Portrait Painting for Beginners – Step-by-Step Course

Join me artist and qualified teacher for this course on portraits, every Friday starting 8th May. All in Dover's light and airy community studio.

Portraits usually make beginners want to run a mile, they are deemed as one of the most difficult subjects to get right. But, I will show you some simple techniques that can help you to get the proportions accurate, so that you can start off any portrait in a good place.

The aim of this course is to give you the foundations to go home and build on those skills, and produce portraits in whichever style you like, whether it be realism or more expressive loose drawings.

I will break down the course for you into the 6 x 2 hour lessons:

Week 1 - I will show you how to draw the different features of a face, eyes, mouth and nose, using pencil. Then I will show you how to construct the proportions of an A4 portrait of a face i've printed out.

Week 2 - We will spend the first hour finishing off the A4 pencil portrait. Then using coloured pencils the next hour will be a loose practice of drawing multiple quick, face studies, practising how colour can be used to add contrast to a face.

Week 3 - Using a photo of yourself (we can take one in the previous lesson) or can be brought in, you will mark out an A4 portrait. We will look at colour theory, mixing your own colours and then you will start to paint this portrait.

Week 4 - Acrylic painting techniques and completing the A4 portrait. Then you will come up with a plan of the photo you want to use for your final piece.

Week 5 - You will start to plan a final piece, you can decide from the materials we have used what it is going to look like. It could be a pencil drawing of a family member, or a painting of your idol. Together we will come up with an interesting idea, that suits you and what you have enjoyed doing.

Week 6 - In this final lesson, you will be producing your final piece. I will still be giving you guidance throughout, if wanted. To finish you will stand back and appreciate all of the outcomes and how beautifully unqiue they all are!

The full 6 week course is £120 (plus eventbrite booking fee), which includes all the art materials, tea, coffee and biscuits.

If you want dip into different classes, and there is still availability, each session seperately will be £25. Please contact me at [email protected] for this.

I really hope to see you there! Every booking really does mean the world to my new small business.

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Host or Publisher Rachel Ann Studio