Tips on painting figures and portraits

Christmas has been quite a barren time for new art from me so instead I have been doing a little reading and thinking about old work. Here are a couple of old sketches from life classes I used to attend.

We all have to start somewhere, one of my first portraits

getting better

 Now we are talking

Coloured, done in soft pastel

In fact, one of the reasons I looked these early sketches/drawings out was that I found an article with four tips for drawing people. I though they were very useful and could help tremendously. They were:-

1. Vary the lines you are using, thick and thin, single and multiple
2. Move your hand and the paper, the movement in your wrist is important
3. You are not connecting the dots, do not overdo the outlines
4. Vary the cross hatching, and don't use perfect right angles

Find the tips and read more on Artist Daily and whilst there check out the free e-book on figure painting.