Exercise 9.3 Self Portrait Drawing – Step One

This exercise will be the first step in creating the final portrait drawing for exercise 9.4. You will be drawing a portrait of yourself (self portrait).  You will first create the portrait template from this chapter.  After you are finished with the template, add the neck and shoulders. Other features, such as a basic outline of the nose, eyes, lips, ears, will also be added in this step.

Materials needed:

• Pencils – 4H, HB
• Erasers – white and gray

Time to complete: 20 minutes

Instructions:

• Use the other half of the  large drawing pad you did exercise 9.1 on.
• Draw the template the same size as you are, so it will be full size. Most people’s heads are around 8-9 inches tall, excluding hair.  Make sure the head is centered within the drawing area and there’s enough room at the top and bottom for all of the head and all of your hair. If you have a lot of hair on top of your head, you may need to make adjustments or use a full sheet of paper.
• After you have drawn the portrait template, you can draw features (i.e. neck, shoulders, nose, eyes, lips, ears) to create a line drawing based on the template. Note these should be done lightly. The nose really has no lines in it, so you may just want to draw the lower section near the nostrils.
• You will need to have the full template visible, including all lines and tick marks. All other features listed above need to be visible, also.
• Do not turn in only the profile or only the template.
• Take a photo when you finish both 9.1 and 9.3 since these are both the first step (template) of each drawing. Exercises 9.2 and 9.3 are the finished drawings and will be handed in as a separate image file.