So you're wondering how to draw a portrait step by step, you're here to learn what that first, most important action you must take is?
Well, the fact that you're here already shows you at least care enough about drawing to take the time out to really try and learn about what you're doing, which is good. Because the first step you need to take, is to understand that drawing a portrait, or any work of art at all, isn't just something you get inspired to do suddenly and then have a finished masterpiece done by the next morning.
You need to understand that this is going to take time, and is going to take focus, and is going to take effort. Which means you need to really love, not just the idea of being able to draw a masterful portrait, but also the entire process itself. Including, most important, all the mistakes and all the effort and dedication it will take to complete it.
Obviously I don't know how much you know about the process of drawing portraits, but the really good ones, especially photorealistic portraits, can take up to two hundred hours to complete. Two hundred!
I don't doubt that you're first pictures won't take even a significant fraction of that time, but that doesn't mean you won't be spending longer than you're expecting on it. Because you will.
There'll be parts of the process that you'll spend hours obsessing over, that you can't even imagine right now. Until you get into the drawing, you can't really know what it's going to feel like.
You need to remember that you have a passion for this drawing, this is why you wanted to get into it in the first place, right? And along the way, you'll most likely make a lot of mistakes. You'll convince yourself your picture is terrible and there's no way it can turn out to be anything even remotely good, so you need to learn to see the good parts in it, and appreciate where you've improved.
That detail in an eye you just managed to perfect? The shading across a jawline, the contrast between the light on the cheek, and the darker shadow underneath the jaw? Take pride in even the smallest improvements as you go along, and when you see something you think is terrible, try not to think you're useless, that you'll never be any good...
Instead, look at it as it is, and figure out what's bad about it. Because that will allow you to find out how to improve upon whatever mistake it was you made. And then, you'll have another thing to feel proud about!
But remember. Drawing, while it's going to take a long time, it's not some chore that you should try to breeze through. It's something you should be able to accept for what it is, that it will take time and dedication to do it right. If you really love drawing, then you'll also love every part of it, even the "bad" parts of it. You'll see those as simply part of the experience, something else to be felt and treasured.
Even if the picture does end up terrible, if you put passion and love into it, you will always feel proud of it in the end. Of course, you'll want every picture to come out as good as you possibly can get them to, but even the bad ones you'll end up loving further down the line, because they'll be memories of starting out, and evidence of how much you've improved too.
Can you imagine that? What it's like to be months, even years, later, and to see your very first drawings that you did now, and to feel so proud of yourself and so nostalgic for times gone by?
You've taken the first step towards this dream by simply reading this article, now it's time for you to continue learning how to draw a portrait step by step to get this even closer to being your reality!