Advice On Pencil Portrait Sketching - The Tilted Head Pose

To generate interesting fluid portraits that radiate life you must appreciate the effect of the spine on the head and shoulders.

To produce a relaxed feeling in your portraits quite often you will need to render the head tilted. Most people when they are at ease will pose with their head slightly slanted. In this article we will point out what to look for and how to tackle the tilted skull.

In the tilted head pose the subject will show a clear change of direction from the action of the torso to the slant of the skull. Also take note of where the shoulders are. The model’s shoulders will approximately be aligned with the base of the nose.

With this information in mind, the first step is to gauge the angle of the skull’s slant (from the base of the chin to the top of the head) before sketching the arabesque. To do this hold up your pencil (or a knitting needle) at arm’s length, looking through one eye, and adjust the angle of the held pencil so that it corresponds to the angle of the tilt. Keeping your arm straight and locked you can now transpose this angle onto the sketch.

Now that the angle of the slant is found you can draw the construct and validate the height/width proportion.

The axis of the features is perpendicular to the slanted facial angle. A common trend while drawing is to straighten out the features so that they are horizontal to the paper. Be aware of this and ever on-guard because this trend is subtle and is constantly trying to sneak into the sketch.

It is not a suggested practice to situate all of the features at this time. It is actually more accurate to first fix the brow line and the base of the nose and work from there.

When the skull is slanted you should also be aware of the effect that gravity has on the face. The skin, especially on the underside of the jaw, will be somewhat pulled down. This effect is quite faint but for those of you who are advanced portraitists you should capture this in your initial arabesque. If you are a beginner just put this information away for future reference.

Take note, too, of the neck. The critical visible neck muscle is extended. Its companion is shortened. This opposing muscle action is referred to as abduction/adduction. This action of the neck always renders a beautiful effect.

Once the construct is located and you are satisfied with its accuracy relative to proportion and form you can render the features and hatch-in the primary big darks and lights. Keep the value simple. The more complicated the lighting arrangement, the more this applies.

The value arrangements are worked further, but are still a bit crude and unresolved. The main concern is the overall light effect.

There are a few items to keep in mind as you prepare to finalize the drawing:

1. Ask yourself how far you should carry the sketch. You can get a real nice effect if you give the shoulders and upper torso an unfinished quality. Remember, drawings are not meant to resemble photos.

2. As you gain a deeper understanding of the facial structure the tendency exists to sketch what you know rather than what is actually there. So make sure you always pause to observe the life model or the subject in the photograph.

In closing, the slanted skull pose is special in that the features will be centered on a slanted axis and that the tension in the shoulders will be different from one side to the other. Also the changeover from the torso and shoulders to the head should be carefully observed.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait course.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced sketching teacher. See his work at pencil portraits by Remi.

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