Tutorial: Portrait Art

This portrait is of my son, Colin.  Making this style of portrait is fun and a great gift idea, especially with Father’s Day coming up.  

Supplies Needed: 
paper
pencil 
photo 
Sharpie
eraser



Steps: 

1)  Have the person you are making the portrait of write down words that represent them. These words or phrases can also include things they like to do.  As for my son, his words were Disneyland, Legos, student, etc. 

2)  Very lightly sketch the outline of that person’s head.  If sketching isn’t your thing, lightly trace the outline of their head from a photo.  If you don’t have a large photo, you may want to use software such as PhotoShop to enlarge one.

3)  Use the outlines you made of their hair to create the letters of their name.  Be sure to leave a small space between the letters so you can read the name. 

4)  Remember those descriptive words?  It’s time to use them.  Write these on top of the lines you sketched of the face. 

5)  Use a sharpie to color the lettered hair in.

6)  Trace over the descriptive words with the Sharpie.

7) Erase any pencil lines.