Charcoal Portrait Demo by Nathan Fowkes

About Nathan Fowkes

nathan fowkes artistI do concept art, color and lighting design for animation and entertainment projects, notable clients include DreamWorks, Blue Sky, Disney and Digital Domain.

It’s a great job but since everything is painted digitally I spend my own time painting with traditional mediums, these paintings and sketches are the emphasis my blog. I’ll post my digital work where possible as well as classroom demonstrations for the benefit of my art students.


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Old Master Painting Technique – Color Banding

About Karin

karin 222x300Karin Wells is an artist of amazing versatility. She graduated with honors from both the New England School of Art and Design, Boston, 1965, and the Butera School of Art, Boston, 1986. Karin has enjoyed a career as an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator and sign painter. She also taught Life Drawing and Painting for many years. She has most recently studied for three years at The New England School of Classical Painting in Greenfield, New Hampshire, under the direction of Numael Pulido.

To expand her craft, Karin has traveled throughout Europe studying the Old Masters. Her art reflects the deep influence of these great works. Karin demonstrates a remarkable facility for likeness and for the use of light.

The artist is a member of The American Society of Portrait Artists, Portrait Society of America, The Portrait Society of Atlanta, and The Copley Society of Boston.

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Drawing a Portrait with Charcoal Step by Step

About Nathan Fowkes

nathan fowkes artistI do concept art, color and lighting design for animation and entertainment projects, notable clients include DreamWorks, Blue Sky, Disney and Digital Domain.

It’s a great job but since everything is painted digitally I spend my own time painting with traditional mediums, these paintings and sketches are the emphasis my blog. I’ll post my digital work where possible as well as classroom demonstrations for the benefit of my art students.


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Painting with Genesis Heat Set Paints – African Child

About Leslie

leslieblackandwhite full 212x300Leslie Tribolet lives on Kauai with her husband and her animals. She studied at Santa Barbara Art Institute back in the 70’s, but with pencil as her medium of choice. During her battle with both cervical and breast cancer, she decided to try to learn how to paint for something to do. She dabbled in watercolors and loved them, but seemed that everyone on Kauai was painting with watercolors, and that she found to be boring…..

She was introduced to the Genesis Heat Set Paints in 2007, and loved it because of the ease of finishing her work quickly, without having to wait for the paint to dry and it was “different”. These paints are dried with heat, (heat gun or an oven) which speeds up the process and it is great, especially with living in the humid air of Hawaii. She has always been drawn to ethnic faces, so she decided to try her hand at painting them with these paints, and it worked. She hopes that you enjoy looking at them as much as she enjoys painting them.

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Oil Portrait Demo Using the Dry Brush Technique

About Sandrine Pelissier

I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am currently located in North Vancouver and work from a studio on Pemberton Avenue.

Watercolor is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. The transparency of this medium can make it look like the painting is lit from behind and the light is shining through the paper In my portraits, I like to tell stories about the people around me. I am very interested in childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot). I also like to induce a dialogue with the viewer in some paintings dealing more with introspection and mood (Mixed, In the studio).

Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to show emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.

My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting or some graphic elements…

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Pastel Portrait Painting Demonstration Step by Step

About the Artist

Jean Hildebrant paints in oil and pastel mediums. Specializing in portraits and figurative works. Jean also teaches classes and workshops on how to paint the portrait and figure in oil and pastel. For portrait commissions, contact the artist. As Jean continued seeking out ways to improve her talents, she attended workshops held by local artists and enrolled as an art major in the local college.

As a result of her efforts, she won two scholarships to Scottsdale Artists School, based strictly on the merit of her work. She has studied with nationally known artists Albert Handell, Richard McKinley, Phil Beck, Bob Lemler, Ben Konis and Clayton J. Beck 111. Artists that have influenced her work include John Singer Sargent, Joaquin Sorolla and Anders Zorn. Jean’s favorite subject is the human soul.

She desires to capture the essence and inner beauty of the human spirit through the use of light and color. She wants her paintings to speak to the emotions and spirit of each person who views them. She paints realism with the purpose of leaving an indelible impression. Jean has exhibited and won numerous awards in local and national shows. Read more

Pencil Portrait Tutorial by George Max

About the Artist

George Max is a Geologist, Fine Artist and Professional Translator from central Guatemala in Middle America. He was born in 1968 in a small town called of Cobán, 200 km north of Guatemala City. He traveled to the USA (Colorado State) in 1989 to study English under a one year scholarship program. He started getting acquainted with art since his first year in College in 1988. As an autodidact, he started his labor of art in 1992 making oil paintings on canvas. Nevertheless, it was until late 2004 when he began to produce formal artwork (oil paintings mainly) for exhibition and sale to date.

Artwork Website: http://www.georgemax.co.nr/

Translation Website: http://www.deensp.com/

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Step by Step Portrait Drawing Lesson in Graphite

About David Te

david teHi, my name is David Te. I began thinking about art seriously when I was 18 after seeing my sister Faith, who is also an artist, draw a portrait of a person. It immediately inspired me to draw portraits as well.

I have had no formal art schooling at all so I learned entirely by reading art tutorials and forums and also by myself.

I work mainly in graphite and charcoal pencils but since we bought some tubes of oil paints, I have been learning to paint in oils too. I also wish to work in pastels and colored pencils in the future.

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How to Draw Rihanna Step by Step – Portrait Drawing Tutorial

The following is a step by step 12 part realistic portrait drawing tutorial created by Artist Andrew Fisher.  This is a video lesson that I found on YouTube.  It is a lesson on how to draw Rihanna step by step using pencil.

Step 1 – Anatomy and Math

Andrew needs to enlarge the photo while keeping the proportions accurate.  He does this by first measuring the photo and then multiplying each dimension by 1.75.  He calculates the dimensions and draws out the shape of the head, finds the center of the face by drawing a horizontal and vertical line and sketches in the nose…


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Watercolor Portrait Demonstration

About Sandrine Pelissier

I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am currently located in North Vancouver and work from a studio on Pemberton Avenue.

Watercolor is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. The transparency of this medium can make it look like the painting is lit from behind and the light is shining through the paper In my portraits, I like to tell stories about the people around me. I am very interested in childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot). I also like to induce a dialogue with the viewer in some paintings dealing more with introspection and mood (Mixed, In the studio).

Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to show emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.

My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting or some graphic elements…

Read more

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