Welcome back to another portrait tutorial!

If your looking to hone your artistic ability, check out how a fellow artist works his pieces or even just appreciate looking at the process of art, you are in THE RIGHT PLACE!

Todays Subject:
Johnny Depp

"One day the people that didn't believe in you will tell everyone how they met you"

First off I would like to congratulate @jnart for winning the Fundamental Foundations Of Art #1 Contest
thank you to everyone else who participated, It was a hard decision with so many great entries. I hope to see you all give it another shot on my next contest!

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Ever Since I was about 10 years old and seen Once Upon A Time In Mexico I have been infatuated with the many faces of the very talented Johnny Depp. I couldn't even imagine having so many characters trapped inside your mind. When deciding on what picture I would re-create I thought at first Hunter S Thompson, being my favorite of all the characters or maybe a more popular one like Jack Sparrow. Then I came across this one, the raw rarity of Johnny Depp the "Person". Its hard to explain but I just loved the idea of it, and the stark contrast makes for an excellent portrait subject.

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What you will need:

When creating the eyes note the angle they sit on. To capture this tilt simply draw a straight line down the page with a slight tilt, then a line going horizontally through it will mark where on that up and down line your eyes will sit. This helps to get your inner most corners of the eye to match up.

The contrast in this picture can be a huge benefit for drawing. Basic shapes with in the portrait are very clear due to the level of contrast making these definitions easily captured with the pencil. Start to outline where the deepest shadows meet light.

When creating the hair at this point don't pay attention to fine details on the outer rim, for the end product will mask the appearance with equal hair and background tone level. When blocking in and mapping your portrait its very important to remember you are doing exactly that. Look for the big shapes within the detail. Squinting your eyes (or if you have glasses just taking them off) can help to not be overwhelmed by detail and you can start noticing the shapes that make the bigger picture. Try and make sure they are in proportion in relation to each other by looking at what lines match up in the reference image. If you make sure they match up in your art piece you cant go wrong.
Doing this puts you on the fast track to capturing great likeness!

To create the wavy appearance of the hair in the right directions we can map out the strand flow just by drawing in the lightest parts. Later we will add shading in around them until this looks more natural.

Now to start the process of gradual deepening of contrast on your mapped Johnny Depp. Starting with a 2H pencil evenly shade the hair and face shadows.

Crosshatch in the opposite direction

Smooth out for perfect base to further darken

Now moving to a standard HB pencil repeat the same process

Use a 2H again to start slightly distinguishing a gradient of shading on the face where the darkest tones gradually get lighter.

Switch again to a B grade pencil further darkening shading

Then down to 3B

Here is where all the small details can start to be added. Although miniscule like the tiny freckle on the right side of nose, these details have huge impact on capturing essence of a person so spend time paying close attention on this step. To create a more realistic texture to a face I also like to take an eraser and just dab it repeatedly on the second darkest shades pulling back the darkest area then shade it back over for more natural organic transition.

The back ground is going to have just the slightest aura of light on the edge of Johnny Depp's face. We don't want to go pure black right away. Start with a light pencil and completely shade in the background.

then the darker surrounding black area

Blend these two shades together, try and pull the darkest shade as close to Depp's face as possible but still retain the lighter shade

Continue deepening the tone of background until it matches that of the hair and shirt.

Finally after all your hard work and half a 3B pencil.
The Finished Piece

Here is a look at the finished product sitting pretty framed and hung

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If you have requests for possible future drawings let me know in the comments, and maybe your suggestion will be next.

Steem On,
Barry F Samways