There are few things, which are quite essential for making the portraits perfect. Portraits are all about painting the people around you on the canvas and this also includes creating the perfect expression on their faces.
When you start with the portrait try and concentrate on the eyes first. They are probably the most important part of the features of one's face. This is the reason why they need to be perfect. In fact if the eyes are painted correctly, the portrait will start looking like the real person.
Start drawing the eyes from one corner and gage the distance of them from the nose. Once you are sure about the positioning you should start drawing the eyebrows. Then gradually move towards the outline of the face that is surrounded by the hair.
Once you are done with the eyes, it is time to move to the rest of the face. This is a brilliant idea to make an outline of all the features of the face and then gradually work on making them perfect. This is the way to maintain the balance among the various parts of the portrait.
The colors are very important in case of making a perfect painting.
The general rule of coloring the various parts of the portrait is to give them the right shades that are close to the real color of those parts. The fingertips, nose and the upper portion of a human being is often reddish in color as they have minute blood vessels which carry blood and redden the region.
This is the reason why you should also use a reddish tone in those places. At the same time the tone will become little bluish or greenish at the bony regions of the face like forehead.
The color of the flesh can be perfectly made using the colors like burnt sienna or umber.
These are all reddish or cool shades of brown. They basically create the dark shadows on the face. If you wish to make the shadows lighter then viridian green or French aquamarine blue can be the right choice. You should put some whitish shade instead of perfect white to paint the white portions of the eyes.
While painting the portraits you will not be able to find the colors in the market, which are often ready to use. This is the reason your sense of making various colors has to be quite strong in order to make portraits perfectly.