[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
this is the first portrait I have a true
it’s the portrait of a character from an
online virtual fashion game called
Madame DuPont um that was very popular
in my middle school located in a small
suburb east of Paris and if you don’t
speak French my bean Bellefonte gum
does in fact translate to my bimbo calm
and yes every girl in my safe weight
class owned a virtual bimbo I don’t know
if I should be happy that this drawing
is actually a very accurate one or if I
should be worried that all of the 11
year olds in my hometown might all still
want to be bimbos when they grow up
anyway because I didn’t know anything
about the notion of artistic abstraction
I really wanted to draw this character
as accurately as possible and I must
have been very happy with this piece
because I continue to draw throughout my
childhood fervently chasing realism I
quickly discovered that had I had
entered and expensively studied and
cultivated realm of artistic expression
which is portraiture and for those of us
in this hall tree convinced not to have
any sort of artistic talent portraiture
is a worldwide historical tradition
ready to welcome any of us right here
right now the fascinating art of
portraiture faces the challenge of
rendering the exterior while also
capturing personality hyper realism has
established itself as a distinct genre
wherein precise accuracy is paired with
a desire to capture the context and
emotion surrounding a subject the truth
about realistic portraiture is that can
it can either be
a fascinating difficult and sensitive
art that requires extensive knowledge
and an elevated sense of perception or
it can be a simple art a skill not a
talent that anyone can master of all the
different ways in which you could draw
the human face hyperrealism might
actually be the most straightforward and
that’s assuming that you’re not into
stick figures anymore all you have to do
is copy some photograph as best you can
we do however fumble and flounder in our
attempt at drawing a realistic portrait
because we don’t know yet how to imitate
reality the art of portraiture is a game
of bamboozling and how best to trick the
eyes and the brain to perceive reality
and it turns out that if equipped with
the right tools you don’t even have to
try that hard to achieve that realism as
the tools will partially do it for you
in fact four secrets to realistic
drawing are having the right tools an
accurate outline a broad-minded
examination of light whatever that means
and finally simplicity before actually
getting into the act of drawing the face
it’s important to gather the right set
of tools because again those tools can
carry the artist a long long way along
the path to achieving realism so every
portrait starts with a surface and a
medium that can be charcoal graphite
pastels you name it here though we’ll
focus on the graphite pencil portrait
graphite powder is an excellent way to
establish even tones even layers of
medium with little to no effort you can
apply it with a paintbrush or a cotton
swab and turns out that that same cotton
swab is an excellent blender along with
the blending stump
to avoid a monotone feel you can use a
set of pencils of different grades h HB
2b 6b also you can use a kneaded eraser
which you can shape and reshape to see
as you see fit the thin eraser is
brilliant at establishing at creating
the illusion of hair lines and of skin
pores so there you have it
the tools you need to draw a realistic
portrait graphite powder and paint brush
a cotton swab blending stumps a set of
pencils of different grades
Anita eraser and Nessen eraser with the
essential tools instituted let’s jump
into the actual steps of drawing a
realistic portrait and my second secret
was an accurate outline for those of us
with the artistic skills
stretching no further than the mirror
it’s still remarkable completion of an
adult or child coloring book the process
of creating a realistic portrait can be
very simply summarized
or to be more specific in reality the
actual process of drawing and realistic
portrait isn’t far different from these
massively abbreviated diets the first
step is to draw an outline as accurately
as possible and the second step is to
fill in the features so let’s zoom in on
the first step the outline is crucial
because it provides the guideline for
every subsequent step in the drawing
process it acts as both the map and the
GPS and it’s pretty straightforward
you have your reference image and your
goal is to copy the outline of the head
the facial features and the global tones
as best you can
it turns out that our brains tend to
process information in whole rather than
an individual components which is why
when you look at this image you’ll group
the three shapes together filling in
imaginary lines to shape a triangle so
drawing an outline shouldn’t be so hard
right we’re predisposed to seeing lines
even when there are none overlooking the
importance of the outline leads to what
I refer to as death by deformation you
wouldn’t want to draw a portrait for a
loved one only to fall victim to this
hex and put them in the uncomfortable
position of telling you how brilliant
your work is fortunately there are many
ways to avoid this the most common being
through the use of a grid system where
the outline is built one square out of
time
worst case scenario trace if anyone’s
ever told you that that’s cheating it’s
not it’s convenient
after the outline has been has been
drawn as accurately as possible the
features are filled in one by one so the
way that I go about drawing a portrait
is I start with the left side and that’s
because I’m right-handed and will draw
the eye first then go to the the cheeks
and the forehead then the ear and as I
went I make my way down the paper I do
the same on the other side filling in
the nose and the mouth on the way down
and to remind you of the third secret it
was a broad-minded examination of light
so what does that mean well the way that
we see and the way that our brains
interpret what we see is purely based on
light as light hits her eyes from every
angle
it’s trance its transduced into an
electrical signal that travels all the
way to the back of our brains or its
position angle and intensity are
deciphered so in reality replicating
reality should just be an imitation of
how lights patters across the subject of
your photograph rather than just a
drawing of two eyes and nose a mouth and
two ears this tenet must be fully
swallowed and digested in roots in order
to achieve any sort of good result and
avoid the perils of frustration I have
this fascination with the nose in how
light spills over the nasal bone because
it differs so much from person to person
but to give you an example when you draw
the nose and do you forget that it’s
made up of bones and cartilage and
tissues instead focus on identifying the
different global tones these are the
lights the half tones
and the shadows and how they relate to
each other and the overall picture of
your portrait remind yourself as you do
this that simplicity is key you don’t
want to be looking for every tone you
can find because by definition that’s
humanly impossible so we’ve gone over
the four secrets
those were having the right tools an
average outline a broad examination of
light and finally simplicity
[Music]
[Applause]
in the end you might ask yourself what
is the point of drawing portraits and I
could go on and on about the positive
impact it can have on your life that
would take forever and I think that the
following quotes summarize it pretty
well for me every portrait that is
painted with feeling as a portrait of
the artist not the sitter painting is
just another way of keeping a diary you
can learn a whole lot about yourself
through the art of portraiture your
strengths and weaknesses selflessness
our self interest initiative or apathy
you can also learn a whole lot about
your subject I feel as though I haven’t
seen a subject until I actually start
painting it art is a collaboration
across societies across different
cultures it’s a powerful tool for
communication even if for you that just
means showing the law your loved ones
that you love them
and other people around you that you
care should you choose to undertake the
fascinating art of portraiture I should
leave you with one final tip in the
words of Salvador Dali have no fear of
perfection you’ll never reach it thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
this is the first portrait I have a true
it’s the portrait of a character from an
online virtual fashion game called
Madame DuPont um that was very popular
in my middle school located in a small
suburb east of Paris and if you don’t
speak French my bean Bellefonte gum
does in fact translate to my bimbo calm
and yes every girl in my safe weight
class owned a virtual bimbo I don’t know
if I should be happy that this drawing
is actually a very accurate one or if I
should be worried that all of the 11
year olds in my hometown might all still
want to be bimbos when they grow up
anyway because I didn’t know anything
about the notion of artistic abstraction
I really wanted to draw this character
as accurately as possible and I must
have been very happy with this piece
because I continue to draw throughout my
childhood fervently chasing realism I
quickly discovered that had I had
entered and expensively studied and
cultivated realm of artistic expression
which is portraiture and for those of us
in this hall tree convinced not to have
any sort of artistic talent portraiture
is a worldwide historical tradition
ready to welcome any of us right here
right now the fascinating art of
portraiture faces the challenge of
rendering the exterior while also
capturing personality hyper realism has
established itself as a distinct genre
wherein precise accuracy is paired with
a desire to capture the context and
emotion surrounding a subject the truth
about realistic portraiture is that can
it can either be
a fascinating difficult and sensitive
art that requires extensive knowledge
and an elevated sense of perception or
it can be a simple art a skill not a
talent that anyone can master of all the
different ways in which you could draw
the human face hyperrealism might
actually be the most straightforward and
that’s assuming that you’re not into
stick figures anymore all you have to do
is copy some photograph as best you can
we do however fumble and flounder in our
attempt at drawing a realistic portrait
because we don’t know yet how to imitate
reality the art of portraiture is a game
of bamboozling and how best to trick the
eyes and the brain to perceive reality
and it turns out that if equipped with
the right tools you don’t even have to
try that hard to achieve that realism as
the tools will partially do it for you
in fact four secrets to realistic
drawing are having the right tools an
accurate outline a broad-minded
examination of light whatever that means
and finally simplicity before actually
getting into the act of drawing the face
it’s important to gather the right set
of tools because again those tools can
carry the artist a long long way along
the path to achieving realism so every
portrait starts with a surface and a
medium that can be charcoal graphite
pastels you name it here though we’ll
focus on the graphite pencil portrait
graphite powder is an excellent way to
establish even tones even layers of
medium with little to no effort you can
apply it with a paintbrush or a cotton
swab and turns out that that same cotton
swab is an excellent blender along with
the blending stump
to avoid a monotone feel you can use a
set of pencils of different grades h HB
2b 6b also you can use a kneaded eraser
which you can shape and reshape to see
as you see fit the thin eraser is
brilliant at establishing at creating
the illusion of hair lines and of skin
pores so there you have it
the tools you need to draw a realistic
portrait graphite powder and paint brush
a cotton swab blending stumps a set of
pencils of different grades
Anita eraser and Nessen eraser with the
essential tools instituted let’s jump
into the actual steps of drawing a
realistic portrait and my second secret
was an accurate outline for those of us
with the artistic skills
stretching no further than the mirror
it’s still remarkable completion of an
adult or child coloring book the process
of creating a realistic portrait can be
very simply summarized
or to be more specific in reality the
actual process of drawing and realistic
portrait isn’t far different from these
massively abbreviated diets the first
step is to draw an outline as accurately
as possible and the second step is to
fill in the features so let’s zoom in on
the first step the outline is crucial
because it provides the guideline for
every subsequent step in the drawing
process it acts as both the map and the
GPS and it’s pretty straightforward
you have your reference image and your
goal is to copy the outline of the head
the facial features and the global tones
as best you can
it turns out that our brains tend to
process information in whole rather than
an individual components which is why
when you look at this image you’ll group
the three shapes together filling in
imaginary lines to shape a triangle so
drawing an outline shouldn’t be so hard
right we’re predisposed to seeing lines
even when there are none overlooking the
importance of the outline leads to what
I refer to as death by deformation you
wouldn’t want to draw a portrait for a
loved one only to fall victim to this
hex and put them in the uncomfortable
position of telling you how brilliant
your work is fortunately there are many
ways to avoid this the most common being
through the use of a grid system where
the outline is built one square out of
time
worst case scenario trace if anyone’s
ever told you that that’s cheating it’s
not it’s convenient
after the outline has been has been
drawn as accurately as possible the
features are filled in one by one so the
way that I go about drawing a portrait
is I start with the left side and that’s
because I’m right-handed and will draw
the eye first then go to the the cheeks
and the forehead then the ear and as I
went I make my way down the paper I do
the same on the other side filling in
the nose and the mouth on the way down
and to remind you of the third secret it
was a broad-minded examination of light
so what does that mean well the way that
we see and the way that our brains
interpret what we see is purely based on
light as light hits her eyes from every
angle
it’s trance its transduced into an
electrical signal that travels all the
way to the back of our brains or its
position angle and intensity are
deciphered so in reality replicating
reality should just be an imitation of
how lights patters across the subject of
your photograph rather than just a
drawing of two eyes and nose a mouth and
two ears this tenet must be fully
swallowed and digested in roots in order
to achieve any sort of good result and
avoid the perils of frustration I have
this fascination with the nose in how
light spills over the nasal bone because
it differs so much from person to person
but to give you an example when you draw
the nose and do you forget that it’s
made up of bones and cartilage and
tissues instead focus on identifying the
different global tones these are the
lights the half tones
and the shadows and how they relate to
each other and the overall picture of
your portrait remind yourself as you do
this that simplicity is key you don’t
want to be looking for every tone you
can find because by definition that’s
humanly impossible so we’ve gone over
the four secrets
those were having the right tools an
average outline a broad examination of
light and finally simplicity
[Music]
[Applause]
in the end you might ask yourself what
is the point of drawing portraits and I
could go on and on about the positive
impact it can have on your life that
would take forever and I think that the
following quotes summarize it pretty
well for me every portrait that is
painted with feeling as a portrait of
the artist not the sitter painting is
just another way of keeping a diary you
can learn a whole lot about yourself
through the art of portraiture your
strengths and weaknesses selflessness
our self interest initiative or apathy
you can also learn a whole lot about
your subject I feel as though I haven’t
seen a subject until I actually start
painting it art is a collaboration
across societies across different
cultures it’s a powerful tool for
communication even if for you that just
means showing the law your loved ones
that you love them
and other people around you that you
care should you choose to undertake the
fascinating art of portraiture I should
leave you with one final tip in the
words of Salvador Dali have no fear of
perfection you’ll never reach it thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
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