Drawing tips and tricks....check them out...

1 - When drawing or painting two people in a portrait always have one person higher than the other and when drawing three people always have the person in the middle a little higher or lower than the two outer portraits instead of having them all the same height.
 

2 - When drawing a portrait try not to concentrate too much on a likeness, just concentrate on the structure and form of the face and a likeness will come.
 

3 - The best angle for a portrait is a three quarter view, that is in between a profile (side view) and a straight on view.
 

4 - Unless your drawing or painting a full portrait it is best to leave the background simple or with no background at all, simplicity is the key to successful portraiture.

5 - If your drawing or painting a dog remember that the dog's nose protrudes more than the rest of the face so use your strongest darks, lights and colours there to bring it out more than the rest of the dog's face to achieve depth. See a pastel painting of a dog video excerpt 6 mins (Windows media player needed)

6 - When you are painting and you cant make out the overhaul colour of something, cut out a grey 6"x4" card and make a round hole in it about the size of a one pence piece or a dime and hold it out in front of you against the colour. Because of the grey neutral colour of the card and the small hole you will be able to see colours and tones better through the hole without other details distracting you.

7 - When drawing or painting a head and shoulders portrait make the features (eyes, nose, mouth) slightly darker than the rest of the portrait especially the eyes, after all these are the most important parts of the portrait.

8 - To make eyes liquid looking put the main highlights in and then put a secondary highlight in but a bit fainter just at the top of the bottom lid of the eye

9 - To put life and vitality into a drawing or painting one quick deft stroke can and will make all the difference.

10 - Always make dark people cooler and a shade lighter than what they look otherwise they can look too brown and dark. See video excerpt 3 mins (Windows media player needed)

11 - Generally shadows are cool so exaggerate this blueness to make the features stand out more but on occasion shadows are warm (Reds) don't exaggerate warm shadows otherwise they wont look like shadows.

12 - Have you ever seen an head and shoulders portrait where the head looks too big for the shoulders this is because you haven't drawn the shoulders wide enough, this is a common mistake, make sure the proportions are correct.
 

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Pencil portraits

Pastel portraits