Class Description
Portraits with Lewis Rossignol
Drawing portraits is the most satisfying type of drawing that I do. However, learning to do portraits can be both challenging and maybe even frustrating if you come at it from the wrong angle or with the wrong mindset. This class will help you to actually enjoy drawing portraits. We’ll work on learning on how to draw what you see in a reference photograph, without ruining the fun by worrying about “the rules.”
We are going to explore how we can use lines, shapes, and shading to build up a portrait that actually looks like the person we’re drawing. I’ll also show you how few marks you can make while still enabling your viewer to identify the subject of your drawing. Most importantly, we’ll stay loose and have fun. By the end of the course you’ll have some finished work, sketches, and a better understanding of how to create recognizable portraits.
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Class Itinerary
Lesson 1. Intro and Purposeful Doodling
We’ll begin by seeing how different artists tackle portraits for inspiration. Then we’ll do a fun exercise that will challenge our brains and creativity more than our drawing skills.
Lesson 2. Choosing Reference and Practice Makes Perfect
We’ll start this lesson by talking about what makes a good reference photograph for portraits. Then we’ll do an exercise that shows us the value of repetition and flexibility in drawing portraits.
Lesson 3. Frankensteining a Portrait Together
Here we’re going to experiment with a method of creating a portrait that I call the Frankenstein method. It involves piecing the portrait together through trial, error and collage.
Lesson 4. Slowly Building a Portrait
This lesson will show another method of starting a portrait, through methodically and slowly building from light to dark.
Lesson 5. Lightbox
We’ll take our work from the last two lessons and use a Lightbox to transfer them to some mixed media paper without losing all the looseness that we captured initially.
Lesson 6. Finishing Our Portraits
Finally we’re going to learn how to build on top of the line work with shading and mixed mediums to really capture the likeness of your subject.
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Now available as a self-study class. You will have indefinite access to the class videos and materials.
For a full list of the supplies you will need, see the tab titled “Supplies” located just under the video screen above.