Course Description

What does it mean to make a sketch that feels finished? What should we prioritize, essentialize, and ignore? This workshop is designed to help artists hone their observational skills for sensitive portrait drawings, speed up their process, and better understand a hierarchy of visual information that lets us push and pull a drawing into our own representational language.

In this 5-day workshop, artists will complete 5 portrait drawings, with one new pose each day. Each portrait will begin with an abstract armature, then gradually refine proportions and likeness through strong shape design. As we move into the modeling and finishing phases, we will explore conceptual form through different materials and toned paper. We will build our understanding iteratively, adding new and more advanced concepts day by day. Each day includes a brief lecture on concepts such as structure and anatomy, form and light, shape design, perspective, materials, and visual arrangement. Tyler will demo alongside students daily.

By the end of the 5 days, students can expect to better understand these concepts and develop a more intuitive approach to the portrait process. With five shorter poses instead of one long portrait, students will have the chance to build on their experience, practice what is working, and correct what isn’t.

This class is open to beginners and advanced artists alike.