Drawing The Portrait

Artists have been drawing the portrait for centuries. One of the best ways to practice drawing the head and features is to start with understanding the structure and proportion of the skull. Once that foundation is established, adding expressive features is easy. In this course, instructor Amy Wynne begins with an introduction to the skull’s key landmarks and proportions from three views: frontal, three quarters, and profile. Next, Amy shows you the facial features and the key muscles that act on them to create expression. She demonstrates techniques to simplify the head and features into easy-to-draw geometries that allow you to add basic tonal rendering. Amy also goes over the head’s attachment to the neck and shoulders, as well as compositional choices in portraiture.

In this DVD, you will learn how to construct a female portrait using construction and abstraction methods from front view, 3/4 view and profile. Along with the several comprehensive demonstrations, there are also demonstrations on form design, abstraction design, the features of the face and more. The expanded demonstrations also cover drawing in both charcoal as well as graphite. This DVD is packed with academic information, watch it in small portions, then watch it again and again to absorb it all. Instructor for this title: Ron Lemen.

Stan Prokopenko shows an effective approach to drawing the portrait from any angle. Then study the anatomy of eyes, nose, lips, and ears. The information is presented in an entertaining way to keep you engaged and willing to re-watch the lessons.

In this DVD, Ron focuses on creating a male portrait from the front, three-quarter and profile views while covering the fundamental tools of drawing with traditional media. He discusses and demonstrates the features of the head through shape analysis, a breakdown of the Abstraction and Construction Methods, and how and why he uses them. Insight into shading and how to control the tones and lines drawn are also covered. In addition, a few bonus drawings titled “Warm Ups” break away from a step process and develop similar results in a more freeform way. All artists types, from fine art to commercial, will benefit from this demonstration.

Sharing many secrets of his techniques, David Leffel demonstrates how he manages subtle use of color and achieves the impasto quality of his highlights. As the portrait proceeds, the viewer learns basic drawing, modeling and other technique, and even how to hold the brush.

In this video Jeremy shows us his process for painting a portrait sketch. In under three hours, he paints a portrait from life in a single sitting. The model is none other than Danielle Lipking, the artist's wife. The video begins with Lipking talking about his materials, and continues through the entire painting, capturing nearly every stroke from start to finish. Also included on the DVD is a feature-length artist's commentary by Jeremy Lipking along with friend and director Tony Pro.