Sketching Portraits (Tuesday Evening)

Week 1: An introduction to sketching portraits. We'll start with the skills and attitudes that underpin observational portrait sketching, starting with energetic exercises to establish drawing as a regular habit.

Week 2: Turns & tilts of the head. Next we'll look at the challenges associated with drawing the head from different angles, exploring turns of the head and tilts back and forward.

Week 3: The neck & shoulders. Often overlooked in favour of the face, we'll focus on the contribution that the head and shoulders make to the expression and structure of a portrait.

Week 4: Structural features: nose & ears. Next, we'll zoom in on the features, looking at how the nose and ears contribute to our understanding of structure in the head and how we can use their shape and position to improve the proportions of our drawings.

Week 5: Expressive features: mouth & eyes. We'll take a look at expressive features of the face, the seat of likeness and identity in a portrait.

Week 6: Hair & clothing. We'll conclude the course with an exploration of the shape and texture of hair and clothing followed by a wrapping up of all of the elements we have covered.