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Posing your subject surrounded by a number of props can add much attention, dimension, and appeal to a portrait and goes a long way to describing your subject. A prop can add significantly to the composition of the portrait.

Drawing a portrait with a prop, such as a hat or even ear muffs, obliges you to particularly pay heed to the construct.

Quite often the starting artist will be tempted to approach a prop as a separate item or an afterthought so that rather than complimenting and blending in a supporting role with the subject’s face, it looks artificial and overwhelms the subject or is incorrectly proportioned or drawn.

In this expose you will learn the professional approach to sketching a supporting item that frames the center of interest even with a supporting item that is bigger than the face.

First, the presence of a prop does not alter the approach to drawing the pencil portrait. As with sketching any other portrait, you should utilize all your usual basic knowledge and apply them throughout the normal phases of your sketching effort.

So as always, you begin with the arabesque which in the case where the head and the supporting item overlap will be a “construct” which is a complete arabesque that encompasses not only the shape and proportions of the head but also of the contour of the supporting item where it overlaps with the head.

In the context of the presence of a supporting item that overlaps with the head, the construct becomes of crucial significance. It helps a lot with the maintenance of unity. If you do not draw from the reference of a construct, the head and the prop will appear as separate structures.

While you work through the succeeding stages of your portrait sketching (proportions, landmarks, blocking-in, blending, etc.) you should continually be aware of the fact that your supporting item should not overwhelm the face of your subject.

The face of your subject should remain the primary focus. Your sketch should not turn into a still life of your supporting item that also happens to show a person’s face in the background.

One trick that can help you with understating of the supporting item is to only draw the merest of details inside the supporting item. Another one is to soften the values of the supporting item but only if it this appropriate in the context of the overall intent of your sketch.

Again, we cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining the cohesion between your subject and the supporting item. That is why it is significant that you draw from the construct which already links the subject and your supporting item as one overall object. Of course, this also implies that you do the toning in a similar spirit and not overdo the lines and values that separate the subject and the supporting item.

So, in closing, the key considerations when including supporting items in your sketch are to make sure that the arabesque covers the entire contour of the head and the supporting items.

In addition, make sure that at all times you keep in mind that the supporting items should never become the focus of your sketch. If you stick to these guidelines, the utilize of supporting items should never become a problem for you.

Download my brand new Complementary Pencil Portrait Rendering Tutorial here: Remi’s Free Pencil Portrait Drawing Course. Remi Engels is a practicing pencil portrait draftsman and oil painter and skilled drawing teacher. See his work at Pencil Portraits by Remi: http://www.remipencilportraits.com

Article Source: Information on Pencil Portrait Drawing – Making Use of a Supporting Item in Portraits