 Hello everyone. Welcome back to another video. This one is going to be like a pencil portrait sketch practice session because if you didn't know, I just recently got back into drawing once again after a really long hiatus and that's why I need to practice. So I've got my pencil over here, my eraser, my sharpener, my sketchbook. I also have a reference image and I will definitely be using the basic shapes and guidelines that I talk about in my How I Draw Faces tutorial video in order for me to practice how to draw portraits once again. That video actually came in really handy when I started to get back into art and then I realized that my skills were not up to par with where I left off, especially with my facial proportions. Like they just weren't looking great. And so I had to refer back to my old self through that video and kind of see how she used to draw portraits back then and apply those same techniques into how I will draw portraits from today and in the future. And yeah, I was pretty impressed with myself. Like I can't believe I actually put out a video of that quality. Like I'm pretty proud of myself. But anyway, I am using the exact same shapes and guidelines in this video that I also used in that video. But this one isn't really a tutorial video, but I'm using the circle. I'm using the upside down triangle. And then, of course, I divide that vertically in half. And then I have a horizontal line at the top of the circle, which is the top of the head and a horizontal line at the bottom of the upside down triangle. And then you basically divide that horizontally in half and the top half you divide into thirds. And then the bottom half you do the exact same thing divided into thirds. So you end up with six total spaces or seven lines. And I actually just draw the guidelines very lightly because when it comes to pencil sketches, I usually don't like to erase because it leaves like, you know, like a smudge or a gray ghost on the page. I don't know, maybe that's just the way that my erasers aren't that great, but I just haven't I've just always tried to avoid it ever since. And the way that I do that is anything that I'm not so certain of just yet, I always will draw very lightly. When it comes to pencil sketching, I tend to go with a technique of building it up. So going from just really, really light and then building up each layer so that it just becomes darker. I normally don't start very dark. After that, I start drawing the eyes and I map out where the eyes are going to be. So they sit it around line four and then I kind of just like add dots on that line to denote where the inner corner of the eyes are going to be and where the outer corner of the eyes are going to be. And the ideal facial proportions is the distance between the eyes is another eye. So that's what I've done and I've just drawn the very, very basic shapes like a leaf shape for the shape of an eye and a circle for a pupil. And I draw this very, very lightly, especially because I'm actually filming the drawing. If I wasn't, I would draw the very basic shape and then I would immediately start shading it. But similar to the guidelines because I don't really want to erase anything. And because I'm filming, I'm actually sitting at a really awkward angle around the camera. So I just want to draw it lightly in case I'm not happy with it. Normally after that, I would kind of move around the sketchbook to see whether I'm happy with it with the position. And if I am, then then I would add the shading. After that, I add the eyebrows and I draw this just under line three. And I also draw like these diagonal lines from the outer corner of the eye upwards to denote the length of the eyebrows. So the eyebrows tend to be longer than the length of an eye. But you know, like different people have different lengths of eyebrows or even shapes of eyebrows. So it really doesn't matter. But for this specific video, I am doing a very, what would you call it? Like a typical beauty standard. Like she's got the ideal facial proportions. And then after that, I start drawing the nose. This one falls on line five and it also sits on the vertical center of the head. And I am drawing a circle because that is the ball of the nose. And then after that, I will be drawing curves for the nostrils and kind of like a C shape. I don't know, or like a backwards C for like the sides of the nose. But it also doesn't really look like a C. Like it really just depends on what kind of nose you're drawing. Like there's so many different kinds of noses, so many different kinds of eyebrows, eyes, mouths, faces, lots of variety. And that's actually something that I want to do with this practice session and the future of practice sessions that I'm planning on doing. Because I want to be able to confidently draw a variety of faces, like a diverse range of faces. And you could do so much of that with just small changes to how you draw specific lines or where you put specific facial features within these guidelines. Because I do say in that tutorial video that you don't necessarily have to follow these guidelines to a T because people have different faces and facial proportions. So you don't have to follow this. However, as a beginner or when I was learning how to draw from the very start, I did start with a very Eurocentric standard of beauty as the ideal facial proportions. And once I've mastered those ideal facial proportions, I was then confident enough to branch out and do things differently. And that's what I'm hoping to do. So this one I would consider a very typical beauty standard, ideal facial proportions kind of face. And in the next one, which I'm hoping to do soon is I'm planning on doing like either different face shapes or different kinds of eyes and applying that into the faces that I draw. So for example, like I'm drawing the lips or the mouth right here and I start with just like the very basic shape. And this one, I drew it on top of line six, but it doesn't even really have to be like that case. Like you could draw just a little bit below line six or a little bit above because like I said, there's so many different mouths. Like it could be a thin lips or it could be full lips or heart shaped lips or wide lips like so many. For this one, once again, like I'm going for this standard full lips. And here I'm actually starting to shade it because I am quite happy with like where this is sitting. And the way that I start shading and I start darkening lines is I don't actually put a lot of pressure on the pencil. I'm holding it the exact same way as I'm drawing like the guidelines very, very light as a feather. And that's because like throughout the years that I've been drawing and holding something in my hand and applying pressure, it like hurts my hand. So then I'm not able to draw for a longer period of time because then I like it becomes painful. And so what I've realized and what I've trained myself to do is to just especially when it comes to pencil sketches is to hold it very lightly. And in order to get the darker lines is I basically just create a bunch of lines on top of each other like as if I'm scratching the paper so that it just builds up rather than a one time hard stroke with a lot of pressure. Also, when I'm putting a lot of pressure on the pencil, then it starts to kind of show through at the back and I don't really like that. I feel like I gain more control by holding the pencil exactly with the same pressure throughout and kind of just like layering and layering and building it up. So then here I start adding the outlines to the face. I'm starting to round out the jaw and the chin and then I even added a hairline, which sits right on line two. And I use like the round hairline because like for this one I am doing an oval face shape, even though my reference image I think she's more of a heart face shape. I'm not really sure I'm actually not good at telling what kind of face shape people have. But anyway, we're just going to stick with the oval face shape because like I said, we're just going to go with the basics for this one. And I forgot to mention that I added circle for the chin and then I added like these ovals for the cheeks and also an oval around the forehead. That just helps me visualize like the shapes like for example the chin is quite round and so are your cheeks and so is like your forehead. And I also use that same exact motion when I'm drawing the ears, even though the ears themselves aren't round, they're more like a C shape. And specifically for this particular reference image, her ears don't really protrude as much so they're more like a flat C on the side of her face falling between line four and line five. So around where the eyes are and where the nose are. And then now I'm adding the hairline. No, I'm adding the hair, sorry, which I draw just on top of the circle and the very first line, which is line number one. And I draw that on top because like there's a little bit of volume on top of the head. If she were to be bald or like have a very slick hairstyle, then I probably would draw it exactly on line number one. But to give it a little bit of volume, I'm drawing it just a little bit above that. Also different hairstyles like if someone had like really poofy hair or spiky hair, then that would definitely be way above line number one. And for this video, I'm not going to talk about the hair because number one, I didn't actually put that much effort into drawing the hair in this specific drawing. And also because I also lack way more practice when it comes to drawing hair because even though like, I don't know, like 10 years ago, I was so into drawing hair like I was drawing every single strand. And especially with the line art, I was enjoying it so much nowadays. I am really lazy, like I actually really don't like drawing it anymore. And it's because especially with pencil and when you have to shade, like when I'm shading the face, obviously I have to shade the hair. But then it's just like the same repetitive strokes of the pencil and I kind of just get bored. But that's obviously just like a cop out. So I really need to practice how to draw hair once again. So hopefully in the next video, I'll actually do both the face and the hair. So kind of like combine those two and even maybe the shading maybe I'll talk about the shading as well because that is also something that I need to practice. But one step at a time for this one, it's more just focus on the facial proportions. The next one, I might start doing the hair, but yeah. Anyway, so now I am adding some darker lines to the eyes and to the other details of the face because I'm pretty happy with where everything is sitting. And what I'm doing is I'm actually as I'm darkening the lines, I'm actually changing the curves a little bit so that they look more like the reference image. And so they don't look as cartoony because I am going for a semi realistic style here. And like I said before, I'm not pressing hard on the paper. I'm just holding the pencil really lightly and just creating lots of small marks with the pencil to build up that tone. And I know I literally just said that I feel really lazy when doing repetitive strokes with the pencil for the hair, but I'm literally doing the exact same thing for shading. But I think the only difference is that with hair usually they're like long strokes and with shading they're a lot smaller and I prefer the latter obviously. But anyway, that is pretty much how I draw this face and the proportions and everything like that. So after this I'm pretty much just going to start shading and like I said, I will hopefully progress the way that I shade in future videos because I normally just have like a default shading. Like I just know to add shading around the eyes, I just know to add shading under the nose, or like I shade the mouth the exact same way I always do. And I just feel like I need to mix it up, which is why I use references like for this one for the shading of this. I realized that I should actually refer to the reference image and where the shadows are because for this specific reference image, the shadows are kind of dominant on one side. So I try to replicate that in this. But yeah, I definitely need to practice shading because I usually just revert back to my default mode. And I feel like it would benefit me a lot if I actually practice different types of lighting. But yeah, the general places that I normally like to add shading to especially when I'm doing a pencil sketch and shading definitely adds that extra oomph to a pencil sketch. It kind of makes it look a little bit more finished than just a rough sketch. And those places normally are like around the eyes, especially around the eyelids. And with the crease of the eyelid, I usually just shade like at the very end of it like the outer end and then the inner around the inner eye. I usually like to leave the middle part of it like very light to kind of show that shape because like the eyelids are wrapped around a spherical eyeball. So it kind of that makes it look like that middle area is like the highlight. And then I also add some shading to the inner corner of the eye and then the outer corner of the eye to really show that the eyeball is spherical. And then right here I am adding some shading to the pupils. I try to kind of map out where the highlight is going to be. And then here I am doing the eyelashes. That is also something that I feel like I need work on. But I think this one in particular like other other concepts like shading and hair like I understand them, but eyelashes, I can't. I cannot understand eyelashes. And I've practiced drawing eyelashes before and even then like I pretty I'm pretty sure like I kind of gave up because like I just was not sure how to draw it because I want to be able to draw it. Like realistically in a sense where it looks like their eyelashes are quite long and full but not like too long like it would look like if someone was wearing false lashes or not too dramatic. I feel like for this drawing in particular I made it a little bit too dramatic for my liking like I they're definitely uneven but like that's fine. It's just a sketch just a practice sketch. Anyway, that's also something that I need to work on. I also add shading to the under eye that is another thing that I really really really like to shade even if the reference image doesn't call for it. And I kind of take that from like Korean makeup they refer to that part of the eye as the egg yosal. And that's kind of like when I started to really love adding that detail on to the eye. Even though some people might like my dad for example like thinks that they're just eye bags, and they kind of look like I bags but they look cute. Anyway, I also like to add dark shading around the corner of the lips. I definitely did it a little bit too dark in this one and then I erased it and then they kind of made it look gray and smudgy but that's totally fine, because it looked better than it did before. And then now I'm just adding shading around the nose and the reason why I add those like shadings like on the sides of the nose and on the corner of the lips is because it kind of just like creates that juxtaposition between like that area but being kind of like sunken in compared to the cheeks. And it kind of just makes the cheeks a little bit puffy. I don't know. I have absolutely no idea how to explain it. But then, of course, I add shading to the cheeks. And for this one I'm just following the reference image and kind of just like seeing how the face like where the shapes are when it comes to the dark areas and the light areas and for this one in particular like the dark area for the cheek is quite large because the light is very prominent on the right side. And the way that I also like to shade is I will kind of like draw the line of where the dark area is as like an outline. And then I shade and I do like a hatching in within that shape. I kind of like how that looks. That's just something that I've been doing ever since. And then here I'm darkening up the eyebrow so that it kind of matches the rest of the face and I'm just doing that by like drawing like little hair strands kind of just like following the motion of it. Instead of just actually color blocking it I feel like that just makes it a little bit more realistic. And here I'm kind of just erasing the eyebrows because it actually points a lot more downwards than outwards. So just little fixes like that and then yeah, maybe in the next one I might also add some watercolors. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to try and take it one step at a time but I'm definitely feeling very excited about the prospect of just drawing more and more again. So yeah, I'm like after doing this practice portrait sketch, I'm really keen to do another one. Hopefully exactly like what I said before which is possibly different face shapes. I might even do like kind of list out all of the different eye shapes, all of the different nose shapes, face shapes, things like that. And maybe do like a random draw so that I can mix and match all of those things and create whatever face I create. Maybe I won't use like a reference image because I feel like having to find like a specific reference image for a specific face shape or for someone with like a specific nose type or eyes. I feel like that will just take some time so I might just actually do like a random draw like a mix and match so that I will be able to apply like the things that I actually talk about in my tutorial video into actual practice portrait sketches. So we are pretty much finishing up the drawing just adding the final touches. I also added the hair and the hair for this one. It actually looks pretty good. I just did all of the like strokes to mimic the hair strands and even though I don't like doing it. I actually feel like I persevered in this drawing. Like it's not as detailed as the rest of the face, but I think that's perfectly fine because it is just a sketch. However, that is it for this particular video and this drawing and that is it also for the voice over part for me. I'm very, very happy with how this drawing turned out. I think she looks very pretty and also this whole practice session has definitely got me pumped up and excited for future practice sessions like all of the different things that I want to improve on and share in a video format. But that is definitely it. I hope you enjoyed this video. I don't know if you got something out of this, but if you're drawing with me, you're practicing drawing with me as well, then I hope that your drawing session turned out really great. And I will see you in my next one.