Unlock Your Creative Potential: Learn to Draw Portraits in Graphite with Lifelike Heads

Babbage: Excellent price used, quite concise and helpful, but it's well worth checking out the Loomis method (e.g. Youtube) as well.

United Kingdom on Nov 08, 2023

Debby Ward: My son wanted this book to help him learn to draw peoples faces. Instructions were easy for him to follow and he sent me one of my mother and it was awesome!

United States on Oct 09, 2023

B. A. Walsh: The book is very enlightening. I found every page to be useful. I highly recommend this book. If you want to be a good portrait artist this book is essential.

United Kingdom on Aug 27, 2023

Alan Dickson: It is worth the money I spent

United Kingdom on Jan 09, 2023

Stefan Sigfried: I guess there are at least two major approaches to drawing. One that drawing is to learn to see accurately and then put it down on paper. An approach taken in books like drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards.
And the other approach that learning to draw is to learn thousands upon thousands of details. Learning where muscles are, the bones, tricks and technics. If that latter is your idea of drawing this is a book for you.
If you think a more relaxed approach is what you want I say avoid this book because it will just confuse you, not give you any confidence, no happiness and definitely not teach you to draw on the right side of the brain. So, if you are the type of guy that thrives on details (and there are such people) I say buy this book, it is filled with details, it is overflowing on its small pages with details. If such a flow of details is difficult for you, you will just feel frustrated when you cannot remember - or understand - them all. So then avoid this book. Unless you want to browse through it to find perhaps some gem.

Butyou will not have fun like when following a book such as Mark Kistlers book "You can draw in 30 days". Which is a...

Sweden on Oct 24, 2022

Pink Frog: This book is excellent. It's very detailed workshop in a book and worth at least twice the cover price. It's also a very handy size measuring 16cm by 24cm, so one could easily carry this with them as a useful reference.

The book contains an Introduction from the author Lance Richlin, who immediately lays down his teaching style, and is both inspiring and motivating. "Here's some good news. There's no such thing as talent. Talent is actually developed by combining good technique and practice. In the 25 years I've been teaching, I've never had a student who didn't learn to draw after following directions and practicing. Of course, regular beatings are also essential." Lance goes on to say as a beginner you are 60 heads away from being a good draftsman and about 100 away from becoming an expert.

This book is a must have for any aspiring artist who wants to learn to draw and paint portraits.

The book continues with the same approach with chapters on Materials & Basic Techniques, Shadows and Highlights, How To Light The Model, Anatomy of Faces, Planes of the Head - "I once knew a boy who didn't use Steps A and B, and he was carried away by a troll.", General...

United Kingdom on Feb 12, 2017

MRS WENDY P HEYWOOD: I was looking for a book that would give me guidance on how to sketch the human head/face that would pass as fairly realistic. I draw animals and had been asked to draw someone's relative........I'm a fairly competent artist when it comes to drawing animals but a cloud of fear fell upon me with this request. No matter what I did the face I drew several times over wasn't convincing so decided I needed 'help'. So I searched the Internet as thoroughly as possible when you can't actually pick the book up and check it out for yourself (I live abroad and therefore English bookshops are not exactly on every street corner). I checked out ALL reviews and where possible I checked out the books you could look inside at the pages. This option that Amazon offer I find invaluable. After doing a thorough search this book 'shone out' above all the rest on this particular subject. When received this book is not only informative but has a charming way of communicating its message. It has a warm, and friendly narrative and the examples given are clear and have elevated my work. I HIGHLY recommend this book, maybe not for beginners.......but certainly to those who have a reasonable grasp with their...

United States on Feb 05, 2014

J. FELLA: I wanted to review this book because I hope I have something to contribute, opinion-wise. As some of the reviewers have said, this book is quite short (it IS a Walter Foster book after all). It doesn't go into anything in a lot of detail or depth. However, there is very little talking in this book, and it has a ton of examples and tends to explain with it's pictures. It does have a few cool aspects to it, particularly where it shows you some finished drawings (by skilled amateurs I assume) that are quite good, but have some problems with them (tone, contrast, etc). So it shows you what the problem is and then how to go about fixing it. Pretty cool, actually.

So, yes this book is short and sweet, but honestly if you just want a good, down and dirty reference to refresh your memory about certain aspects of drawing, and maybe just want some examples of different kinds of shading, facial features, etc. this book might hit the spot. Keep in mind, I'm giving this book 4 stars for what it is, not what it isn't. It DOES pack a lot of info into 64 pages, and for that, I think it deserves 4 stars.

United States on Sep 01, 2012

Audioampbuilder: Since it has been years since I worked with portraiture, I knew
I needed some good books to provide the essential exercises
required in order to wind up with something approaching
photographic - with believable and pleasing results. So I bought several and compared them. Actually they will all be useful. This one, however,
is very well done. He even presents some works from some of his students who, we can gingerly say, are not quite there yet; and describes what it is exactly that doesn't work-or can make your subject/model look just a "bit off" of looking, well, not quite human... with Richlin describing exactly why it doesn't work.
There aren't so many lines, or "contours" re. the human head and face.
It is more about a gradual blend of light and shade-with a keen understanding of the relative sizes, and positions of key elements and facial features as they overlie bone and cartilage structure underneath. It is important to cause a portrait to look alive, moist, breathing,natural, etc. before we move on to, say, our "signature" portrait style, which may be done more "shorthand like", e.g Modigliani,( the flat/graphic look ) or painterly, e.g. Sargeant, or Van...

United States on Nov 24, 2010

M. E. Convry: I have been looking for a book, and classes online,that cover the areas of portraiture that I don't know. I have been learning on my own and need guidance from a professional portrait artist. I came across Lance Richlins work on DRAW SPACE, a website dedicated to helping artists learn what they need to become the best artist they can become.
I was impressed by Mr. Richlins work and decided to send for the book that goes along with his classes.
I am very impressed! He guides you through every area from shadows and light to features and expressions. But he also covers how much time to spend on a drawing with a live model. The differences between the features depending on the race of a person, including drawing different hair types and the skin tones.
It's not a large Walter Foster book but it has punch!
I will be taking the classes from beginning to end, because I know that with Mr. Richlins guidance and encouragement, I can only improve as an artist.
I highly recommend this book for anyone dreaming of a life in portrait drawing!!

United States on Jun 18, 2010