1) Choose a high-quality portrait to study (find your own or choose from my boards: 100 Female Faces and 100 Male Faces)

2) Open the image in Photoshop and change the image width to 1500px. Next change the canvas width to 3000px so the reference is on the left and your blank space is on the right.

3) Create the your study in black and white (optional: in color)

Tips:

1. Use guidelines (ctrl + r to toggle on the rulers) to help with size/shape of the head and features.
2. Use the lasso tool to refine your shape layer.
3. Start with large brush strokes, then medium, then small.
4. Don’t spend too much time on one part before approaching other features too.
5. Running your reference photo through the “poster edge” filter will help you simplify the planes and shape of the face.

4) Add a custom background.