How to IMPROVE THE LIKENESS IN YOUR PORTRAITS - Charcoal Drawing Tutorial

If you ever struggle with portraits, if you sometimes spend hours wondering what is wrong with your drawing, be sure of one thing: you are not alone. Likeness is always a challenge, even for experienced artists. Believe it or not, beginners and experienced artists face the same difficulties, they face the same proportion issues, the same problems of eyes being too close or too far apart, too high or too low, incorrect nose angle etc. The only difference is that skilled artists know how to identify mistakes and fix them easily, almost instantly actually, so it looks as if they never had any difficulty in the first place. Well, this is not the case, a portrait is always a challenge, even for the greatest masters. It is said that Ingres once cried about a supposed failed portrait, yet his drawings are among the finest and most beloved in the history of art. Portraiture is always a challenge! For anyone…

In this video, we'll look at the main problems you may encounter in your portrait drawings and discuss how to identify and solve them.

A quick word about the demonstration you’ll be watching: this is a charcoal and white chalk drawing on 100% cotton watercolor paper that I tinted beforehand with acrylic, a mixture of blue, brown and black, washed with water. As you can see, I chose to use myself as a subject for practice but we'll come back to the specifics of self-portrait later in the video... I work from a photo for the video, because a mirror would not have allowed me to create this chiaroscuro effect and film the drawing at the same time. By the way, if you want to see the full, uncut version version of this drawing with commentary, you can become a member on Patreon and access the real time version of this drawing as well as many other drawing and painting videos.


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The material I use most of the time (not necessarily in this video) :

Drawing
Equipement
✓ Kneaded eraser
✓ Plumb line
✓ Small mirror
✓ An old synthetic brush
✓ Masking tape
✓ Cutter
✓ Sandpaper or sanding block
✓ Mahlstick or Hand rest (DIY)
✓ Level ruler
Graphite
✓ Pencils 2H, HB and 2B
Charcoal
✓ If available: Nitram charcoals (H, HB and B)
✓ Square charcoals
✓ Natural charcoal box
Black and white chalk
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
✓ Square Conté noir : HB and 2B
✓ Chalk or pencil holder
✓ Pencil sketch Conté Pierre noire : H and HB
Sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté : Blood and blood Medici
✓ Crayon Polychromos Faber-Castel : sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
Oil painting
Palette
(Extra-fine paint, recommended brands depending on availability: Lefranc Bourgeois, Winsor and Newton, Royal Talens Rembrandt)
✓ Titanium white PW6
✓ Yellow ochre PY42
✓ Burnt Sienna PR101 or PBr7
✓ Venetian red or English red PR101
✓ Permanent Alizarin crimson (Attention: do not use the traditional pigment, which is not very light-fast) PV19 or PR177 or Quinacridone Rose PV19
✓ Cobalt teal blue PG50
✓ French ultramarine blue PB29
✓ Raw umber PBr7
✓ Burnt umber PBr7
✓ Ivory Black PBk9
Brushes
✓ About ten filbert hog bristle brushes sizes n° 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
✓ Some flat brushes
✓ Round sable brush or round Kolinsky sable n° 4, 8, 10, 12 (from the size of the nail (about one inch) or synthetic imitation
Medium
✓ Linseed stand oil
✓ Odourless mineral spirits
✓ Safflower oil
Surface
✓ Linen canvas, fine grain universal coating
✓ For studies : Canson oil-acrylic oil paper Figueras
Others
✓ Palette
✓ Foam and spalter brushes
✓ Palette knife in the shape of a water drop, no souldering
✓ A few small pots, containers, jars...
✓ Paper towels

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#portrait #charcoal #drawing
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Thanks for watching !