To craft interesting fluid portraits that breathe life you must appreciate the effect of the spine on the head and shoulders.

To realize a relaxed feeling in your portraits quite often you will need to render the head slanted. Most people when they are at ease will pose with their head slightly slanted. In this article we will point out what to look for and how to tackle the slanted head.

In the slanted head pose the model will show a clear change of bearing from the action of the torso to the slant of the head. Also take note of where the shoulders are. The model’s shoulders will almost be aligned with the bottom of the nose.

With this information in mind, the first step is to measure the angle of the head’s slant (from the bottom of the chin to the top of the head) before sketching the construct. To do this hold your pencil (or a knitting needle) at arm’s length, looking through one eye, and adjust the angle of the held pencil so that it relates to the angle of the slant. Keeping your arm straight and locked you can now transpose this angle onto the sketch.

Now that the angle of the slant is established you can strike the construct and verify the height/width proportion.

The axis of the features is vertical to the tilted facial angle. A common trend while drawing is to straighten out the features so that they are horizontal to the paper. Be aware of this and ever on-guard because this trend is subtle and is constantly trying to sneak into the sketch.

It is not a recommended practice to place all of the features at this point. It is actually more correct to first fix the brow line and the bottom of the nose and work from there.

When the head is tilted you should also be aware of the effect that gravity has on the face. The skin, especially on the underside of the jaw, will be slightly pulled down. This effect is quite faint but for those of you who are expert portraitists you should catch this in your initial construct. If you are a beginner just file this information away for future reference.

Take note, too, of the neck. The major visible neck muscle is stretched out. Its companion is compressed. This opposite muscle action is referred to as abduction/adduction. This action of the neck always renders a beautiful effect.

Once the construct is positioned and you are satisfied with its accuracy relative to proportion and shape you can sketch in the features and hatch-in the key big darks and lights. Keep the value simple. The more complicated the lighting arrangement, the more this applies.

The tonal arrangements are worked further, but are still somewhat crude and unresolved. The key concern is the overall light effect.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare to finish the sketch:

1. Ask yourself how far you want to carry the sketch. You can get a good effect if you give the shoulders and upper torso an unresolved quality. Remember, drawings are not meant to resemble photos.

2. As you gain a deeper understanding of the facial structure the trend exists to render what you know rather than what is actually there. So make sure you always pause to observe the life model or the model in the photo.

In conclusion, the tilted head pose is special in that the features will be centered on a tilted axis and that the stress in the shoulders will be different from one side to the other. Also the transition from the torso and shoulders to the head should be carefully observed.

Do you want to learn the secrets of pencil portrait sketching? Download my brand new free pencil portrait drawing course here: pencil portrait course.

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and practiced sketching teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits.

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