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Portrait tutorial
by JRFortson

Author : JRFortson
T utorial submitted on May 20, 2009
Here is an excellent pencil portrait tutorial by Rick (JRFortson). In 11 very detailed
steps, Rick explains how he created this amazing Gordon Ramsay portrait. T hank
you Rick !

Hi it’s Rick (JRFortson on stars-portraits) I'm g oing to show SEVERAL step photos along the way on this one.
T his is Chef Gordon Ramsey. I chose T HIS photo because of it's RICH content, and it's HIGH amount of
T ONAL VALUES, CONT RAST as well as it being a hig h resolution file, which believe it or not, are rare to find on
the web for some reason?!?!? Finding JUST the rig ht photo is half the battle to a g ood drawing . NEVER EVER
work with a low quality photo!!!
FIRST , I start by cropping the photo so that the face is as big as I want it to be when I PRINT the photo. I
personally like to ALWAYS draw on a 1 to 1 ratio scale. T hat's just how I taug ht myself to draw? (by the way, I
am 100% self taug ht. I never went to art school or took any classes. I did read a few books 30 years ag o
thoug h).
T hen I convert the photo to Black and White, so I can see the tonal values more clearly. Look how sharp and
clear this photo is, and all the details? T hat's actually both g ood AND bad in a way. Good, because I can see
them. Bad, because I have to draw them. Some features I feel I can reproduce, via techniques, but others
I'm not sure about, but I think it will come out decent?
First, I determine the "source of lig ht" and which direction it is coming from. I take mental note as to how
difficult it will be to draw this photo, and approximately how long it will take me. If I didn't take the time to
write all this out, it would most likely take me 6-8 hours to do this one? I am convinced of something ...and
that is that the "quality of my work, is limited strictly to the amount of time I want to invest into a sing le
drawing ”. I g et bored fast!

I notice there are NO teeth to draw (g ood). But his hair is fine, and wild and lig ht colored, which means to
really draw the hair correctly, will mean to draw the shadows in the hair, not the hair itself (this is called
Neg ative Space Drawing ). I will then bend it all to a believable texture, and bring out the hig hlig hts last.
I notice how many wrinkles there are. Wrinkles are harder to draw than they look. T hey are not just lines, but
valleys, with un-even shading on both sides. Ears are hard to draw and make look real. Ears and hands are
my current weakness. Gordo's ears are exposed. I see a WIDE rang e of lig hts and darks. I find it better to
shade dark, and then remove the g raphite to pull out the hig hlig hts in the end. It takes patience and vision.
I note his clothes will be easy to draw (white with a little shading ). I notice his meat cleaver and the pattern
on it, which alone would take a week if I tried to draw all those cross-cag e making s. I believe I can reproduce
steel by using certain lig hter pencils, and pulling out shiny hig hlig hts. I'll save the knife for last, along with
the shaded backg round.
Step ONE
First, I draw an lig ht outline of the entire subject, and determine the borders of the drawing . I ALWAYS start
with the eyes, because in order to g et the whole drawing rig ht, you must g et the eyes correct. I do a little
shading around the eyes, and the FIRST layer of eyebrows. In this case, because he has dark eyes, I drew
them dark around the edg es of the cornea, careful to preserve the "key hig hlig hts" (white reflections). I draw
the first layer of bottom eyelashes. T hey eyes themselves here are about 90% complete, but there is MUCH
to do surrounding the eyes (wrinkles, etc)
Step TWO
Next I decide to lay down some over-all shading . I also start shading on the lips. Lips take several layers with
several different pencil types and darkness's. T his is the first layer. I set the top lip line dark. I'm careful to
leave the left side of his face white, for the brig ht hig hlig hts. You can start to see depth in the eyes. (Note:
the photos of this drawing were taken at nig ht with artificial lig ht. I always take photos of the final drawing
during the day with natural lig ht, and avoid the reflections in the darker g raphite) I also lay down some dark
g raphite around the edg es of his face, in order to establish the dark end of the shading spectrum, so that I
can measure all other shading ag ainst the extremes of both. I ALWAYS save the hair for last, for a lot of
reasons.

Step THREE
T here is not any certain order that you NEED to work next. I basically g o wherever I feel led. In this case, I
chose to apply the FIRST layer of shading to the entire face (shown below BEFORE blending ) and to darken
the forehead wrinkles. T he wrinkles will be accidentally lig htened when I adjust the shading on the skin with a
blending stump, and usually have to be re-drawn many times, so I need not bother shading both valleys on
either side of each wrinkle just yet, because they will g et smudg ed while shading the forehead. I pull out
hig hlig hts with a kneaded rubber eraser last, after the whole face has been finally shaded, so you will not see
hig hlig hts with a kneaded rubber eraser last, after the whole face has been finally shaded, so you will not see
that yet (More on that in a later step). His hair bang s lay across his forehead, but I will create them later
using the rubber eraser, and "neg ative drawing " (drawing around the object, NOT the object itself).
For now, I will just hold a #B pencil sideways, and lay down a fairly even layer of g raphite around the whole
face, before rendering , and blending it tog ether. Certain key areas will later g et more layers (along the
edg es and under the hair) and then finally erasing the hig hlig hts in the skin last (fun part). Also, some areas
are g etting more shading now than others, and I try to make lines with my pencil IN T HE DIRECT ION OF T HE
SKIN in order to create a sense of three dimensions.

Step FOUR
T his step simply shows the after effects of blending the FIRST layer of g raphite on the whole face. MUCH
more to do yet...
Step FIVE
In this step, I added a couple of more layers to the nose, blended it, and rubbed out some hig hlig hts with the
rubber eraser. I will come back to do more on the nose, but for now, I'm moving on to the lips.

Step SIX
In this step, I darkened the top lip line with a 3B and shaded lip lines with a B pencil. T hen I used a very small
"torchillon" (blending stump) to blend shades into the lower lip, then I formed my kneaded eraser into a
"torchillon" (blending stump) to blend shades into the lower lip, then I formed my kneaded eraser into a
knife-edg e and pulled out some hig hlig hts. I then added some B pencil to the chin, blended it, darkened the
wrinkles, and used the eraser ag ain for hig hlig hts. I also took a 3B sharp tip pencil, and made some pores on
the nose, and beard stubble to the lip. I'm realizing at this point, I could spend a month of Sundays drawing
all the pores, whiskers and pot marks. My g oal here is to merely simulate his face. After all, it is not meant to
be a photocopy, but an artist's rendition of the subject. MORE to do there too, but on to the eye area...

Step SEVEN
In this step, I work on the eyes. LOT S of details to do here. I have now ONLY worked on the rig ht eye (his left)
and realize I need to re-size and shape the other eye (later). T he eye on our left now looks smaller because
of the missing details I've yet to add. I'm happy with the way the scares on his chin, and how the photo I
took of the drawing came out so much better during the day in natural lig hting . I still have to bring out more
details under BOT H eyes. At this point...I'm not even 50% completed with this drawing . I will work on it at
various times, over the next few days, and send out the remaining steps soon!
 Here are the FINAL 4 stag es I took

Now to start the hair and backg round...

Hair ALMOST done...Next Knife, clothes, finalize backg round an trim it up...
 Here is the final drawing . I didn’t choose to draw the “F” in the middle of his knife.
I drew this on Strathmore Bristol board in about 7 hours?
Hope this helped some beg inners. See ya’ll on Stars!!! – Rick (JRFortson)

see the finished portrait | all Gordon Ramsay portraits

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