Edges
Draw the shared boundary where one form meets another, exactly as you see it — not the symbol your mind keeps for 'eye' or 'nose'.
Follow one continuous edge slowly. Move your pencil only as fast as your eye travels along the line.
Learn to see
Drawing is a skill of perception.
Realistic portrait drawing comes down to five perceptual skills. FACE turns your photo into exercises for each one, and a coach helps you practise seeing rather than symbol-drawing.
Negative space
Draw the shapes around and between the subject. The spaces are easier to see accurately than the object, and getting them right fixes the object for free.
Draw the background shapes first. Let the portrait appear as the shape you did not draw.
Relationships (sighting)
Measure angles and proportions by comparison — this length against that one, this angle against vertical — rather than assuming.
Hold your pencil up to sight an angle against the true vertical, then match that angle on the page.
Light & shadow
See the whole subject as a small number of value shapes — light, midtone, shadow — instead of dozens of small tones.
Squint at the reference until detail drops away and only the big light and dark shapes remain.
The whole (gestalt)
Once the parts are seen truly, the drawing coheres — the likeness emerges from correct edges, spaces, proportions and values working together.
Step back often. Judge the whole, not one feature at a time.
Drawing the features
EyesKeep the upper lid darker than the lower; the iris is a circle partly hidden by the lids. Match eye spacing before detailing either eye.
NoseDon't outline the whole nose — imply it with the nostrils, the tip, and one or two light bridge lines.
LipsThe line between the lips is the darkest mark; keep the outer lip edges soft. Preserve the real mouth width and the smile.
HairDraw hair as a few large flowing masses that follow the real direction, not strand by strand.
Jaw & contourAim for one clean continuous contour; resist re-stating the edge with many short marks.
Upload a portrait — or a photo of your drawingWe build the exercises in your browser; the image only leaves it if you ask the coach.
Drawing coach
Ask for feedback on your reference or your own drawing — the coach teaches you to see, grounded in the perceptual skills.
Upload a portrait or drawing above first.