Why Your Portraits Look “Off” - And the 3 Filters That Will Finally Help You Draw Faces With Confidence
If you’ve ever sat down to draw a portrait and ended up with a face that looked like its features were slowly migrating south… welcome. You’re in the right place.
Every beginner struggles with portraits.
Not because they “can’t draw,” but because they were never taught how to see.
After years of trial and error, failed sketches, dramatic erasing, and eventually developing a clear, beginner-friendly system, I realised something:
Portrait drawing becomes simple when you learn to filter what you see.
Today, I’m sharing the same three filters I teach in The Portrait Method — my hands-on charcoal portrait workshop for beginners. These are the filters that finally made portrait drawing make sense, and they’ll do the same for you.
1. The Egg — Seeing the Head in 3D
The first filter is simple:
The head is an egg.
Not a sphere, not a cube — an egg.
Wider at the top, narrower at the bottom, slightly fuller behind.
Once you begin seeing the head this way:
You stop drawing “floating features”
Your proportions instantly improve
You place features more accurately
You think in 3D instead of outlines
Most beginners try to draw features before they’ve even drawn the head.
This filter fixes that instantly.
2. The Box — Understanding the Direction of the Head
The box gives your portrait something beginners rarely achieve on the first try:
Correct perspective.
Every head is always angled somewhere: up, down, left, right, or beautifully in-between.
When you use the box filter, you’re asking:
Can I see the top plane?
Can I see the side plane?
Is the face turning toward or away from me?
This decides everything that comes after:
Eyes tilt correctly
Nose lines up
Mouth sits naturally on the curved surface
Shading follows the form
If your portraits often look like they’re melting or twisting, this is the filter that fixes it.
3. The Envelope — The Big Shape That Solves 80% of Your Problems
This is the part almost every tutorial ignores.
Before you draw anything, you start with:
The envelope — the large outer shape that includes the entire head AND the hair.
It gives you:
The silhouette
The scale
The tilt
The gesture
The overall structure
If the person has big hair?
The envelope includes it.
If their head is tilted dramatically?
The envelope shows this immediately, before you even draw the face.
The envelope stops you from guessing your way through the portrait.
It’s your blueprint.
4. Using All 3 Filters at Once (This Is Where Everything clicks)
Here’s the real secret…
You’re not meant to use these filters one at a time.
You use them together.
At first you’ll think step-by-step:
“Envelope first…”
“Okay, now the egg…”
“Where is the box turning?”
“Where is the big shadow shape?”
But after a while, something shifts:
The filters blend into one way of seeing.
Suddenly you look at someone and instantly know:
“Huge hair that looks like a bell, envelope first.”
“I can see the top plane so that means the head is tilting down.”
“Strong side lighting from the left, draw the shadow shapes on the right.”
And after enough practice, you don’t need all three every time. You choose the filter based on the portrait in front of you.
This creates a huge leap in confidence, the kind beginners feel instantly during my workshop.
Why These Filters Work (Even If You’re a Complete Beginner)
Because they remove overwhelm.
Instead of thinking, “How do I draw a face?”
You break it into three simple questions:
What’s the big outer shape and how can I simplify it?
What’s the underlying volume?
What direction is it facing?
Once you answer those, the portrait nearly draws itself.
You get:
Structure
Accuracy
Depth
Clear lighting
Confident lines
A repeatable process you can use forever
You stop guessing.
You start understanding.
Your drawings instantly look more lifelike.
Want to Learn This System in One Day? Join My Workshop.
If this clicked with you, even a little, you’ll love my in-person beginner workshop:
The Portrait Method: A Charcoal Workshop for Beginners
Learn the 3 core filters, step-by-step, in a small group (10 spots only).
You’ll get:
Hands-on guidance
A 5-hour structured lesson
All materials included
A complete portrait finished in class
A system you can use to improve on your own
If you’re ready to stop guessing and finally draw portraits with confidence, you can learn more here:
