Teach Yourself Visually Drawing

Gallery: Portrait Drawings.

This beautiful portrait was drawn in charcoal and white chalk on orange/brown paper. The artist achieved a wide range of
tones, from the black of the charcoal to the white of the chalk and many subtle gradations in between. The artist skillfully
allowed the warm mid-tone color of the paper to show through in the lights, mid-tones, and darks to make a more efficiently
executed drawing, as well as to impart an overall warmth to the work.

The white chalk and charcoal was applied with a variety of hatched and parallel lines, which remain “transparent” throughout
the drawing, thus allowing the color of the paper to show through. This quality would have been lost if the medium had been
smoothed out.

Portrait of Sue,by Jack Montmeat,

courtesy of the artist

TIP

Learn from the Work of Other Artists

The history of portraiture is a long and rich one, with

hundreds of dazzling examples throughout the cen-

turies. Art students are so fortunate to have an

instant opportunity to view a museum’s entire collec-

tion online. They can also go to the library to find

wonderful art books or, best of all, visit many great

museums in person.

Seek out as many drawing examples, and glean as

much technical and artistic insight from these works,

as you can. Study, take notes, and make copies of the

art that inspires you the most. Then, apply what you

learn from other artists’ work to your own art. After

all, you can be sure that this is the way that the great

artists of the past developed their skills.