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

To craft a relaxed feeling in your portraits quite often you will need to render the head slanted. Most people when they are at ease will view 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 view the subject will show a clear change of direction from the action of the torso to the slant of the head. Also take note of where the shoulders are. The subject’s shoulders will almost be aligned with the base of the nose.

With this information in mind, the first step is to gauge the angle of the head’s slant (from the base of the chin to the top of the head) before striking the construct. To do this hold up 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 drawing.

Now that the angle of the slant is found you can draw the construct and validate the height/width proportion.

The axis of the features is perpendicular 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 on the lookout for this and ever on-guard because this trend is subtle and is constantly trying to sneak into the drawing.

It is not a suggested practice to situate all of the features at this point. It is actually more right to first fix the brow line and the base of the nose and work from there.

When the head is tilted you should also be conscious of the effect that gravity has on the face. The skin, in particular on the underside of the jaw, will be somewhat pulled down. This effect is quite subtle but for those of you who are advanced portraitists you should capture this in your original construct. If you are a novice just put this information away for future reference.

Take note, also, of the neck. The major visible neck muscle is stretched out. Its companion is shortened. 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 size and form you can render the features and hatch-in the chief big darks and lights. Keep the value simple. The more complex the lighting arrangement, the more this applies.

The value arrangements are worked further, but are still a bit crude and unresolved. The chief concern is the overall light effect.

There are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare to finalize the drawing:

1. Determine how far you want to carry the drawing. You can get a real nice 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 subject in the photo.

In closing, the tilted head view 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 inspected.

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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