Procedures For Pencil Portrait Sketching - Utilizing Props In Portraits
January 24th, 2009 | 
Posing your model surrounded by a few props can add much attention, dimension, and appeal to a portrait and goes a long way to describing your model. A prop can add considerably to the composition of the portrait.
Drawing a portrait with a prop, such as a table or even ear muffs, requires you to particularly pay attention to the construct.
Quite often the starting artist will be tempted to approach a prop as a separate entity or an afterthought so that rather than complimenting and merging in a supporting role with the model’s face, it looks artificial and overwhelms the subject or is incorrectly proportioned or sketched.
In this commentary you will learn the expert approach to drawing a supporting element that frames the center of interest even with a prop entity that is bigger than the face.
First, the presence of a prop does not alter the approach to rendering the pencil portrait. As with sketching any other portrait, you should use all your normal fundamental knowledge and apply them throughout the normal phases of your rendering effort.
So as always, you begin with the arabesque which in the case where the skull and the prop item overlap will be a “construct” which is a complete arabesque that encompasses not only the shape and proportions of the head but also of the outline of the prop entity where it overlaps with the skull.
In the context of the presence of a prop element that overlaps with the head, the construct becomes of crucial importance. It helps a lot with the maintenance of harmony. If you do not sketch from the reference of a construct, the head and the prop will appear as separate structures.
While you work through the succeeding stages of your portrait drawing (proportions, landmarks, blocking-in, stumping, etc.) you should continually be aware of the fact that your prop entity should not overwhelm the face of your subject.
The face of your model should remain the primary focus. Your drawing should not turn into a still life of your supporting item that also happens to show a person’s face in the background.
One trick that can help you with understating of the prop entity is to only sketch the merest of details inside the prop item. Another one is to soften the values of the supporting element but only if it this appropriate in the context of the overall intent of your sketch.
Again, we cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining the cohesion between your subject and the supporting item. That is why it is significant that you sketch from the construct which already links the subject and your prop entity as one overall object. Of course, this also implies that you do the toning in a similar spirit and not overdo the lines and values that separate the subject and the supporting item.
So, in closing, the chief considerations when including props items in your drawing are to make sure that the arabesque covers the entire outline of the skull and the supporting items.
In addition, be sure that at all times you keep in mind that the supporting items should never become the focus of your drawing. If you stick to these guidelines, the make use of of props items should never become a problem for you.
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Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at pencil portraits.
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