Efficient Portrait Painting from a Live Model

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In this video Jeff will demonstrate a full gesture portrait painting in 40 minutes. Gesture painting is a staple of Watts Atelier, forcing students to work past straight technical painting and into the realm of intuition. Gesture painting is a great way to develop an intuitive sense of color, brushmanship and edge manipulation. In the Watts Atelier Online program, Portrait Painting Phase IV focuses specifically on gesture painting.

This video demo originally comes from Jeff's DVD series that was made before the Watts Atelier Online Program. As you hear him discuss things in the video such as doing a video series on Gouache or Anatomy, just know that much of that was done in the following years for the Watts Atelier Online Program!

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About Jeff Watts:
Jeff Watts studied at The California Art Institute. He was soon invited to teach, and in 1991 began his illustration career in the movie industry. However, Jeff’s desire to become an easel painter eventually drew him back to San Diego, where he started a small life-drawing and painting studio. That studio evolved into Watts Atelier of the Arts.

Helpful drawing terms:

Lay-in: The first stage of a drawing or painting and primarily concerned with location, angles and placement. It is usually done very lightly and noncommittally, allowing for subsequent layers of information to be added. The lay-in covers the framework and basic proportions.

Reilly Method: Frank Reilly was a famed art instructor from New York’s Art Students League. He developed a method derived from a rhythmical grid system known as the Abstraction to navigate the complexities of the head and figure. It uses a rhythmical grid system that was designed off of key anatomical landmarks and muscle rhythms. Think of it as a GPS system for navigating the human form.

Comparative Measurement: Estimating your measurements by making very accurate visual assessments or guesses of the scale or size of what you are seeing by comparing your decisions to other decisions. This technique relies heavily on judging angles, vertical lines or plumb lines, and negative and positive shapes to navigate the figure or head.

Plumb Line: A straight vertical line. In drawing, you'll hold your arm up to your reference or model and drop a plumb line off of any particular place you'd like. With this vertical line, you can see where other parts intersect with the line. This is a measuring tool that helps us make sure the drawing stays as close as possible to the reference. For example, you might use a plumb line against the side of the head to see where the neck, shoulders, hips or feet line up in relation to it.

Cross-hatching: Utilizing a linear (line-driven) approach to describing form by creating patterns of density that represent either shadows or halftones. It can commonly be seen in graphite and inking work where line is being used to represent tone.

Anatomical Nuances: The subtle aspects of human anatomy. These are the often-overlooked aspects to drawing that, when utilized, offer a greater subtlety to your drawings or, when left out, cause the drawing to have a less-than-stellar result.


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