These Drawing Tutorials Will Help You Create Realistic Portraits

Realistic Portrait Drawing by Matheus Macedo

Photo: Matheus Macedo

The ability to draw a convincingly real portrait may seem difficult to achieve, but the reality is that all it takes is an understanding of different techniques and a lot of practice. If you are willing to learn a few tricks, you can start your journey toward achieving realism in your drawings. Luckily, My Modern Met has a lot of resources to help you along the way.

To start off, we have a number of written drawing tutorials to help you grasp the basics of drawing people. This includes step-by-step instructions for drawing eyes, lips, noses, and hair, as well as faces and hands.

If you are just getting your feet wet with drawing portraits and want to get more comfortable with the basics before diving into realism, we can help with that, too. Our e-learning platform, My Modern Met Academy, has several drawing classes that revolve around portraiture and one is specifically geared toward beginners. Taught by artist Melissa de Nobrega, Portrait Drawing for Beginners: Learn How to Draw Anyone You'd Like, the online art class is the perfect way to get comfortable drawing people.

Over the course of several lessons, de Nobrega breaks down the anatomy of the face and provides insights on how to find facial landmarks. She also guides you on how to ensure that you get the proper proportions every time you start drawing a face. You can then follow along as she works on a digital tablet to create a stunning portrait. Whether you end up working digitally or on paper, the fundamentals that she teaches will set you up for success.

Once you feel comfortable with those skills, it's time to take the leap toward realism with our newest drawing course, Realistic Portrait Drawing Made Easy. Taught by Matheus Macedo, who specializes in creating hyperrealistic portraits, the class is a masterclass in realism. Macedo makes things easy by breaking down the face into its individual components, allowing you to work beside him every step of the way. He'll also show a few easy tricks on how to transfer your inspiration image onto paper in order to set yourself up for success.

So, as you can see, there are a lot of ways you can learn to draw realistic portraits; just be careful. Once you get started, it will be hard to stop!

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While creating a realistic portrait may seem intimidating, there are a lot of ways to learn.

Realistic Drawing of Albert Einstein by Matheus Macedo

Photo: Matheus Macedo

Start by using these simple drawing tutorials to get you comfortable with sketching different people of the human body.

 

How to Draw Eyes

How to Draw an Eye

Photo and Art: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met

 

How to Draw Lips

How to Draw Lips

Photo and Art: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met

 

How to Draw a Nose

How to Draw a Nose

Photo and Art: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met

 

How to Draw Hair

How to draw hair

Photo and Art: Margherita Cole / My Modern Met

 

How to Draw a Face

How to Draw a Face

Photo and Art: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met

 

How to Draw Hands

How to Draw Hands

Photo and Art: Sara Barnes / My Modern Met

 

Then, if you are a beginner, discover the basics of portraiture with our online drawing class, Portrait Drawing for Beginners.

 

Once you feel confident, enroll in Realistic Portrait Drawing Made Easy to learn all the tips and tricks on how to create realistic portraits.

Related Articles:

Refine Your Drawing Skills With a Trio of Our Best Online Illustration Classes

Artist Shares Secrets of How To Draw Incredibly Realistic Portraits [Interview]

Illustrator Has Mastered Portrait Drawing and Now Shares Her Knowledge With Others

Artist Spends Hundreds of Hours Drawing Hyperrealistic Portraits Mimicking Renaissance Techniques

Jessica Stewart

Jessica Stewart is a Staff Editor and Digital Media Specialist for My Modern Met, as well as a curator and art historian. Since 2020, she is also one of the co-hosts of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. She earned her MA in Renaissance Studies from University College London and now lives in Rome, Italy. She cultivated expertise in street art which led to the purchase of her photographic archive by the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia in 2014. When she’s not spending time with her three dogs, she also manages the studio of a successful street artist. In 2013, she authored the book "Street Art Stories Roma" and most recently contributed to "Crossroads: A Glimpse Into the Life of Alice Pasquini." You can follow her adventures online at @romephotoblog.
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