Final Week of Portrait Art Classes

The last lesson was business as usual. I continued drawing portraits using my mechanical pencil.

My personal take home of art classes:

Be more adventurous: where I really stuck close to my comfort zone, others tried lots of different things: watercolour, acrylic, pastel paper, full body poses, including backgrounds- I just stuck to head portraits, sometimes adding in a bit of cheeky shoulder!

Benefits:  I had a focus each week (top tip- practice between sessions as well, even if it’s just one or two very short sketches between); it builds skills and personal drills (not guess work or hoping for the best); it introduces you to different ways of doing things (a hive mind rather than working in silo); meet like-minded people who you probably would not have met before (an encouraging group of people).

New found preferences: I really like the effect of brown packaging paper with sanguine and white pastel pencils- it gives a great end look. I also really like Mitsubishi Uni Nano Dia mechanic pencil lead in blue or purple 0.7, it adds to my whimsy look

Top Tip: Draw big, A3 minimum and that’s just for a head shot, you will need the space for detail!

So was it worth it? 100% Yes!

10/10 would do again!