Welcome to our Portraits – Acrylic Painting Course

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Figure and portrait drawing are traditionally recognised as a focus for artists because of the sheer range of elements covered from proportioning to emotive connection. This is why many artists practise life drawing all their lives! there is always something new to learn!  If you’ve ever wanted to paint a portrait, but don’t know where to begin, this complete Portraits Acrylic Painting step by step video course will give you the techniques you need!

Nine videos guide you through a series of exercises, from drawing to finishing touches.  Learn face alignments, facial elements mixing skin tones, underpainting, tonal values, shading and more.  This course includes over 6 hours of video instruction, images, and access to the course resources page – everything you need to learn portraits acrylic painting!

The online courses are designed to be used independently. Individual step by step projects containing over 6 hours of video instruction, supporting reference videos and images. Work at your own pace and replay as many times as you like.

Please use the following passwords to access your video content, please note they are case sensitive:

  • Project 1 Face Alignments: Profile (Video length: 38 mins)
  • Project 2 Face Foreshortening: Faces (Video length: 29 mins)
  • Project 3 Planes of the head: Values (Video length: 33 mins)
  • Project 4 Skin tone colour mixing : Skintone (Video length: 32 mins)
  • Project 5 Elements of the face: Features (Video length: 59 mins)
  • Project 6 Head Studies – Sketching: Sketch3 (Video length: 39 mins)
  • Head Studies – Painting: Head3 (Video length: 85 mins)
  • Project 7 Final Portrait – Part 1: Prepare (Video length: 43 mins)
  • Final portrait – Part 2: Paint (Video length: 104 mins)
  • Reference Videos Basics of Acrylic: Apainting (Video length: 52 mins)
  • Acrylic Colour Mixing: Create (Video length: 45 mins)

Don’t forget to watch the video on full screen! Enter your password then click on the square icon(bottom right) to enter and exit full screen mode.  You may need to turn the sound on – roll over the top right of the screen and the sound button will appear.

We hope you enjoy your painting course!  If you have any queries please contact us via email.

We’d love to see your creations, feel free to send your paintings in to us to feature on our social media!

Many thanks and happy painting!

Jessie, Discovery Art Class.

Face Alignments – Drawing.

Learn how to align and proportion a face and profile.

Foreshortening – Drawing

Learn to use the alignments and move facial features.

Planes of the Head

Learn about tone and shading.

Portraits – Colour Mixing Practise

Practise the facial elements and how to mix skin colour and tone.

Portraits – Elements of the Face

Shaping eyes, nose and mouth

Portraits – Head Studies – Drawing

Practising all the skills learnt so far, painting and drawing small head studies

Portraits – Head Studies – Painting

Practising all the skills learnt so far, painting and drawing small head studies

First week of final portrait

Choose a photograph or subject, scale up and align using a grid, set a ground, paint in background.

Final week of portrait

All the painting stages, with extra tips and ideas to help you finish you painting.

Basics of acrylic painting

Knowing where to start can be confusing! This reference video has lots of useful information, explaining and demonstrating acrylic paint from the very beginning. Suitable for beginners or anyone wanting to brush up on their acrylic techniques.

Acrylics colour mixing

An introduction to colour mixing using acrylic paint. Guidance on choosing colours and how to use then effectively. Suitable for beginners or anyone wanting to brush up on their techniques.

MATERIALS LIST

  • Pencil – HB ( for sketching)
  • Rubber and ruler – any ordinary pencil rubber and ruler
  • Acrylic paper
  • Acrylic paint
  • Acrylic brushes
  • Board
  • Masking tape

Downloadable Materials list, with useful info and facts on your chosen medium, suggestions of what to buy, and links to suggested suppliers.  Please note that the links will take you to another company’s website, which is outside of DAC data control.

Please click below to download.

Portraits Materials List

REFERENCE PHOTOS

We are very lucky to have these beautiful high quality portrait images used in the projects – courtesy of Imi Holthouse Photography. Please note these images are copyright and are for use as a study aid for this painting course only, and are to be used for no other reason. Please refer to the owners terms and conditions. Instagram @imiholthouse_photography www.imiholthousephotography.co.uk.

To download images:

Mac users: Hold ‘Control’ Key down, Click on Photo. Select ‘Save Image as’…, then ‘Desktop’ – Save.

PC users : Right click image, select ‘save image as’, choose location.