Portrait Foundations

Learn how to draw portraits in this six-class structured course designed and taught by artist Anna Korteweg. Understand and break down each facial feature using monochrome watercolour techniques to help create volume, form, and depth. By the end of the course, you'll have the skills and confidence needed to create your own original portraits.

This course is suitable for absolute beginners.

COURSE CURRICULUM

Session 1: The Face - Understanding and Sketching Shape and Proportion

Learn about the head and face structure while doing drawing exercises. Anna will cover the basics of depth, shape, proportion, anatomy, perspective, foreshortening and the role of observing your subject. At the end of this class, you will have drawn the head from different views and comprehended how to place hair.

Session 2: The Face - Understanding and Sketching Depth and Value

Learn how to use watercolour washes to create and build up depth and value in your portrait painting while suggesting a realistic face structure. Anna will also show you how to establish a simple value scheme for portrait painting seen from different angles.

Session 3: The Eyes

Learn how to draw the proportions of the eye seen from different angles and how we can use watercolour washes to create and build up depth and value.

Session 4: The Nose and Mouth

Learn how to draw the proportions of the nose and the mouth from different angles and how we can use watercolour washes to build up depth and value to create a realistic depiction.

Session 5: The Ears and Hair

Learn how to establish the right shape and proportions of the ears and hair, and how we can use watercolour washes to build up depth and value to create a realistic ear, as well as suggest the hair around the ears and the face.

Session 6: Final Project - Painting a Full Portrait in Monochrome

From defining the drawing to the intricate details, in this class, you will paint a complete portrait in monochrome watercolour to bring together everything you have learned so far.

REFERENCE PHOTOS & COURSE MATERIALS

• Download here

ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES

• Portrait Watercolour Sketchbook

• Artist-grade watercolour brushes

• Watercolour Paint in one colour (monochrome); transparent

• Blow dryer