One of the biggest challenges in learning to draw portraits is relying on a stationary reference. Our brains are wired for depth, and each eye sees the same object from a slightly different angle. That means proportion “systems” for faces and bodies only take you so far. Unless you trace a photo, which teaches little, you will never see the subject from the exact same angle twice.

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This is why training yourself to see an object from multiple perspectives is so valuable, and why creating videos in Midjourney opens new doors for artists, both new and experienced.

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To generate multiple views from a single portrait photo, upload it into Midjourney, set it as a video, and prompt Midjourney to animate it. I use a phrase like, “show this person looking left and right.”

 

Midjourney then produces four short, five-second videos. Select the ones you like, click on them, and choose “Download for Social” to save them to your hard drive.

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Next, open each video in a video editor and step through it frame by frame to find the views you want to sketch. You can sketch directly from the screen, or save the stills to your hard drive to build your own collection.

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I use SnagIt by TechSmith, which makes it easy to scroll through short clips frame by frame. Professionally, I also use CyberLink PowerDirector 365, but any video editor will let you do this.

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When you are done, you will have created a library of related images from which to draw your portrait. This gives your sketches more nuance because you have become better acquainted with your subject.