Draw Amazing Portraits! Weekly Class For Seriously Realistic Faces

About Draw Amazing Portraits! Weekly Class For Seriously Realistic Faces

Faces are hard to draw. There’s a lot going on in there: lips, nostrils, eye brows…how weird are eye brows? I’ll show you some great tricks to make sure that the faces you draw look better than ever! You may be surprised how real they look. I help each student build confidence and make impressive advancements that they can be proud of with art techniques that I actually use myself when drawing. We draw and shade one person’s head in realistic detail for 4 weeks, going step by step.

My teaching style is easy going and free flowing. However, I teach powerful techniques to make major improvement in skill quickly. I don’t water things down, even for beginner level students. A past young student that stayed on for two years had said that the teachers she tried before me felt like glorified babysitting. That’s not me. But there's also no high pressure to "get it right". When we work on a drawing, I will push students to get various elements as close as they can to our goal, but if something is too difficult, we may just move on and check on that area again later to see if it’s easier to recognize what needs to be adjusted.

In this class, we will draw a single human portrait for the duration of the four weeks, using a reference photo which I will provide. Dedicating this much time to a single drawing allows students to create more refined and finished looking pieces than quicker drawings that are more oriented simply for practice. Get those frames ready, folks.

We will focus on how to portray the face with accurate proportions and structural shape, as well as the relationships of light and dark areas. As I draw the image, students will follow along and draw each part of the head, step by step. I’ll check on students’ drawings and give suggestions about anything I see that needs to be adjusted. Our reference may be male or female, seen from a head on or 3/4 view.

Questions are welcome at any time. As long as they aren’t about cryptocurrency. I still don’t understand how that works. Students are encouraged to introduce themselves at the start of each lesson and show the progress of their drawing at the end.

This class will give students new ways to look at the subject they are drawing, and new tools to use while creating their drawings, which will help them to get more accurate drawings faster, and with less frustration. Much of the various methodologies that we cover will contribute to growing genuine artistic skills that can also be applied to any subject, not just portraits. We will be developing lasting abilities, not just completing individual projects to pass the time.

Students have the option of taking this course more than once to make their skills even stronger, as we will draw from a different reference photo each time the class begins again after the completion of the four weeks. So each class is unique from the last.

Materials

Here are some recommendations for lessons where we will be focussing on graphite drawing.

There are various kinds of paper pads that will be fine to use. In general, a spiral bound pad that says that it’s meant for pencil drawing on the front around 9”x12” or 11”x14” will be good. $8-$16

You can start out with a standard pencil, if preferred. It’s a good idea to get a pencil kit with several pencils at different softness levels that come in a case for shading later though. Pencil kits often come with a kneaded eraser, possibly a blending stump, and even a sharpener. Having a case for everything to go in is convenient. If there’s no kneaded eraser, they are a must. Wood pencils or woodless pencils may be considered. $18-$27

A 12” T-square and/or a good ruler may be good to have for certain things, but are not required for this class. $6-$12 each

A mechanical eraser is optional, for small areas that require more pressure than a kneaded eraser $7

The capacity for this class is 10 students.