Portrait Mode
A drawing or painting of a person that focuses on the face and upper body.
What is a portrait?
Art that tries to look close to real life, not cartoony
What is realism (or realistic art)?
These two features sit on the horizontal midline of the head… even though beginners put them near the hairline.
What are the eyes?
The eyes are not at the top of the head. They sit about here.
What is halfway down the head?
Raised eyebrows + wide eyes + open mouth usually signals this feeling.
What is surprised?
A portrait you make of yourself.
What is a self-portrait?
If a face looks like a Snapchat filter melted it on purpose, it is probably not this style.
What is realistic / realism?
This feature starts between the eyes and ends about halfway from the eyes to the chin.
What is the nose?
A head is about this many “eye-widths” across.
What is 5?
A smile is not only the mouth. These two features have to join the party or it looks fake.
What are the eyes (and cheeks)?
The job of a portrait is not just “make a pretty face.” It is to show this about the person.
What is who they are / their identity / their likeness?
Realistic portraits usually start with this habit: looking more at the model than at your paper.
The mouth is usually as wide as the distance between these.
What are the pupils?
There is about one eye-width of space between the eyes. That space is also a good check for this.
What is proportion (or spacing / symmetry)?
Angled-down inner eyebrows + tight mouth often reads as this emotion.
What is anger (or frustration)?
In our unit, this is the difference between a random doodle of a head and an actual portrait.
What is careful observation of a real face (or photo)?
A realistic eye is not a circle with a dot. It is closer to this shape.
Ears are not floating decorations. They generally line up between these two features.
What are the eyebrows and the bottom of the nose?
A common beginner mistake: giant forehead, tiny chin. The face is actually divided into about this many equal parts from hairline to chin.
What is about 3?
In our unit, emotion is shown by changing the shape and angle of features, not by writing the feeling next to the face. What are these changes called?
What are expressions?
A portrait can be of a real person, a made-up person, or even this kind of “person” if it still focuses on the face.
What is a character / imagined person / historical figure?
Name one thing that makes a portrait feel more realistic than a cartoon: value, edges, or this.
What is proportion (or accurate features / shading / form)?
List three facial features a portrait must observe carefully, not just “draw from memory.”
What are eyes, nose, and mouth?
Why do we measure with “eye-widths” instead of guessing?
What is to keep features in proportion / to check size and spacing?
Name two specific changes you would make to turn a neutral face into “sad.
What are drooping eyebrows / downturned mouth / half-closed eyes / etc.?