Portrait Drawing – Lesson Twelve

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Twelve

by | 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

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Five

by | 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

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Four

by | 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

Portrait Drawing – Lesson Three

by | 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.

 

How To Simplify Light & Shade When Drawing A Portrait

How To Simplify Light & Shade When Drawing A Portrait

by | Jul 17, 2017 | Drawing Tutorials, Video Critiques

Milos recently uploaded his art to our critique gallery for the first time. I thought his drawing was pretty cool.

The main suggestion was to simplify how to apply shadow shapes. When you place shadow shapes everywhere in essence you muddy up your portrait drawing. It’s always best to simplify where you decide to put your shadow shapes.

Use a minimalistic approach when thinking about light direction. Where is the light coming from? Is it front light, side light, rim light, or form light? Form light is best for three dimension.

Once you make a decision on which direction the light is hitting your subject you start heading in the right direction.

Enjoy the video critique.

Thank so much for watching. If you are looking for a video critique just like this one for your work read more about what Drawing Tutorials Online has to offer you.