The Beginner’s Guide to Drawing Portraits

Drawing the human face has a timeless and universal appeal, though it's often perceived as being difficult to achieve. Carole's book removes the mystery from portrait painting, and makes the subject accessible to even absolute beginners. She shows you in easy step-by-step stages how to use line, tone and form to capture a likeness and give it both personality and expression. 

Containing simple exercises along with longer step-by-step projects, this book leads you by the hand through the different elements of the face, allowing you to gradually build your skills before leading on to successfully describing your subject's likeness and character. 

Composition, clothing, props and more personal characteristics like age and hairstyles are all covered. The book also includes information on drawing from life.

Book Contents

Introduction 6
Materials 8
Your first portrait 26
Self portrait 28
Shape and structure 32
Features 38
Proportions 46
Capturing a likeness 68
Dimithra 72
Shading, tone and form 76
Character and expression 90
Moving on 96
Rosie 102
Drawing from life 106
Composition 114
Story 124
Maasai Warrior 132
Cora 136
Experimenting 140
Index 144