Example charcoal drawing done on mid toned paper. Click Here to see the sculpture.

Artist Lance Dooley will guide you through the skills required to draw the portrait.

See a sampling of portraits that appear throughout this video ..

---

All of the well known masters like Leonardo Davinci, MichelAngelo and the highly skilled draftsmen of the 19th and early 20th centuries learned the principles of drawing a convincing human figure and portrait. In this class, you will learn a technique to draw the human portrait from any angle or viewpoint. Lance will work along side the students and create his own drawing. This course will show you a set of intellectual tools you can use to confidently draw the portrait from any angle or position.

---

Goals

• Fit the entire drawing of the model on your sheet of paper
• Create a correctly proportioned portrait, with facial features in the correct place
• Be able to identify anatomical landmarks on the face and skull
• Vary line weight to increase the line quality
• Draw a likeness of the model, not create a generic person
• Understand how soft and sharp shadow edges can bring realism to your drawing
• Train your eye to recognize the natural shapes throughout the face, neck & shoulders

Materials

3 pieces of charcoal paper at least 18x24" inches
5 Conte Black pencils and/or General's Charcoal black pencils
... or any kind of vine, willow or compressed charcoal
1 Conte Blanc/White pencils (a greasy chalk)
1 General's Charcoal White chalk pencils
1 small blade to sharpen the pencils
1 kneadable eraser