Hermione Portrait Tutorial by Laiyla

Firstly I print out a photo (preferably a large one) on a4 format, the same format as the portrait‘s going to be. Then I make a sort of sketch with hard lines so I can see where every feature is going to be. This might be difficult for starting artists, so I recommend you use a light table or just draw on the window or something (there‘s nothing wrong with that!).

I draw the lines mostly with a mechanical pencil or a plain good ol' HB pencil.

As you can see I finished the eyes and started with the nose.

I can‘t really give much explanation on doing this, just that you MUST look really really often to the photo to see if you‘re doing right. I used an 8b graphite pen and a 9b pencil for this and my fingers to smudge (I know f ingers is a no-no, but they work perfecHy fine for me).

Two tips for the eyes-. Don't. Leave. the. Eyeball. White. Really.

It adds morę depth to the eyes if you shade the eyeball as well and it will look far morę realistic! Just follow the shading on the photo.

Second tip: Let the eyes sparkle! You must ALWAYS put a sparkle in the eye, even if there isn‘t one in the photo.

Without a sparkle the eyes look lifeless.

Again, as I said, stick to the shading on the photo!

This may not look interesting (not much shading to see) but it was shown like this so I probably won*t hangę it that much.

It will ook better when the portrait is finished, and if it doesn‘t you can always work in it a bit morę.

Here you can also see the difference between an edited portrait with photoshop and what it looks like after ifs scanned (Step 1) If your scanner isn't very good, EDIT your portraits!

I recommend you reading my other tutorial for this.

As you can see, I've shaded the mouth and I started with her chin. (The chin is going to look different that this, this is just the outline of where the shading is going to be) I also finished her right cheek.

I fiddled a bit with the eyes again, added a few morę lashes, edited the eyebrows. I onen come back at parts when i’m not entirely satisfied with it.

A new tip: Don*t use the eraser often. I only do it for really smali corrections and maybe for adding extra higlights in the hair, or lighting effects

Erasers give a different texture to your drawing, and not everyone likes that. Learn. To. Uve. Without. An. Eraser.

I finished parts of the forehead and the chin. I also worked a bit morę on the nose and the left cheek.

The white blob you see on her chin isn’t a pimple, but it's going to be a bubble, as shown in the official SOF poster.

Again, the good ol' tip with this: look a the picture. I'm serious.

If you don't look at the picture close enough it won‘t be a likeness. This means: all flaws and hanging eyes or wonky mouth (In this case the person is pretty), draw them! If you want to make a realistic portrait you CAN'T edit things in the face, it will make your portrait look horrible. The hair and the outfit can ofcourse be changed to whatever you want but. The. Face. Is. Holy.

I finished her face.

I added some morę shading erverywhere and I drew her righ cheek. I left the bubbles white, for it is prettier to leave them white than to make them with an eraser (Read Step 4 for morę info about erasers). Here as well: Look at the picture!

Don't be afraid to shade too dark. Most portraits I see here are definately too light and look unfinished (My older portraits are a good example). Don't be afraid to experiment!

If you never experiment you won't be good at drawing. Drawing IS in fact experimenting and practising.

The hair (not finished yet)

I hate hair. It takes alot of time and it's not the most remarkable thing of a face. Unfortunately this picture contains lots of hair and yes, you have to draw it all.

Almost the whole picture is covered in hair. Imagine the amount of hair I have to make! I highed the contrast of the picture in Photoshop, to make it morę suitable for drawing.

I usually make hair with a combination of 9b pencil and my fingers to smudge. If you have trouble making realistic hair: Again, look closely where the highlights and shading are, and you'll get there. Start f rom the deep shades and work to the highlights, and use your fingers to smoothen it out.

Finished! I did the other part of the hair with loose pencil strokes and alot of fussing with my finger. it didn*t take me too long, it had to look like it was floating in the water so I didn*t have to make it very detailed (it was a bit blurry in the picture also).

Another useful tip: Watermark your images! If you don't, they can easily be stolen by someone else. You may think: this won’t happen to me, but I can assure you it does. Why take the risk?

I know I’m a bit of a hypocrite, sińce I forget it often, but ifs very important.

Hope you learned something of this.. I*m going to bed now.. ifs 4 am in the morning and i'm tiiired.

cJliis tutoriaf and its images is © £Jopic ^c]ou\vc ^Kpoijmans 2007