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 table or even ear muffs, obliges you to particularly pay heed to the complete arabesque.

Quite often the novice 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 function with the model’s face, it looks contrived and overwhelms the model or is incorrectly sized or sketched.

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

First, the presence of a prop does not change the approach to rendering the pencil portrait. As with sketching any other portrait, you should employ 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 outline of the supporting entity where it overlaps with the head.

In the context of the presence of a prop element that overlaps with the head, the construct becomes of crucial importance. It helps a lot with the maintenance of harmony. If you do not render 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 drawing (proportions, landmarks, blocking-in, stumping, etc.) you should constantly be aware of the fact that your prop entity should not overwhelm the face of your subject.

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

One trick that can help you with understating of the prop element is to only sketch the merest of details inside the supporting entity. Another one is to soften the values of the prop 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 element. That is why it is significant that you sketch from the construct which already links the model 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 prop element.

So, in conclusion, the prime considerations when including supporting items in your drawing are to make sure that the arabesque covers the entire contour of the head and the supporting entities.

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

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

Remi Engels is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter and expert drawing teacher. See his work at graphite pencil portraits by Remi.

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