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Drawing Lessons
Learn to draw portraits like a Master!
Beginning to draw a portrait by starting with an eye is a universal tendency amongst beginning and untrained artists. The problem with starting with an eye, however, is that your portrait drawing will be 'hit & miss'. Most often: a miss. Harsh words, perhaps. But you already know that.
The second problem with beginning with an eye is that you have only a general idea of how large or small the portrait drawing will end up being. You might get away with it when you are only drawing one portrait, but what if you're drawing a double portrait? How do you relate the difference in head sizes? Consider a portrait of a mother and child - you would probably not want a seven year old's head to be larger than the mother's.
As an artist and teacher who has taught portrait drawing for many years I have seen thousands of beginning, and intermediate, artists struggle with achieving a likeness and a sense of life and spirit. Realist drawing seemed like an unattainable goal. They simply had never been introduced to, nor taught, the proper methods of portrait drawing.
The foremost, and universal problem in learning how to draw faces and portraits has been the general lack of high quality information and training. Except for too few art schools and ateliers specializing in Classical art training it is difficult to find a comprehensive, integrated resource that presents all of the elements of portrait drawing with a succinct approach to training that works consistently.
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Michael Britton, Study for Verna, Graphite on Paper, 2004
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My own experience, like that of many other artists, was one of continual frustration. Almost thirty years ago, as a beginner I read and studied every book and, later, video on portrait drawing that I could lay my hands on.
I attended pretty much every portrait drawing class that ran and literally haunted the studios of the Art Students League in New York, and other schools, such as the New York Academy of Art (from which I completed the Masters program in 1986 on a full scholarship). What I sought was a sound, effective method to drawing portraits - the same sound method that was taught to artists such as Degas. And what I sought simply could not be found, at least, not in one comprehensive source. Such a resource no longer existed. A few gems of information were gleaned from here and there, but it was taking me a lot of time and a lot of money!
Then, like today, there were plenty of 'quick fixes' available. But sooner, or later, they all proved limited resulting in mundane drawings.
If you have ever taken music or dance lessons, then you know the importance placed on proper technique and form. Portrait drawing is no different.
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Acquiring the skills of portrait drawing is really not that difficult. It can be learned. Yes, it does take work and practice. The simple truth to growing as an artist is to first acquire your foundational skills which is drawing.
How long does it take to learn how to draw? Well, it does depend upon your level of commitment. If you practice consistently, at least 3 times a week for several hours, it will take about six months to acquire a basic competency.
What I mean by a basic competency is that you will be able to draw a recognizable portrait with a reasonable likeness. The good news is that this basic competency will place you in the top 20% of artists who can actually draw!
And once you've acquired a solid foundation you will continue to grow and improve as an artist. Your portrait drawing will mature and deepen.
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Where to Begin ...
Your first, and most important step, is to learn how to strike an arabesque. This is more commonly known as the contour which is the entire outside shape of the head. Terminology implies intent; for me, 'arabesque' implies rhythmic movement whereas 'contour' is more static. Everything counts in drawing!
Once you acquire the skill of accurately and consistently striking an arabesque, or contour, your portrait drawing will literally rocket upwards. Everything flows from that one skill.
The curious thing, however, is that it is very difficult to train artists how to accurately strike an arabesque in a classroom. The reason for this is that everyone is at a different viewpoint relative to the model, hence everyone is dealing with significantly different shapes and proportions.
One solution that some Academies use is the late 19th Century method of learning to draw from the Bargue lithographs which, unfortunately for many, is not particularly effective for self-directed and at-home study.
The Bargue drawing method, developed by Charles Bargue and published by the art dealers Goupil and Cie (Theo and, for a while, Vincent Van Gogh's employers) entails carefully plotting out the contour of a shape and the shadow pattern onto a cheap sheet of paper (this is generally referred to as a 'cartoon') which, once you have plotted out the drawing as accurately as you can, is then transferred onto a sheet of hot pressed Stonehenge paper. From there you assiduously color in the large dark mass and gradually render the more nuanced tonal variations.
The Bargue method was developed in the 1860's in response to official opprobrium to the dismally poor drawing skills of the Ecole des Beaux Arts' students. The more things change ...
The Bargue drawing method works best when studied inclass under the eagle eye of an accomplished instructor but when studied at home the results are decidedly mixed.
As a classically trained realist artist and teacher I have developed a better approach more suited for self-directed study.
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Michael Britton, Verna, 2008, Sanguine Conte on Paper
Verna was a model that posed regularly for me for almost ten years. If an artist is fortunate a model, like Verna, will come around once, maybe twice, in a lifetime. She possessed a near feral quality that, I felt, surpassed standard definitions of beauty. Our's was a professional relationship of artist and model.
The impetus of my teaching is to train you from beginner to a very advanced level by instilling in you a technically sound practice of drawing.
The arabesque, when you know how to do it, takes less than 10 seconds. And within the arabesque is found both the likeness and spirit of the portrait.
You should always work from general to specific. In portrait drawing that means beginning with the outside shape of the head and working inwards.
Sanguine conte is my favorite drawing medium and I prefer to use it with a painterly approach. Mine is an additive/subtractive process of building tone and this is a procedure that I demonstrate comprehensively in my workshops.
Conte, however, is not for the beginner as it requires a sureness of hand and sensitivity to line and tone. The beginner is well-advised to train first with charcoal and/or graphite.
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As a student you need to know if you are on the right-track and to be able to ascertain that your drawing is accurate from the start. All of my portrait drawing lessons and workshops address this.
My Mastering Portrait Drawing: the frontal pose workshop is a four hour program that is the culmination of over a decade of teaching artists how to effectively draw portraits. This program is a layered approach of step-by-step portrait drawing lessons designed to train you how to 'see' as an artist while simultaneously building your skill-set and dramatically improving your drawing.
In this four-hour portrait drawing workshop you will learn:
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All the Tools and Materials used to create realistic, professional-looking graphite drawings; and best of all they’re simple, easy to find and cheap!
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How to Place and Size the portrait on the drawing surface first so your drawing doesn’t balloon off the size of your paper
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Understanding the Planes of the Head: achieving 3 dimensional effects using light so your drawing looks like it could walk off the paper
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Proper Measuring and Sighting techniques; learn about the importance of establishing your Station Point, squinting, and comparing length and widths
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Establishing Proportions and placing the Features correctly from the start - If you don’t want the nose to end up on the forehead you better know this!
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All the Anatomy you need in my “Constructive Anatomy of the Head” where each and every feature is thoroughly explained and the muscles are highlighted in animated color-coding for easy learning and memory retention
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How to work from the General to the Specific; Don’t get into those details too soon
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Building Tone and Value; the bedrock of realistic 2 dimensional artwork
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Background and Finishing considerations for professional looking works of art.
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How to Render Hair realistically and add movement and life to your work; AND
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How a Professional artist Finds, Analyzes and Corrects drawing problems -- these secrets are where great portraits lay.… and much more
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In my Mastering Portrait Drawing: the frontal pose Workshop you also get:
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my Atlas of Facial Anatomy
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a drawing exercise that will save you years of struggle. I'm not kidding, this drawing exercise was developed centuries ago and used to train generations of artists; AND
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my Fundamentals in Portrait Drawing, Volumes 1, 2,3 & 4. These PDF E-books (each averaging 75 pages) get you STARTED NOW!
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BONUS!! Get these five portrait drawing ebooks FREE! That's a $62.55 straight-up value!
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Mastering Portrait Drawing 1: the frontal pose workshop is four hours of solid training! For only $54 for the instant download! The workshop is still available on DVD for $97. Consider that many portrait drawing DVD's that sell for $30-$35 are only 60 minutes in length, and in that short time frame many important aspects of portrait drawing can only be touched upon at best, and the value of this intensive workshop is immediately apparent.
Workshop Review
I bought this DVD a while ago from M. Britton's website (same price!) and all I can say as a beginner is that it is worth every penny.
I learned a lot from handling drawing tools, to drawing techniques and anatomy.
As a European (educated in Italy) I found Mr Britton extremely professional and detailed when instructing, in other words, even though he makes the subject easy for you to follow, he doesn't talk down to you by dumming it down.
While you realize how much work is ahead of you to get to that kind of level, the process and the result of the portrait executed by his skilled and talented hands are absolutely inspiring, and doesn't allow you to quit or be discouraged.
From my point of view this DVD belongs to libraries! The quality of the DVD is very good!
Bravo monsieur!
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Get Mastering Portrait Drawing: the frontal pose instant download Workshop (that's 4 hours) for ONLY $54! If you've never tried an instant download before click here to see how easy it is!
AND get over $60 worth of five BONUS PDF books!! That's the Atlas of Facial Anatomy and Fundamentals of Portrait Drawing Volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4 FOR FREE!!!
Get the Instant Download Workshop
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