This portrait drawing project started out as a Father’s Day craft and has morphed into one of our favorite drawing exercises. We’ve done close to 20 of them between us and each one we create is our new favorite.
I’m not sure what it is about having a blank face that inspires creativity for us, but it does. There are so many ways to create hair, clothing, and faces AND we get to use a variety of different materials like scrapbooking paper, colored paper, crayons, markers, and stickers. Literally everything is up for grabs with these.
Our first few portraits were made with the template from TotSchooling with a collar and a tie. Since it was meant to be for Father’s Day and Anna’s father occasionally wears a tie to work, I left it as it was. I also made a version without the tie (and left the collar) because that’s her daddy’s more frequent uniform. They were both super fun to use and turned out some spectacular portraits.
I have to admit, when I first came across this idea on Pinterest, I expected it to keep us busy for 5-10 minutes MAX. Instead, it kept us — 3 kids and 2 adults — occupied and engaged for over an hour. And I’m certain we could have gone for longer but our guests had to leave.
Knowing how much fun we had with the dad-themed portrait drawing project, I thought about how to make the template a bit more gender neutral so it could be used for literally anyone in any walk of life or profession. The version you will find below (for a free download, no less!) is the product of that — a blank face with lines for the neck and shoulder so that you are free to fill in the rest.
This was our first crack at the new template:
I absolutely love how these turned out and had a blast using different colored paper for the hair (can you tell?!). Anna had fun embellishing her portraits with earrings, necklaces, and different tops. My brain is seriously working in overdrive thinking about what kind of portrait to draw next.
Download The (Free) Portrait Drawing Template
If you try out one of our projects for yourself, please send us a picture or a trackback! Anna and I LOVE seeing what other people get up to! If you use Instagram please use the hashtag #madewithlev. Happy Crafting!
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