So if you are passionate about learning how to draw the human body, specifically the face, then you are sure to find the following tutorial extremely helpful.

The following is a 6 part video lesson demonstrating step by step, the process of drawing a realistic portrait.  It was created by the very talented portrait artist Ron Lemen.

Unfortunately, this drawing series has not been completed yet or the artist has not yet uploaded the final part.  I wasn’t planning on posting this incomplete tutorial, but it is such a valuable lesson, that I just couldn’t pass it up.  I hope you don’t mind. I promise to post the final part if and when it becomes available.

Grab your favorite pencils and paper and draw along.  I hope you enjoy this portrait drawing tutorial!

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 1

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 2

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 3

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 4

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 5

Portrait Drawing Tutorial Part 6

By Dorothy Gauvin

Then the genius of Michelangelo and Leonardo rose like a pair of new suns, to shed light on the darkness. Even so accomplished a master as Raphael was grateful for the lessons provided by their works. Like everyone since, Raphael realised he could never attain the perfection of Michelangelo. Like us, he could only look and wonder.

But Leonardo did something that surpassed the relatively small body of paintings he produced; something that must endear him to all artists who follow. With a scientist’s curiosity, he investigated the mechanics of Nature. What’s more, he left an invaluable legacy of detailed reports on what he uncovered. To make his discoveries, Leonardo had to dissect cadavers, teaching himself as he went. We, thankfully, don’t need to go through that. Today, we have the benefit of his hard-won knowledge available in texts of varying degrees of complexity.

TIP: For beginners, the excellent range of Walter Foster books in limp cover provides an easy-to-follow introduction to the subject. For painters, the ‘Bible’ is Victor Perard’s Anatomy & Drawing. Along with this study, it’s vital that you draw constantly from life. As a youngster, I helped out after school in my parents’ corner shop. Sure, it often seemed a drag, but it offered an opportunity beyond value. Perched behind the counter with my sketchbook and pencils, I drew the customers, scrambling to get down a likeness in the time they were there. It was the best grounding I could have had.

You can do the same while waiting for the bus, while taking your lunch break in the park, while commuting on the train. Your family and pets are readily available models; they’ll seldom submit to ‘posing’ but that just teaches you to catch a likeness quickly. If all else fails, there is always the mirror.

Another indispensable method of learning figure drawing is the Life Class. In most instances, no actual instruction is given at such a ‘class.’ What usually happens is that a professional artist – often one who gives private tuition – will invite a small group of other professionals, or serious students, to meet on a regular basis.Their aim is to maintain and hone their skills at drawing the nude figure. Everyone ‘hits the kitty’ in equal shares to pay the fee of an artists’ model. Professional models come in both genders, all shapes, ages and colours. They can hold even difficult poses for up to twenty minutes and deserve a lot more credit than they get.

The conveyor of the class will take responsibility for timing ‘lightning’ poses. For these, a stopwatch will be set for a dauntingly few seconds, while you – the newcomer – will sweat blood trying to keep up with the old hands. If you ever get an invitation to such a group, don’t hesitate to take it; you’ll benefit more than I can tell you.

Whether you’re drawing in a life class, at the bus stop, or in the park, a few good habits will save you a lot of frustration and false starts. The first mark you’ll make on your paper is the Line Of Gravity. This is a straight line, perpendicular to the ground, against which you will balance the figure. The second line will indicate the centre of the figure. You can find this by measuring with your thumbnail on a pencil held out at arm’s length. If you remember always to hold the pencil at full arm’s stretch, you’ll get correct measurements every time.

Your next step is to find the Rhythm Of The Pose. You’ll do this by quickly expressing the figure’s pose with freely drawn lines. It’s a good idea to keep these lines faint, to avoid later confusion. Now, indicate the angles of the shoulders and the pelvis, and you’re off to a strong start.

At home, hit those Anatomical Drawing books! Study the principles of proportion until they become second nature. You’ll learn to think of the human body in terms of ‘heads’ because you’ll know that the average male adult is seven-and-a-half ‘heads’ tall; a head being the length from top of the skull to tip of the chin.

Speaking of the head, a common error beginners make is to imagine they can draw ‘A Face’ without learning anything of anatomy. This just couldn’t be more wrong. You see, there’s no such thing as a face – in isolation – except as part of the head. And this is a three-dimensional object whose underlying structures build the face. To understand them is to be able to draw any person’s head, adding those variations from the norm that give each face its unique characteristics.

Michelangelo was not only sculptor, painter and architect, but also a writer of note. He once gave this advice to painters: ‘Painting most closely approaches perfection when it most closely resembles sculpture.’

In today’s high-tech world, painters have access to equipment that the Old Masters would have coveted. Cameras can save us hours of tedious reference sketching; projectors can reduce the time it takes to place objects in a composition. But painters who rely on such aids, lacking the confidence and skills gained by freehand drawing and a grounding in Anatomical Drawing, soon find themselves in trouble.

They are trapped in the same dangers as that unfortunate generation of school kids who were the victims of experimentation by well-meaning education reformers. Trying to make learning easier and more fun, they introduced ‘whole word recognition’ in place of boring old spelling. As a result, two generations of kids grew up lacking an ability to spell. Some people question if it matters. ‘After all, they can usually work out what the other person meant to say.’

Here’s an example. Recently, I saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a sale at a local department store. Among the items discounted was: ‘Intermit Apparel 50% Off.’ A good deal, if only I knew what ‘Intermit Apparel’ might be. Later, I spotted that sign over – you’ve guessed it – the women’s underwear section. The impression it gave me was: ‘These people don’t really know what they’re doing.’

(c)Dorothy Gauvin

Dorothy Gauvin’s oil paintings have been reproduced as high-quality, affordable, limited edition art prints. Four prints comprise the Waltzing Matilda series. Five prints comprise the Great Australian Horsemen series. See them at http://www.gauvin.com.au

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorothy_Gauvin
http://EzineArticles.com/?Drawing-the-Human-Figure—How-to-Get-Started&id=1059277

About Lacey

Working mainly in oil, Lacey Lewis is an award winning contemporary realist figurative artist who paints in a classical style. Whether or not one is versed in the elusive language of visual design, Lacey’s paintings communicate to the viewer as she purposefully chooses recognizable aspects of reality to recreate on the canvas. It is vital to Lacey that her art at a minimum expresses the beauty that she observes in her subject. Often that expression of beauty is an end in and of itself. Other times, it is used as a lure to entice the viewer to look a little longer so that a deeper meaning or narrative may be revealed to them.

“I take it as an opportunity to learn about a person; their essence, where they’ve been, the image they project. I want to create a record of someone’s whole being, not just their physical likeness, through a beautiful and well composed work of art.”

Lacey offers Classes, Workshops & Private Lessons. Please click here to visit the instruction section of her website for more information.

Lacey’s artwork is available for purchase. You can buy her original paintings and drawings, or you can also purchase fine art Giclée prints of her work. Lacey also accepts commissions for figurative and portrait paintings.

Please click here to visit the purchase or commission section of her website for more information.

Figurative Oil Painting Demonstration By Lacey Lewis

“Amy Pinning Her Hair”

	After priming an 11 x 14 inch hardboard panel with acrylic gesso, I painted a mixture of raw sienna, ultramarine blue, titanium white and some medium across the surface and then wiped it with a rag. Next, I roughed in the figure and the shadows, indicating general plane changes especially on the back. Some pink flesh color was added and the dress was roughed in as well.
	During this session I focused on the near arm and face area, defining the forms more clearly. I added less diluted strokes of the burnt sienna/ultramarine blue/white mixture to the background to contrast with the warmth of the flesh.
	Here the face is developed to a greater likeness of the subject and some areas are restated. Slight changes complete the background. The dress is painted in with thicker paint and the purple is used in the downward facing planes of the shadowed areas both to indicate reflected color and also to add to the unity of the work.
	The forms get their final adjustments and definition. Some transitions are smoothed while others get a harder edge. The likeness is completed and the hairpins are added. As the dress color was added into the shadows on the flesh during the last session, skin tones are now added into dress to create a greater sense of form and unity. Finally, the signature is added.
Amy Pinning Her Hair Oil on Panel, 14″ x 11″ Giclée Print of this Painting Available

“Pastels for Life”

Author: Pauline Adair – Australian Artist

Note: This painting won the Pastel Award at the 2006 Gympie Gold Rush Annual Art Exhibition.

For this Soft Pastel Demonstration I am using a double sheet of Canson Mi Tientes pastel paper, in a warm grey colour. I prefer to work on the smooth side of this, but I know many pastelists who choose the textured side. The smooth side still has a good tooth which suits my application.

The model is Sophie…. a favourite of mine, and I am working from a photo as it will probably take me several days to complete this to my satisfaction.

Here is the reference photo, which I cropped to achieve a more close up and intimate feel in the
painting.

(The photograph below contains tasteful nudity. Click image to reveal)

Sophie’s Gallery

I’m starting with a willow charcoal drawing…. I like the willow because I can just manipulate it with the heel of my hand… wiping it off easily if I want to adjust the drawing. After each couple of strokes I step back to view it as a whole, trying not to get bogged down to much in the detail of any one area.

I’m happy with the start now, I can begin to add some colour.

I’m adding some shading here, using a deep purple….. I really want to just colour the paper at this stage and to mark where the accents will be…. bones beneath the skin, the darkest shadows, etc. This is still at the drawing stage…. not the painting stage.

Just getting a feel for the lights now, finding where the light falls on her body from the one light source. All those planes must be facing the light to create the illusion.

The shadows need warming up…..I’m putting a couple of warm skin tones in over the purple, still working loosely.

I call them ‘hot spots’….where I see the warmest of the skin colours…. in the creases, on the elbows, lips, cheeks. Nothing is set in concrete at this stage…. I’m still feeling my way around…..tentatively!

Sophie has red hair…. so while I have the red in my hand….in that goes too!

I’m strongly leaning toward a dark background.

Yes…. I’ve made the decision to go really dark in the background, as Sophie is obviously sleeping so a night scene seems to make sense….. it is all part of the story.

I have this vision in my mind of a kind of glow behind Sophie….I need to make it richer. As an experiment I’ll try to bring it to life with a bright orange over top of the dark purple. The first few strokes are a bit of a shock so I’ll just leave that there for a while and do some work on the foreground…tucking the background away into the recesses of my mind for now!

Just as I put some of the foreground colour into the skin, I need to also put some of the skin colour into the sheets. This will unify the whole painting.

Back to the background! Will I…. won’t I….I will! I carry the orange through. I must now include some of this colour elsewhere in the painting as well as in the background. I check to see how it will look with the mat around it.

Close up of Sophie’s face at this stage.

These are all the pastels I selected as the work progressed. Included are some Schminkes, Windsor & Newton, Art spectrum, Holbein and some contes. I find the contes great for blending over the very soft pastels, rather than using my fingers or a stump.

I’m finishing off the skin tones using some pink variations, and lightening the highlights. The purple sheets go in, and I add some variation to the background using the same purples and blues from the sheets.

I’ve almost put Sophie ‘to bed’ now, and I’ve a feeling this painting just might work out. (I never really know until the end!) Final details go in, and I use the lightest colours in my chosen palette to bring the skin to life.

Finally, Sophie is done and popped into a frame I already have. I had a few tense moments with this painting, but afterall…. that is why I paint….I love the challenge, the nervous start, the frustration, the exaspiration…. and the thrill at the end of having gained a little more experience and knowledge along the way.

B i o g r a p h y

Born in New Zealand, Pauline moved to Sydney, Australia where she worked as the Advertising Manager of a national retail chain. A relocation to Queensland meant that her long postponed passion for art could be given some attention, nurtured, and brought to life.

“I have many, many people to thank for encouraging me and assisting in my neverending quest to create one masterpiece during my lifetime…. one piece that may be considered special and everlasting! I’m having so much fun trying to achieve that.

“The whole of creation is the greatest masterpiece of all……….I see the beauty of each and every individual……… I paint people because that is how I celebrate humankind and each person’s uniqueness…… and I paint them as a tribute to our creator.

“I paint in oils, pastels, watercolours, acrylics, and I use many drawing mediums…. sometiimes in various combinations to make my marks.

“I endeavour to paint every day….. if I don’t I feel as though I have waisted the entire day. I just don’t want to go to my grave with my paintings still inside me…. and I mustn’t have any paint left over! ”

Pauline Adair’s ‘BodyWorks’ Blog

Click here to flip through, month by month.

My 2010  Calendars for sale at RedBubble.com

So you are interested in becoming an expert at drawing and painting the human figure? You have certainly found the right place! I thought it would be a good idea to find the best resources and information on figure drawing and put it all together for you in one easy location for easy reference. Below are what I feel to be, some of the best resources for helping you learn how to draw the human body.

Figure Drawing Resource 1

Ebook: Figure Drawing Secrets

How to quickly and easily master figure drawing and painting without a model…

Stop drawing and painting figures the hard way! Now you can learn the secrets of drawing people and figures quickly and easily – without a model… This newly released work called “Figure Drawing Secrets” by Victor Perard is the quickest and easiest way to learn figure drawing. This amazing resource contains over 1016 detailed illustrations for you to study and learn from. Covering every single aspect of human anatomy for the artist. It’s a shame for you not to draw people well – when it’s so simple with the right instruction.

Follow this link and download a copy of the ultimate tutorial on Figure Drawing!

Figure Drawing Resource 2

Software: Virtual Pose

The virtual pose system is the next best thing to working with a live model. It is the ultimate reference for artists that do not have access to a live model. The virtual pose system presents the human form in a way that allows for a deeper understanding of shape, form and gesture.

Highly Recommended!

Follow this link for more information about this amazing product!

Figure Drawing Resource 3

Website: Creativespotlite.com

http://www.creativespotlite.com/

A wonderful assortment of free step by step figure drawing and painting demonstrations.

Figure Drawing Resource 4

Website: Figuredrawings.com

http://figuredrawings.com/

This website is loaded with great information and resources on figure drawing including books, ebooks lessons and more. The site is a bit cluttered and difficult to navigate, but the amount of information there makes up for this shortcoming.

Figure Drawing Resource 5

Website: About.com

Figure Drawing – Life Drawing Tips and Lessons

Nice little series of lessons and exercise on figure drawing including line and contour, structure, proportions and more.

Figure Drawing Resource 6

Website Lesson: Figure Drawing Basics

http://www.drawspace.com/lessons/lesson.php?id=h17

Figure Drawing Resource 7

Website: Figure Drawing Lab

http://drawinglab.evansville.edu/

Figure Drawing Resource 8

Website Tutorial: Figure drawing: Basic Pose and Construction

http://www.elfwood.com/farp/figure/williamlibodyconstruction.html

Figure Drawing Resource 9

Website Lesson: Life Drawing

http://art.net/~rebecca/LifeDrawing1.html

Figure Drawing Resource 10

YouTube Videos

Below are several of the best Figure Drawing videos I could find from YouTube.

Video 1: Drawing the Human Figure From Your Mind

Video 2: How to Draw a Female Figure

Start a female figure drawing by outlining the shoulders and moving to the hips. Learn to draw a female figure with tips from a professional illustrator in this free video about learning to draw.

Video 3: How to draw the human figure – Dan Nelson

Video 4: 10-Minute Figure Drawing Techniques

Video 5: How to Draw the Human Figure

Figure Drawing Resources Update

Since publishing this post a few people have contacted me with more resources to add to this list and I have included them below.

Update 1

Website - http://www.posespace.com/

Update 2

Website - http://www.posemaniacs.com/