Portrait Drawing Facial Features: 6-Week Studio Course

Everything you will learn will be demonstrated in class in real time, guiding you through every aspect of the portrait drawing process. Practical exercises will help you understand and develop drawing methods and techniques. As a group, we will discuss various portrait, artistic and drawing concepts, and on a one-to-one basis you will receive critique and feedback on your work.

The Drawing Process

In this course, we will look at additional drawing surfaces and materials, for example, graphite, carbon and white chalk on toned papers. We will also be striving for greater accuracy and refinement:

• Detailing the facial features and other elements like hair, wrinkles, pigmentation
• Improving measurements and proportions
• Paying closer attention to the dynamics of light and shadow

Anatomy of the Face & Head

In the basic portrait drawing course, you will have learned the simple structures of the face and head. In the advanced course, you will be shown the underlying anatomy, a knowledge of which, added so much more accuracy and realism to your portrait drawing. You will be shown the anatomy and detailed surface forms of the facial features (eyes, nose, lips and ears), hair characteristics, and minute individual differences between people and ethnic variations.

Interaction of Light & Form

How light falls over the forms of the face and head describes what they look like. How we represent this in drawing is referred to as “turning” the forms. You will be shown how to render and create the illusion of three-dimension forms, and also how your treatment of this can impact on the character, mood and atmosphere of the portrait.