Archives: Lessons

Now that we've wrapped-up the Portrait Drawing experience, I'd like to offer some words of encouragement. You may be happy with the results you have..…

We're near the end, and yet there's still a lot to do. With structures and values largely in place, it's time to iron-out the kinks and disruptions in…

We'll look at drawing hair in this segment. The key here is to treat the hair as form – just like everything else on the portrait. We get into trou…

Being on the side of the head, the ear is significantly darker than the rest of the face, and the value range we use there must be similarly darker. …

We revisit the concept of the hierarchy of form – small forms sit on larger forms, which sit on still larger forms. The turning of each form away f…

Conventionally, portraits are lit with a single, primary light source. There are two other sources of light, however, that influence what we see: ambi…

As we continue to develop the sub-forms on the face, it's important to remember the hierarchy of form, understanding that large anatomical structures …

Modeling form is primarily a task of organizing values – not only their relative lightness or darkness, but also their shapes and …

Having keyed the drawing in one area of relatively high contrast, it's time to move throughout the drawing and make similar decisions elsewhere. Other…

We continue adding values to the drawing, like notes in a an elaborate musical chord. We also investigate "squinting" and its role in making good valu…

We continue developing the the key of the drawing by adding darker values to the eye region, and contrasting them with lighter values on the nose and …

Graphite and chalk don’t mix together well. Attempts to do so yield a smudgy, inconsistent value, as well as a noticeable blue-shift in the color of…

Understanding the discrete structures of the ear can be of great help when drawing the complicated shapes of the ear. In this segment, we'll look at t…

Paying careful attention to the structure of the lips is critical to drawing a mouth that feels integrated into the rest of the face. In this lesson w…

The nose is comprised of 4 basic structures: the nasal bones, the lateral cartilages, the alar cartilages, and the nasal wings. Understanding these fo…

The eyes look the way they do because of the large structures of the eye socket (or orbital cavity), the eyeball and the eyelids stretched ac…

Shadow masses provide additional shapes to “plugin” to the drawing at this stage. Think of them as large puzzle pieces that must “fit” within …

As you complete your block-in, be sure to check the major proportions and positions of the head, face and features before you move on. Review all your…

With the vertical positioning of the features roughy mapped out, it’s time to determine the lateral positioning. Remember, we’re not “drawing th…

Before we can draw the features, we first have to locate them. Taking time in the block-in to map out the general regions the features occupy will mak…