Pulling favorite features from several drawings and tracing them onto a new face is a fun and helpful exercise. As you sketch, you might find that you like the eyes on one drawing, the mouth on another and the nose on a third. Piecing together your favorite parts on one face gives you a new base to work from and helps propel you along the road to developing your own portrait style. Tracing your own work is the perfect way to help your drawing muscles stay toned and tuned into your journey.
To piece together your own portraits, simply select sketches that are roughly the same size. (This is easy if you’ve been practicing using the same face map for several drawings, or you can change the size on a scanner/printer.) Trace the face outline onto a new piece of paper using a lightbox, then add the face-mapping lines. Next, slide a sketch with eyes that you like under the paper and trace the eyes in the appropriate spot on the map. Like only one of the eyes? Trace it and then flip it over sideways and trace the same eye on the other side so both eyes will match. Next trace the nose and mouth from other sketches, then finish your new face with shading and additional sketching as needed. You now have a new model to work from as you move forward with your drawing.
Use favorite features from various sketches to piece together a portrait of perfect parts.