Digital Character Portrait Tutorial

This tutorial will guide you through the process of creating a semi-realistic portrait. These techniques work for drawing fictional characters as well as real people.

You will need:

- an iPad
- Procreate ($9.99 on the App Store, here)
- An Apple Pencil or pressure-sensitive stylus*
- Basic brushes (the exact brushes I used for this tutorial can be found here)

*optional

If you are on an Android device or do not have Procreate, other free drawing software such as MediBang Paint or IbisPaint X will suffice, although you will not be able to use my exact brushes

The first thing you should do when creating a portrait, especially when you are a beginner, is find reference images. You should first consider the goal of your drawing- are you going to copy a reference exactly, loosely base your drawing on it, or combine multiple to create something new?

Some good resources for finding references are Pinterest, as well as photographer and cosplayer accounts on Instagram. If you use Pinterest, you’ll have to track down the original source to give credit.

I drew Jude Duarte from the Cruel Prince book series by Holly Black for this tutorial. For the sake of simplicity, I chose a single reference that wouldn’t require me to change much (I used a cosplay of Jude by Macayla Carlene).

Study your reference, and lightly sketch out the basic shapes of the character. Start with the head and neck.

While sketching the character’s features, make sure to start with simple shapes and think about the drawing in three-dimensional space. Rather than just copying the lines of the reference, build up features as if you were sculpting. Use construction lines to keep everything in proportion*.

Your initial sketch doesn’t have to be perfectly neat, but it’s important to make sure that your anatomy is accurate early on. It’s much easier to fix the sketch now than to have to scrap the drawing later.

While drawing, remember to keep in mind your goal for the piece and how closely you want to stick to the reference. In this case, I stylized the character’s face slightly instead of exactly copying the reference.

*This is not an anatomy or proportions tutorial. If you are inexperienced, pay close attention to your reference and try to match the distance and size of features.

Brush used: Details brush from set linked in Supplies

Create several new layers beneath your sketch, and lower the opacity of the sketch.

Using a hard round brush, lay in flat colors, using a separate layer for each section of the drawing (skin, hair, clothes, etc.). I usually start with neutral tones.

Using the same brush and a color a few shades darker and more saturated than the base tone, place the basic shadows. Use an even darker, more saturated color for the deeper shadows.

With a textured blending brush, begin lightly blending the skin to smooth it out. Work in the direction of the shadows, and make sure not to overblend. Keep deepening the shadows, and add soft highlights.

TIP: Shadows are often more saturated than you might expect. In addition, if your light source is cool, the shadows will be warm. For example, in this painting, the highlights are slightly blue-tinted and the shadows are warmer.

A quick skin tutorial that might be helpful can be found here

Brushes used: Round Brush, Textured Blending Brush

Zoom in on the reference and drawing and begin painting in each individual feature. Keep studying the reference and try to match the colors and shapes. It may help to have features such as eyes on lips on separate layers so that they are easier to adjust individually.

TIP: You can adjust the size and placement of features using the Liquify tool.

Brushes used: Round Brush, Details Brush, Textured Blending Brush

Add additional details and paint the jewelry.

For the hair jewelry in this drawing, I used a custom brush with small circles to make the base, then clipped a Multiply layer for shadows and an Add layer for highlights.

Paint lighting using a Hard Light layer (I used a light blue color to add rim lighting on the left side).

Use a Multiply layer and a color similar to the base skin tone to deepen shadows and define features.

With an additional layer and textured brushes, define the highlights and paint in pores and light freckles.

TIP: Adding texture can make a drawing really pop, and prevent the skin from looking like plastic.

When you are happy with the level of detail in your painting, sign and date it.

Brushes used: Round Brush, Pores, Freckles

If you made it this far, good job! Even if your first portrait doesn’t look as good as you hoped it would, keep practicing! Nobody learns to draw overnight. If you keep drawing, you’ll get better at it!

Sources:

Reference image: https://instagram.com/macaylacarlene?igshid=y7wflds9aypd

Character belongs to Holly Black