Lifelike Heads

DRAWING DIFFERENT RACES

Let’s explore drawing different ethnicities. Drawing people of different races is neither more nor less challenging; this is because a portraitist can’t rely on a formula. Each individual needs to be viewed as a new combination of shapes and forms. For example, if I drew sisters, I’d still have to carefully study each woman with a fresh eye, looking for her unique characteristics. Portraiture is a game of fractions of an inch. Familiarity isn’t much help. Don’t worry, though—eventually it becomes second nature to squint, check negative space, and measure the features against one another. The portraitist does this periodically throughout the drawing until the end. He or she delights in finding errors because every found ...