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To create interesting fluid portraits that radiate life you must understand the effect of the spine on the skull and shoulders.

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

In the tilted skull view the subject will show a clear change of bearing from the action of the torso to the tilt of the skull. Also take note of where the shoulders are. The subject’s shoulders will almost 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 tilt (from the base of the chin to the top of the skull) before striking the arabesque. To do this hold up your pencil (or a knitting needle) at arm’s length, closing one eye, and adjust the angle of the held pencil so that it relates 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 tilt is found you can draw the arabesque and verify the height/width proportion.

The axis of the features is vertical to the slanted facial angle. A common tendency while sketching is to straighten out the features so that they are horizontal to the paper. Be aware of this and ever on-guard because this tendency 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 stage. 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 conscious of the effect that gravity has on the face. The skin, in particular on the underside of the jaw, will be a bit pulled down. This effect is quite delicate but for those of you who are expert portraitists you should catch this in your initial arabesque. If you are a novice just file this information away for future reference.

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

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

The tonal arrangements are worked further, but are still somewhat 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 sketch:

1. Ask yourself how far you should carry the sketch. You can get a good 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 better understanding of the facial structure the tendency exists to draw 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 photo.

In closing, the slanted skull view is special in that the features will be centered on a slanted axis and that the stress in the shoulders will be different from one side to the other. Also the transition from the torso and shoulders to the skull should be carefully inspected.

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

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.

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Filed under: Hobbies on February 19th, 2009