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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.

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Three

by Matthew | Aug 28, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 3 comments

In this lesson three I share with you the importance of adding shapes within shapes and refining edges.

One you have established some basic shapes it’s then time to add smaller shapes within the big shapes. For instance once you have drawn the eye socket shape it’s time to place the eye within the eye socket shape.

You will want to see the eye not as an eye but as a series of shapes. For instance the white of the eye is a triangle. The iris is a rectangular shape etc.

Work on refining the edges of each shape. It’s the edge of each shape that will enable you to get a likeness

I see too many artists ignore the quality of the edges in their drawings. Trust me I know, I was one of those artists. I used to have way too many inconsistencies in my edge quality. In this particular portrait drawing the model’s profile edge is a major component in achieving a likeness. Draw the edges correctly and you will most certainly achieve likeness.

I want to thank you for taking the time for watching the portrait drawing tutorial above. I will be creating many new portrait drawing courses this Fall. If that sounds interesting to you definitely take a moment to check out Drawing Tutorials Online.

Now get out there and draw something that you love.

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Two

by Matthew | Aug 28, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog

In this sped up drawing tutorial world that we see on YouTube and Instagram we tend to forget that a good drawing takes time. It really takes time for me. A fourteen minute video clip up is basically a nano second in my drawing world.

It’s really important that you figure out what about drawing makes you happy. For me it’s all about sitting in my studio and creating something worth while. I love rendering for hours with a pencil while listening to music and drinking good coffee. I also get satisfaction from doing a five minute gesture drawing from life.

However long drawings are where my passion is. What about you, what part of drawing makes you happy? Once you figure that out you are on your way to drawing success.

I want to thank you for taking the time for watching the portrait drawing tutorial above. I will be creating many new portrait drawing courses this Fall. If that sounds interesting to you definitely take a moment to check out Drawing Tutorials Online.

Now get out there and draw something that you love.

Portrait Drawing – Lesson One

by Matthew | Aug 26, 2018 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 4 comments

I just recently finished a brand new portrait drawing course over at Drawing Tutorials Online. I wanted to share with you a few of the chapters since the drawing has gotten a lot of positive feedback.

It’s been while since I’ve posted any drawing tutorials outside of the members area. The six lessons to be posted here at the blog should give you some insight as to how to get started drawing a portrait.

The drawing took me roughly seven to eight hours to complete. My process is quite slow, however if there is a technique within the video that helps you by all means run with it.

This is lesson one, I will be posting six lessons in total here at the blog. Thank you so much for watching.

Please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

If you would like to jump ahead and watch the course in it’s entirety visit our sign up page at Drawing Tutorials Online. The course comes with a PDF, screencast tutorial and photo reference. Plus when you sign up to Drawing Tutorials Online you will be able to receive feedback on your portrait drawings.

Alice’s Last Sketchbook – Maybe

by Matthew | Aug 4, 2018 | Sketchbook Videos, The Blog | 7 comments

It’s basically one month and one day before I start teaching a whole new group of students at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. I still have some sketchbook videos that I really need to post. This is a short but sweet sketchbook that Alice worked on when she was all out of ideas. She just did a bunch of drawings while watching Netflix. She was having a creative slump and worked through it wonderfully.

If you have ever been through a creative slump, or just didn’t feel like creating any art, it’s important that you at least continue to draw. It’s important to look at new artists.

Simply drawing each day in your sketchbook will open up new creative channels that you never thought existed. Of course every artist does need a break from time to time. But just keep sketching. It will keep your eye hand coordination up to speed.

Thanks for watching.

Check out Alice’s Instagram. Stop by and visit okay!

Albert Bierstadt Master Class

by Matthew | Aug 3, 2018 | MasterClass, The Blog | 2 comments

Every so often I film a Master Class lesson. What is a Master Class lesson you say? It’s where I analyze the work of an old master. In this case it’s the work of Albert Bierstadt. It’s a great way for members of Drawing Tutorials Online to hone their image making skills.

In this particular video below you will learn why this image works. You will also start to understand why some of your images work and why some don’t. I’m super passionate about image making. Throughout my eighteen year illustration career I was always trying to create an image that made sense to the viewer. I was always looking for ways to improve my picture making skills.

This video below is just a short sample of what our Master Class lessons have to offer you. If you would like to see many more videos just like this one check out my course listings page.

I’m passionate about helping artists improve their craft in both drawing and image making.

Thanks so much for watching. Leave a comment below, let me know if you learned something from this Master Class lesson. Click on the image below to enlarge the images from this lesson.