Portraiture

Portraiture describes the set of skills you will need if you want to draw and paint portraits successfully.

Portraits have been painted for many centuries in many styles. Formal works were, until the advent of photography, the only way to capture a likeness for future generations. That said, the quality varied wildly, dependent on the skills of the artist.

Portraits were unashamedly inserted into great religious works of the renaissance. Look at any fresco in Italy and more often than not you will be looking at the faces of prominent Italian patrons who were the actual commissioners of the art.

Paintings and drawings of people can be abstract, impressionistic or hyper realistic. All major art movements have put their own spin on this wide subject. Pencil portraits are as valid as painting, as well as all other mediums including digital portraits.

Below you will find free lessons that will give you skills and insights in this area. Feel free to use them in any order. If you want to brush up on the basics you'll find free drawing lessons on Eye Drawing, Drawing Children and Drawing Faces-the male, here

Enjoy and have fun.

Portrait in Oils

Use Alla Prima to create exciting portraits.

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