Specialization in Portrait Techniques: Traditional to Digital

Learning the Properties of Light and Shadow by Drawing a Sphere

In this lesson, I will guide you through drawing a sphere and discuss how to use the materials best to achieve quick results.

Methods of Checking Accuracy 1

In this lesson, you will learn methods to improve accuracy in portrait drawing. We'll cover using straight lines to form an "envelope," visualizing shapes abstractly, and checking horizontal and vertical relationships. You'll also practice triangulating landmarks and refining details step by step for better precision.

Methods of Checking Accuracy 2

In this lesson, you will refine your portrait drawing by simplifying shapes, erasing unnecessary lines, and sharpening your pencil for precision. We'll explore different types of edges and use hatching to define shadows. You’ll also practice checking proportions with vertical and horizontal relationships and correcting angles for greater accuracy.

Setting up the Pose and Beginning the Straight Line Block-in

In this lesson, I will discuss the key considerations when setting up a pose and lighting for a portrait. We will then establish proportions with a straight-line block-in of the head.

In this lesson, I will guide you in refining the rough straight-line block-in into a more defined two-dimensional representation of the head.

Clarifying the Block-in

Massing-in the Shadows and Toning the Paper

In this lesson, I will begin working with tone and demonstrate how to establish shadow shapes and half-tones using pastels, a brush, and a paper towel.

Merging the Lights through the “Fog”

In this lesson, we will use different types of erasers to establish the light planes of the face by erasing into the toned paper.

Mapping Out the Midtones and Light Area 1

In this lesson, I’ll refine the portrait by breaking down larger forms into smaller, more specific planes. Using my 2H and 2B pencils, I’ll design shapes within the midtones and lights, exaggerating plane changes for clarity. This approach helps me build structure before blending while also refining the expression and edge

Mapping Out the Midtones and Light Area 2

In this lesson, I refine the portrait by defining the nose and cheek with simple shapes. I use 2H and 2B pencils, switching as needed, and rely on my eraser for highlights. I focus on balancing light and shadow, ensuring the portrait feels integrated. Next, I’ll refine and merge these shapes.

Sculpting from Flat to Form 1

I'll begin by focusing on a specific area, like the eye and forehead, to set the standard for the rest of the portrait. Using my pencils, I'll refine shapes and create smooth gradients while preserving details. Gradually, I'll blend shapes into one another, balancing realism and artistic interpretation.

Sculpting from Flat to Form 2

I’ll use my 8B pencil to soften the shadow’s edge, making the form feel like it’s turning. By hatching along the form, I enhance depth. I'll also darken areas for contrast and adjust highlights, ensuring the eye remains the focal point. Finally, I’ll use a palette knife for darker tones in the background and hair, balancing light and shadow.

Tips for Your Finished Artwork

In this lesson, I will share some tips on how to best take care of your finished artwork.

Applying to Other Media

This lesson will show you how I apply my drawing knowledge to oil paintings.

Module 3

Discover how to bridge tradition and experimentation as Dan Thompson shares his unique vision of portrait drawing from life. Using graphite, you’ll explore the human form through structure, planes, and morphology—crafting expressive portraits that blend precision with perception, and honoring the timeless legacy of figure drawing in a bold, contemporary way.

24 lessons (5h 34m)

Materials and Tools

In this lesson, I will provide the necessary preparations to start drawing by establishing a series of pencil and paper grades to follow. I will describe why they have been selected for this course and show you how to use and care for them well.

What Is a Planar Portrait?

In this lesson, I will elaborate on what a planar portrait is by looking back into our history and evaluating how this system developed, evolving to promote the use of structural forms – boxes, trapezoids, and blocks – to interpret the human figure.

Drawing a Simple Block: A Lesson in Structure

It's time to put the information you've learned so far into action, by employing the concepts of block drawing in some practical applications. In this lesson, I will show you how to draw a block from direct observation. This will prepare you for setting up the form of the head in space. To do this, you will need a sheet of paper and some fairly hard graphite pencils (F or HB).

Drawing the Head Block

Next, I will explain the common proportions to apply to the head block in order to gain a better sense of its presence in a drawing.

Drawing the Trapezoid: A Lesson in Taper

In this lesson, I will discuss the phenomenon of taper and its impact on form, especially "blocky" forms. This is very important to understand when drawing portraits. In the human head, the face tapers and the back flares outwards.

Optical Information 1

In this lesson, I will show you how to organize the optical information into an effective drawing strategy. To start this process, I will explain how I prepare the scene for drawing. An important aspect of your environment is light. This component will be key in defining the planes of the head. So, it's crucial to consider this well. Will it be intense or soft? Will it produce dramatic shadows? Or will it be more diffused? It's time to discover what works for you! Once you're set up, the next step is to sketch. To guide you, I will model how to begin the observational drawing by establishing the reference points, sketching markers around the line of action, and distilling the general outline of your model.

18m

Optical Information 2

This lesson will be an initiation into dividing light and dark as I introduce the terminator lines. Here, you will learn how to navigate this aspect in order to establish the foundations of your design: the configuration. I will also explain some of my refining systems, including the fixed invariable coordinates, triangulation, and more.

20m

Optical Information 3

The next stage is about building shapes. The key to this process is drawing out the dark and the light. This phase will require a tool called the blending stone. If you're not familiar with this tool, let me show you how it's used.

It's now time to conclude the first phase of the drawing process: it's the end of the beginning! Here, I will evaluate my process so far. You will learn to evaluate the world from an artistic perspective by seeing in shapes.

Optical Information 4

Tonal Information 1

Now that we've established the fundamentals—the scene, the gesture, the proportion, and the shapes—in this lesson, I will model how to expand the tonal range of the piece in a very prescribed manner, so that you can more easily comprehend the drawing procedure that I'm demonstrating. I will show you how to control the range to create texture and tonality. During this process, you will learn to interact with the page.

Next, I will introduce the perspective technique of foreshortening. You will see how I create depth—as if the 2D drawing is receding into space— by dropping the values. For this stage, I will focus on the two masses below and above the face. The next phase will be to get started with the light, which I call the "complexion value".

Tonal Information 2

Now, it's time to tackle the most challenging value: the darkest light. This is the value that is on the cusp of being a shadow, yet is still considered light.

Tonal Information 3

Well done! We've reached the closing stages of this drawing exercise. Next, I will demonstrate how to make the final refinements to your value arrangements.

Tonal Information 4

In this lesson, I will add a second, structural drawing. I call this the "schematic drawing". The purpose of this drawing is to help you evaluate the observational sketch. To begin, I will indicate various lines to imitate the action of the model.

The Schematic Drawing 1

20m

The Schematic Drawing 2

Referring to Vanderpoel's planar construct, here, I will continue to distinguish the planes of my portrait by drawing out the main plane of Kathryn's face. Once the architectonic—or schematic—sketch is complete, I will demonstrate how to apply its useful observations to the portrait.

20m

The Schematic Drawing 3

Now, I will carry on refining the portrait according to the schematic drawing, honing in on the details that will give it a sense of projection.

Interpretive Values 1

Next, you will learn how to interpret tonal values using the schematic drawing, ready to address form and space. My attention will be centered on illustrating the use of value to search for and describe specific surfaces of the head in space.

10m

Interpretive Values 2

To conclude this unit, I will model how to pinpoint the important landmarks within the tonal distribution by continuing to draw comparisons between the observational and the schematic drawing.

Experimenting within the Head 1

In this lesson, I will continue to explore surface characteristics. Like before, I will refer to my schematic drawing to navigate the long-pose, observational drawing. However, this time, instead of getting experimental with the value, I will delve deeper into the schematic. By enhancing my understanding of this, I will be able to push the boundaries of my value even further!

Experimenting within the Head 2

Here, I will carry on drawing elements from my observational portrait to inform the schematic sketch, gradually transforming it from a more prescribed depiction to idiosyncratic and personal. I will first focus on the nasal bone structure, progressing to the apex, then the lips.

Experimenting within the Head 3

Now let's move to another area of the head: the eyes and the sockets.

Experimenting within the Head 4

In this phase of the drawing process, I will devote some time to refining the accents.

Experimenting within the Head 5

Next, I will emphasize the sense of flare in my portrait by refining the features that protrude on the body, like the ears, and incorporating highlights.

Experimenting within the Head 6

To conclude, I will now develop the final element of my portrait: the hair.

In this lesson, I will go over the materials for the course, the brands I use and why, and the strengths and weaknesses of each medium.

Module 4

Let Daniel Segrove show you how to blend realism and abstraction in striking harmony. Starting with facial proportions and detailed features, you’ll then break the mold—adding emotion and energy through bold mixed media like acrylics, oil pastels, and colored pencils. This is portrait drawing with a twist: expressive, colorful, and uniquely yours.

14 lessons (2h 48m)

Tools and Materials

Techniques and Exercises with Oil Pastel and Graphite 1

I will show some techniques and exercises to get more familiarized with the materials.

Techniques and Exercises with Oil Pastel and Graphite 2

I will show the proper way to hold the pencil for rendering, the so-called “artist's hold”. Then, I will also demonstrate how with varying pressure and applications you can create a thick or transparent texture with the oil pastel.

Finding Your Own Unique Style

Here, I will discuss how you can find your own unique style through various influences you love and how to combine their works to create yours.

Choosing a Proper Reference Picture

In this lesson, I’m going to tell you how to properly choose a reference photo for your portrait.

Methods of Basic Facial Proportions

Now you will do an exercise that is crucial to understanding how to properly position and draw your facial features.

First, you will learn the proportions of the face and how the placement of the facial features relate to each other.

Portrait Structure 1

18m

Portrait Structure 2

I'll share with you how I draw until I feel the structure is accurate to my liking.

Now I’m going to teach you the methods of rendering the face where you will apply values such as shadows, highlights, and blending.

Blocking Major Values

Blending and Detailing Techniques

You will learn rendering techniques like how to shade and blend using graphite to create a smooth and realistic form.

Abstraction of the Face 1

Now we are at my favorite part of the process, which is the abstracting of the face. This is where you make the artwork feel more unique to your own style and taste.

Abstraction of the Face 2

This is where you will execute the practice you did now on the real drawing. Building up the textures, adding colors, until satisfied with the result.

Final Changes, Additions and Tips

For this lesson, you are going to look at the work you have done so far and consider if there are any additions needed.

Moving Your Physical Art to the Digital World

Once you are satisfied take a photo of your work and make sure that it resembles the way it looks in person as closely as possible. This may mean editing the photo to make it look more like the artwork.

Module 5

Celebrate strength, beauty, and emotion through portraiture as Amy Pearson shares her signature approach to illustrating women with power and grace. Merging pencil, watercolor, and digital tools, you’ll move from sketch to polished artwork—discovering how analog textures and Photoshop magic come together to create portraits that truly captivate.

14 lessons (2h 32m)

Materials

This unit will serve as an introduction to all of the tools I will be demonstrating in this course.

Finding Inspiration & Research

Here we will go over how to find inspiration and reference imagery online.

Photoshop Editing

Once we have our references collected, I will show you in this lesson how to use Photoshop to prepare our portrait's reference photo.

Basic Watercolour Techniques / Understanding Watercolour

I want in this lesson to show you how to use watercolour for mark-making.

Rough Sketching in Photoshop

The first step will be to prepare a collage in photoshop to design the layout of the illustration. Let's see how.

At this stage, we will focus on achieving an accurate outline using a lightbox or grid. To do it so, I will show you how to trace the outline of the face for the pencil drawing using a lightbox.

Tracing the Outline

Detailed Pencil Drawing

Here, we will create a detailed and realistic pencil drawing.

First, we will cover the decorative elements surrounding our portrait design. The way to go is to sketch out decorative elements using tracing paper. Let's see how.

Decorative Elements

Now that we have our decorative elements sketched out, let's build up detail in the artwork by using some basic Photoshop tools.

Working in Photoshop 1

This is the last part of the lesson on how to work our drawing with Photoshop.

Working in Photoshop 2

Editing and Adding in Other Items 1

We finish off the first part of the post-production stage by combining all of the hand-rendered elements using digital techniques.

Editing and Adding in Other Items 2

With this screencast we finish off both the lesson and the unit.

Recommendations for Fine Art Printing

In this lesson, I would like to share with you my recommendations and tips for printing your artwork.

Final Touches

We are going to talk about some ideas you might want to bear in mind when hand-finishing your prints applying metal leaf.

In this lesson, I will talk about the materials we will need for the course. You will gather materials, experiment with these.

Module 6

Let your handwriting become part of the artwork as Sarah King shows you how to weave typography into portrait illustration. From thoughtful research to final edits in Photoshop, you’ll explore how words and faces can coexist—adding depth, story, and rhythm to your compositions in ways that feel personal, expressive, and truly original.

10 lessons (1h 31m)

Materials

Drawing Techniques and Exercises

Let's make some drawing exercises in order to warm-up a little. It is a very simple exercise, but it will help you understand the whole process we will do in this course.

Researching and Finding Text and Images

In this lesson, I want to guide you on how to research for text and images for our typographic illustration. There are a few things I want you to have in mind while researching.

Creating the Template

What do I mean by template? And how to create it?

Numbering and Preparing the Template

This might seem an obvious step but it is a very important one. This is a fundamental part of my technique actually. Let's see why do we need to number the template.