Artwork - Portrait Art - drawings, paintings, portrait art lessons & tutorials

[Photoshop Portrait Tutorial] [More portrait Art] [Advice for the Portrait Artist]

"V" oil painting.
From the old science fiction series.

My friend Bill,
Painted with alkyds, on canvas.

Portrait Art - Digital and traditional

I've done my fair share of struggling with portraits. I started to become interested in drawing faces when I was a young teenager. I had no formal classes, or anything to help guide me - mostly dumb luck, and the library. (When I was a young teenager, my parents finally had pity on me and got me some excellent lessons with Southern California artist Shirlee Prescott Morgan.) Later on, I went to Otis Art College in Los Angeles, which was a wonderful experience.

Because of my struggles, I feel some gratification in writing a tutorial about drawing better portraits. I have a full-fledged Portrait Art Tutorial site now, but I also am happy to provide some portrait tips on Bearclover.net. I will be adding new portrait-related content from time to time.

I have a nice new Wacom Graphire II USB digital tablet. It's quite wonderful. I can draw on my computer! It's really an amazing thing, especially when you use a premier graphics program like Photoshop or Corel Painter. I do not think that every artist will want to use digital tablets and make artwork on their computers, however. But it is great if you have a computer geek sensibility.

(Thumbnail images - L-R: "Lady in Teal", painted with Photoshop. "Digital Cowboy" - also using Photoshop. "Ruby", an acrylics painting on canvas. "Male Face", painted in Adobe Illustrator, finished in Photoshop). See a Flash version of "Male Face". (You can zoom into the picture, and see all the weird shapes that I used in Illustrator to create the portrait.)

All these images are drawn freehand. I never trace, and I don't need any mechanical or digital assistance to help me draw accurately. I just like to draw! "Bill" was painted from life, "V" was painted while looking at a photo for reference. All other portraits on this page were just made up, from my imagination. I find that a lot of practice will really hone my drawing skill, and speed!

I have just created a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a portrait using Photoshop and a Wacom digital tablet. Check it out!
Some tips and basic advice for the "newbie" portrait artist.
And I have more examples of portraits (digital, watercolor, and pencil) on my second portrait page.
Also! Check out my Photoshop Fun Section!
New! If you like landscapes, check out my Yosemite watercolors, painted on location in the Park.

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My new portrait art site, portrait-artist.org. Portrait art and drawing tutorials, tutorials on color, figure drawing, digital portrait art, and more!

Dick Blick Art Materials (an excellent art & pottery supply store - this place has everything!)

Much thanks to W. Thompson, for the design of my email graphic!

This page last updated: April 24, 2005

[Photoshop Portrait Tutorial] [More portrait Art] [Advice for the Portrait Artist]

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Portrait Art - Digital and traditional

All original content, images and graphics © J.R. Dunster 2001 - 2006