about 30 to 45 degrees compared to the hatching layer direction. This technique is applied to both curved and straight lines. You can follow how I draw cross hatching on this simplified form and apply it on the portrait drawing. For better orientation, I usually use a fine pencil to draw a few key lines for the cross hatching layer. Based on this, I can start drawing the parallel lines across the face. In some areas, you can also thicken the lines to emphasize the value in those spots, such as the core shadow areas. And that's everything I want to share with you today for making a portrait work with engraving style pen and ink drawing. Thank you for watching the video and have a great day.