How to Draw Katy Perry: Step by Step

Step 1: Draw a bowl shape.

Step 2: Observe and draw the nose shape at the top of the bowl shape. Notice its size and placement within the bowl shape. Also, add the lines which look like parentheses; notice their angle and their placement compared to the outside of the bowl shape. 

Step 3: Add the three shapes to make the smile. Notice the placement of these shapes, compared to the nose and the smile lines. Be sure to notice that the upper lip is the smallest of the three shapes and the bottom lip is the biggest.

Step 4: Draw in the teeth. Notice that each tooth appears to become smaller as they go further back in the mouth. This is not the case in real life, but it is when we draw a smile. Try not to darken the lines between the teeth too much.

Step 5: Merrill??? What the HECK is THAT????? ........Relax!......... Don't worry!....Ill make this nice and simple. First, notice that the new shape is taller than the bowl shape. The triangular shape at the top center is slightly wider than the nose shape. Look closely and notice that the left side is squared and the right side is rounded. Also, be sure to see that the right side is lower than the left.

Step 6: Listen, youre a firework!!!! Don't freak out! This is EASY! Hair moves all the time. You do not need to get this shape perfectly. Use your observational skills to get the general shape of the hair. Again, don't be intimidated by this step.... just generalize what you see.

Step 7: Draw in the eye shapes. Notice that there is one eye length between the eyes. Notice the difference in size between the top eyelashes and the bottom ones. Notice the size of the iris compared to the whites of the eye.

Step 8: Draw in the shapes for her body.

Supplies I Used For Katy Perry Portrait

Notes From Extended Shading Tutorial Video

0:11- Notice that I am using a mechanical pencil. It has thinner graphite and it helps me create subtle tones for the features of the face.

0:21 Notice the difference between the upper eyelashes and the lower ones. The upper eyelashes are much darker. Use a 4B to 6B pencil on the eyelashes right away.

0:30 The pupil of the eye is darker in tone than the iris. You will see that I shade the "white" of the eye with the paintbrush. I pull some of the graphite over from the iris and the eyelashes. Do not go too dark though.

0:35 Watch how I use the paper stump to do the eyelashes. I "cross hatch" some lines, and then I spread the lines (graphite) with the stump. If you do not have a paper stump, use a Q-Tip.........And if you dont have Q-Tips, how the hell do you clean your ears????

0:45-- Do not go too dark under her eyes. Our skin thins and becomes more transparent as we age. Let Katy Perry keep her "Teenage Dream" and don't give her bags under her eyes......yet. It is OK to darken the area a bit because the eye protrudes from the eye socket (feel your eyeball NOW) and the area around the eyeball is almost always in shadow.

1:05 The darkest part of the mouth is the two corners.

1:26- "Float like a butterfly and shade like a bee"....In other words, move around. Do not get stuck in one place. Develop your drawing evenly.

2:00- Learning shading is like learning another language. You are translating tones. Get in the habit of looking at my reference image once for every five seconds.

2:10- At this point of the drawing and shading process, your goal should be to eliminate "lines" and notice the nuances of "edges". In other words, some shapes have solid edges, while others have softer edges. There is often a tonal difference as well.

2:34- Watch how I use the blending (paper) stump to soften an edge......Suggestion: Look in the mirror (right now) and notice the tonal and physical (hardness softness) differences of your face.

3:18- Every drawing has an "awkward" stage. This is the awkward stage for this drawing.

3:39- Notice that I am making points at the bottom of the teeth, between each tooth.

3:39- Teeth are tricky. Try not to keep the dark lines between each tooth.  Generally, the upper teeth are more defined at the bottom, when a person smiles because they overlap the tops of the bottom teeth. Katy Perry's bottom teeth are not visible in this picture.

4:10- Treat the eyebrow on the right and the hair as one solid shape. (for this portrait only)

4:59- Hair has a lot of tones. I am going to start out with a 5B pencil and press hard to create solid straight lines in areas where there are a variety of "tones"- aka- light and dark "values". In generally darker areas such as the upper left, I am hatching in a neutral (half) tone, followed by darker values. Notice that this is the total opposite method of what I did for the skin of the face.

5:46- Hot tip- Use the kneaded eraser and the pencils eraser to create highlights.

5:46- Hot tip #2- Invest in graphite sticks (think really think pencils). You will see me use one in a moment.

6:42- A paintbrush and a paper stump can be used to neutralize an area in the hair. Once its neutralized, you can sculpt darker areas with the pencil or highlights with an eraser. I think of the hair as a "sculpture".

7:27- Now, Watch me use all of my "tools" (brush, blending stump, graphite stick, eraser, finger) to get the effects that I want. Try not to use the fingers though because the oils in the hand will be absorbed in to the paper and the shading will be inconsistent.

9:28- It is important to darken (neutralize) the background of a portrait on white paper if you want the highlights to fully develop.

10:14- If the hair in your drawing looks like a "block" consider retouching the edges of the hair shape (as I am doing now).

10:31- I am making highlights with the eraser in the hair

11:21- I am starting to shade the body. Follow the same shading pattern as the face. The left is in highlight, the right is in slight shadow.

11:58- There are several slight shadows in the upper chest area between the two shapes for the hair. Take note of that as you watch me develop them.

12:33- The arm on the right (her left arm) will be about as dark as the shading on the neck.

12:55- It is common in portraiture for the background of an image to be the opposite as the foreground. For instance, notice that the highlight is on her right cheek and the background is dark. It switches on the other side. This is an old artists trick which works because the variance in tones moves the viewers eye around.

13:58- The last thing to do is to "soften" everything. Notice that I use the brush and the eraser a lot.