Learn How to Draw Step by Step
- tone & value in portrait drawing

The urge to leap directly into painting is universal. The problem, however, is that jumping into painting before you learn to draw, i.e. before you learn how to relate and carve out form, is that things will quickly get bogged down. If one cannot handle form in drawing then the myriad challenges of working with pigment, color, temperature, relative values, etc. will completely overwhelm you.

In this lesson I will show you a working method that bridges the gap between drawing and painting – a tonal approach to portrait drawing.

Using an ivory colored sheet of Fabriano Ingres drawing paper, sanguine conté, a couple of paper stumps (or tortillons) and a clean kneaded eraser I will approach this drawing as if I were painting.

Sanguine conté is my favorite drawing medium. It has an expressive quality that appeals to my sensibilities. But it is challenging and somewhat unforgiving – errors are not readily dismissed. For intermediate and advanced artists I would suggest giving sanguine conté a try. For the beginning portrait artist charcoal is a much more forgiving medium.