Drawing Tutorials | Drawing Tutorials Online Blog

Shea Portrait – Shading In The Hair

by Matthew | Oct 10, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 3 comments

This may not be my most exciting lesson, however it is an important one. Sometimes drawing a realistic portrait takes time. In this short three minute YouTube world that we live in it’s easy to loose sight of the fact that quality takes time.

Now every artist obviously is different. Every artist has their own personal style. For my portrait drawings I really do enjoy spending long hours working on blocking in the tone.

In this particular video tutorial I’m sharing with you how I start blocking in the soft tone of the hair on the shadow side of the head. When drawing hair it’s important to build up your middle tones first before diving into pressing down super hard on your pencil.

The key takeaways from this portrait drawing lesson, hair is soft, draw it in a soft way. If hair is long, use long pencil strokes. Hair is made up of many cylindrical shapes, think of how the light is hitting those cylinders.

It’s so very important to be clear on your personal style of portrait drawing. You might decide that you really don’t want to draw every strand of hair. You might want to leave some areas of the hair void of detail. Remember, make it fun and keep it original.

If you got something from this very quiet video please leave a comment below.

Improve your portrait drawing skills to today with a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. Select from a monthly or annual plan, cancel anytime.

Shea Portrait – Drawing The Mouth

by Matthew | Oct 2, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 2 comments

In this portrait drawing lesson I share with you how to carefully lay in the mouth. By using a series of targets you can make sure you get proper placement of the lips. Simply put targets are little marks you place on paper. They help you to place the features of the face without fully committing to using super dark line.

In this video tutorial you will learn how to place the corner of the mouth with little light targets. You will also see how to map out the ear and edge of the head. Unfortunately a lot of artists press down hard on their pencil immediately with out using targets. I know I was one of them. My best friend was the eraser.

This style of drawing is a light to dark style of drawing. It’s very different than say completing a gesture drawing. In that case you want to press down on your pencil immediately in order to create a confident powerful gesture.

If this style of drawing interests you definitely consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. You will gain access to multiple drawing courses just like the one up above. Plus you can post your portrait drawing up for a critique ensuring that you receive timely feedback on your work.

Improve your portrait drawing skills to today with a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. Select from a monthly or annual plan, cancel anytime.

Shea Portrait – Starting With The Eyes

by Matthew | Sep 19, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 6 comments

I wanted to share with you lesson one from my latest portrait drawing course titled “Shea Portrait”. A few members had asked the question, can you start a portrait drawing with the eye first? The answer is of course. Diving deeper the real answer is that you can start a portrait wherever you see fit.

Every portrait that you draw presents different obstacles. You certainly do not want to place too many rules on yourself in terms of where to start. Take a look at the portrait subject, what can you wrap your mind around? What looks easy to start with first?

I’m a big believer of utilizing the angels to start drawing the edge of the hair first, moving onto drawing the face next. Drawing the shape of hair versus the shape of the face is a logical way to go about drawing a portrait. However there will be times that branching out from drawing the eyes first is a better solution.

In the portrait drawing lesson below I share with you what to look out for when starting with the eyes. I talk to the importance of making it so both eyes work together, making sure that they are looking in the same direction.

This fifteen lesson course has so much to offer. However I thought I would share with you this very important lesson one.

If you would like to get started watching get entire course check out Drawing Tutorials Online.

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Twelve

by Matthew | Sep 4, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials | 3 comments

In this last lesson twelve I share with you how I finish up the portrait drawing. The one key takeaway from this last lesson, good things take time.

Now please don’t take this out of context. Some of my favorite drawings are ten minute gesture drawings. What I’m talking too here is in direct relation to a style associated with drawing in a realistic way utilizing tone.

If you like a drawing style that is somewhat realistic you have to put in the time. An hour just won’t cut it. So know what you like, know what you aspire to. Be realistic with the time it takes to get there. This quite frankly is half the battle to creating a realistic looking portrait.

Thanks so much for taking the time to watch these lessons. I’m currently working on a new portrait drawing course. I hope to share that with you soon.

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Five

by Matthew | Sep 4, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials

Okay lesson five, this video will show you the importance of solid shapes. It seems so simplistic, shading in a solid way. However I cannot stress the importance of being able to squint and see shapes, then shading them their appropriate value.

I have critiques literally thousands of portrait drawing in the member gallery at Drawing Tutorials Online. The biggest struggle many artists have is having no shapes within their portrait drawing. If they have shapes they are soft and fuzzy without the proper value.

I absolutely love to draw with both line and shape. However likeness really comes with shape when it comes to drawing with both line and tone.

In your daily practice continue to shade shapes in a solid way. Sometimes what we think is complicated is actually pretty simple. It’s all about drawing accurate and shapes and shading them with the correct value.>/p>

Thanks so much for watching!

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Four

by Matthew | Aug 31, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 1 comment

Okay great you have made it to lesson four. Once you have taken the time to get the basic shape of the head with a light middle tone it’s now time to dive in deeper. In essence you have basically drawn big shapes, then drawn smaller shapes within the big shapes.

Start progressing into refining the features of the face, getting a bit more aggressive with a darker middle tone.

You can accomplish this by looking more at the photo reference than you look at your drawing. You also will want to have a value scale nearby to ensure that you are using the proper value structure. Not too dark, not too light.

You will also want to start adding more value to the shape of the hair as well. This will really start to balance your drawing out.

Thank you so much for watching. I appreciate you taking the time to watch these portrait drawing tutorials

If you like this style of drawing definitely consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. My main goal for the website is to help members create better art, period. Learning through well thought out courses as well as getting your portrait drawings critiqued will help you to improve in a much faster way.