Add life to your portraits and authenticity to your figures! In these pages, top artists share proven techniques for painting portraits, distant figures, bustling crowds and more. It’s some of the best step-by-step instruction ever published by North Light Books--from how to use light, composition and color effectively to full-length painting demonstrations. No matter what your medium or painting experience, these keys will help you unlock new levels of expression in your faces and figures.

Imagine, if you will, a beautifully rendered watercolor painting of Times Square. With a crowd of shoppers and tourists populating the painting, it is suddenly able to convey the mood of the bustling city. Moreover, the people provide information about the time of year, time of day and weather conditions. People can also give viewers cues as to scale. This information may not otherwise be available to those looking at the painting.

INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER ONE

Basics for Drawing and Painting the Face 

  · Simple Planes

  · The Head and Features

  · Adult Head Proportions

  · Study of a Man

  · Children’s Head Proportions

  · Drawing a Baby’s Head

  · Drawing a 3-Year-Old Child

  · Drawing a 8-Year-Old Child

  · Drawing a Teenager

  · Painting the Features

  · Tilting the Head

  · The Eyes

  · Brows and Lashes

  · Putting It All Together

  · Eyes in Full Color

  · Looking In a Different Direction

  · Proper Alignment

  · The Nose

  · The Mouth

  · The Lips

  · The Ears

  · The Hair

  · Painting Hair and Beards

  · A Bearded Man

  · Value Scale Exercises

  · Making a Value Scale

  · Mixing Colors

CHAPTER TWO

Basics for Drawing and Painting Figures in Action 

  · Drawing With Your Brush

  · Putting Figures Into Your Paintings

  · From Gesture Sketch to Finished Figure

  · Painting an Island Market

  · From Sketch to Finished Painting

  · Painting a Crowd

  · Visual Awareness

  · Thinking It Through

CHAPTER THREE

Demonstrations in Watercolor, 0ils, Pastel and Colored Pencil 

  · Seated Figure

  · A Direct Gaze

  · People in Sunlight

  · Farmhand, Circa 1860

  · Figure Study

  · Korean Girl

  · Color Shapes

  · Layered Color

  · Burnishing Technique

  · Vertical Stroke Technique

  · Middle-Aged Woman

  · Adult Man

  · African-American Young Man

  · Asian Girl

INDEX