Learning to draw and paint portraits is a layered process of acquiring the skills to convincingly render both a physical and expressive likeness.
This is the mission of the Portrait Academy -- step-by-progressive-step you will acquire the foundational skill-set that sets you on the road to becoming an artist with your own expressive voice.
Each module is thoughtfully curated to build upon the other.
A word to the wise: The language of painting is distinct from that of the photograph. The photograph is a dissembler. It distorts and obfuscates. Worse, copying photographs leads the beginner down the wrong path from which there is no easy return.
You learn to paint by copying the masters. That is where you learn the syntax of painting. It is through copying that your expressive voice deepens and acquires meaning.
Being an artist is a lifelong voyage of enriching discovery. But it is a voyage that demands first taking the time to establish your solid foundation. A leaking boat does not travel far.
How long does it take?
Less than a month. No kidding. The core skill of drawing and painting is striking shape.. Everything. Absolutely everything builds upon that simple premise. You begin with the square. Simple and elegant. Just as the French master Corot did in painting Emma Dobigny in the video above.
Yet almost every beginner fails to see that. We do not see the forest for the trees.
The beginner is bedeviled by being feature centric -- often beginning with an eye and growing out the portrait like a fungus -- and prey to symbolic preconceptions.
We look but we do not see.
The good news is that the human head subscribes to one of only three dynamic rectangles. With small deviations, of course. The square is one of these.
Learn to recognize and strike these three rectangles. And you're well on your way to mastering portrait drawing and painting.
Acquiring your portrait skills is best served in a modular progression.
As you progress through each module your drawing and painting skills will increase rapidly. I've been teaching for over thirty years and have taught thousands of artists. Many have graduated to becoming full-time professional artists and instructors.
In those three decades my teachings have been thoroughly tested and provened over and over again.
If you don't know me, check out my monthly PORTRAIT PAINTER MAGAZINE. It's free and you don't need to subscribe.
Upcoming Zoom Workshop
Portrait painting and the interplay of cool & warm flesh tones
John Singer Sargent famously proclaimed that Antonio Mancini (1853-1930), was the greatest living artist. Mancini's fluttering interplay of cool and warm flesh tones had a profound influence on Sargent.
My upcoming, four session, Portrait Painting Zoom Class begins Tuesday, January 21 @ 18:30 PST and continues to February 11th.
You'll be studying Mancini's engaging portrait of Carminella, 1870.
In addition to the Zoom recording the workshop is filmed in ultra-resolution video and is your's to keep.
Write me at michael-britton-workshops@artacademy.com for the syllabus and supply list and to register.
