How to draw Jim Carrey (easy steps )

STEP 1.

 This tutorial is completely in PENCIL! Let's start with the tools. I'm in love with the Monolith 9B graphite pencil sticks. It's nice, black, smooth on the surface and makes such great dark lines. And a No.2 pencil isn't bad either--great for details and light shading. The great thing about .7mm mechanical pencil is you never need to sharpen it... just change the lead when it runs out. Kneaded erasers are charms. Kneaded erasers can make great highlights like the pupil's catch lights, or shine in hair. But you need patience with it because you need to mold it & sometimes you have stroke a few times before getting your results. Blending stumps do just that... blend and so does tissue paper for large areas.

 

STEP 2.

 The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/detailed strokes. UNDERHAND: Holding the pencil at a 45 degrees or near level to the table with end of pencil under your palm with pencil on the flat side, gives you large shading coverage. With the No.2 pencil, you have the exposed lead side to shade with. But for a wider swath, use that Crete a color Monolith graphite pencil with no wood casing. The whole sharpened portion is all lead, like in the step's picture. Practice the toning values to help you with control.

 

STEP 3.

 The strange crescent shape on the oval is just a reminder that his hair will be there. Also the red bisecting line and blue lines in the next picture are to help with eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth placement. Right now, drawing in the general shape makes it easier to sketch in the details later.

 

STEP 4.

 If you are doing a professional picture and need accuracy, this has helped me tremendously. This is MY TIP of the day and it is LONG! Skip it if you want to. Those crazy lines help with placement too. Don't get me wrong, I mess up majorly most times. What? I can hear you say, "Your pictures are near perfect!" Not when I'm working on them. If you feel something strange in your gut about your picture, put it up to the mirror. That'll tell you. Also take your reference pic and put it in the mirror too... what a big difference! To measure out where the features go, take an envelope, piece of paper or a ruler (straight edge)... anything to vertically represent your line placement and try this: Take your reference pic, put the straight edge against the edge of the smile line and see where it lands near the eye. Then do the same on your drawing, if it doesn't land in the same place, adjust. Don't give up. Take a deep breath and work slowly. It's like molding clay.

 

STEP 5.

 You've erased the guidelines and other distracting lines. Your picture won't look exactly like this, but remember my picture is only a guide... that's it. Now we are going to start with shading.

 

STEP 6.

 Start shading with a pencil, even a No. 2 pencil will do well. Shade diagonally around the eyes. Also fill in the eyes, leaving some highlights. Fill in the eyebrows darkly with diagonal lines.

 

STEP 7.

 Continue to shade in the white of his eyes below the guidelines. Shade more under the eyebrows. Do this lightly. Also sketch in his forehead wrinkles. Make sure the wrinkles right above his eyebrows curve along with them. I have not blended yet. I'm just adding more lines and make sure your pencil stays sharpened as you shade. The next step will have a closeup of the shading progression of Ace Venture's eyes.

 

STEP 8.

 You can see closely how the shading progresses. 1. Simple eyebrows and eyes. 2. Shading and shaping begins. 3. More lines and looking at the reference. 4. Darkening the eyebrows, eyes, and adding more shadow to match reference. Notice how the iris is slightly covered by the upper lid. And the reason for so much shading around the eye is because it is sunken in a socket. TIP: When shading, in a corner or darker edge area, start dark then allow your stroking to become lighter as you progress out. This works in small stroke progression or circular shading.

 

STEP 9.

 Now let's add more detail to the nose. Those pyramid type of lines help to place the shading. The tip of the nose is darkened for definition. Can you see how the basic shape of the nose is triangular? Hopefully, this will make it easier to draw.

 

STEP 10.

 Go ahead and lightly shade with diagonal strokes. Now using a .7mm HB or even 2B lead in the mechanical pencil is great. It doesn't wear down, you don't have to sharpen it, and it's quality remains the same.

 

STEP 11.

 As you can see, more shading is added on the bridge of the nose. At the bottom, the nose has been tweaked, adding darkness to the nostrils and extending the shading.

 

STEP 12.

 Here you can more easily capture the shading progression of the nose. At this point, there is no blending.

 

STEP 13.

 Here we are starting with the mouth. The basic image is there and tweaking, erasing hasn't happened yet. Just shade lightly at a diagonal slant. His upper lip will be defined in the following steps.

 

STEP 14.

 Branch out to shade his cheek lines and upper part of lip. Look at my picture as a reference to see where the shading takes form smiling lines.

 

STEP 15.

 Here is the shading progression for the mouth. In picture 4, you can use the 9B graphite pencil to add darkness in the mouth. Picture 5 is the blended result.

 

STEP 16.

 A few areas are touched on here. First his sideburns. Here you can sketch in the strokes diagonally. More curls are added to the back of his hair. Then sketch in the inside of his ear. Also don't forget his neck.

 

STEP 17.

 Add lines to his hair. Follow the direction they flow. Also define his neck muscle pulling from his facial expression. Sketch in his shirt design with wiggly lines.

 

STEP 18.

 Sketch in lightly his facial tone, including his neck area. Make sure you leave the side of his cheek and neck blank (white). If you need to clean that area, use your eraser.

 

STEP 19.

 This will help you how the ear progressed. As you can see in the 4th picture, his hair has been darkened and skin tone added.

 

STEP 20.

 When you follow the arrows as you fill in his hair, it adds realism. Why? A realistic texture is added to your hair using this technique. The hair shouldn't appear flat.

 

STEP 21.

 When you start darkening the hair, you'll notice doing it in layers gives a realistic look. Darken as you go along, looking at your reference.

 

STEP 22.

 As you have darkened his hair, add mid gray to the white areas. Also shade in his shirt and the patterned areas.

 

STEP 23.

 The blending stump can work miracles for your picture. Use the skinny, tiny one for small areas, like around the eyes, in the nose and mouth. The larger stump can blend larger areas, even the cheek areas tongue, and skin tone area. Now if you want a really smooth and can risk that area to appear lighter, use some soft tissue. That really breaks down the graphite lines to a smooth finish. I've used a blending stump to darken the light hair areas.

 

STEP 24.

 Darken his skin at the back of his jaw, leaving a little light under his side burn. Make sure you take your kneaded eraser and leave some hair highlights at the edges as seen in the pic. Adding the background darker at the top and at mid gray in the middle makes Ace pop out more. I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial.