Portrait Course Term 1, Lesson 7: Seeing Dark

Hi everybody,

For those of you who have been members on the Draw Patreon for a while you'll know that we had to pause the release of videos for my Portrait Course for a little while. The resumption of the course has been delayed by a range of factors but I'm really delighted to finally be able to share this next instalment of the course! Thank you to all of you who have been patiently awaiting this latest video and I hope you find it helpful.

Best wishes,

Jake

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This video is Lesson 7 of the 'Learning to see' term - in this lesson we look at tonal value, exploring an additive process to tonal drawing where we will fill in the tonal shapes of our drawings from Lesson 6. This is a longer video than normal and the process & exercise in todays lesson are more sustained drawings than we have practiced in previous videos -make sure you set aside plenty of time to work through the drawings in order to get the most out of them.

You will need:

• Your final block-in drawing from Lesson 6

• White paper

• A hard grade, medium grade & soft grade of graphite pencil, plus an eraser & sharpener

• Optional: Textured scrap paper

• Optional: A full set of graphite pencils

Your assignments are:

• Draw a tonal sphere (1-3 hours )

• Fill in the tonal shapes of your block-in (8 hours+)

• Optional: Make a copy of one of Charles Bargue's educational lithographs

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Sharing your work

If you post any work from the course on social media please do tag me (@jakespicerart) and Draw (@draw_brighton) so that I can see what you've made! You can also share your drawings to the Draw Brighton Community Notice Board on Facebook.--

Practice

• You'll find the reference images of Xinchu's cast, a white ball and several all of Charles Bargue's lithographic prints attached to this post.

• To keep up regular practice, you can draw from our portrait photosets for long drawings, come along to our Thursday Portrait Club for life 10 minute portraits, or attend our Monday portrait drawing session for live 45 minute poses.

• The plaster cast of Xinchu was cast from life by Scarlett Rebecca. You can learn how to make your own life cast yourself HERE and cast it HERE

• You can buy traditional plaster casts in the UK from Nicholas H. Wood

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Links

• Visit the course overview on Patreon HERE

• Visit the course page of the Draw Navigator HERE

• I'm a volunteer at Draw and make this videos becaise I love sharing them with you all! For my main work I write books about drawing, which you can find HERE

<< Visit the previous lesson Term 1, Lesson 6: Boundaries HERE

>> The next lesson will be Term 1, Lesson 8: Seeing Light, released July 2025

Photo of plaster cast of Xinchu to practice from

Photo of white sphere to practice from 

The photo references and printable pencil-grade refernce sheet used in the video are all attached for you to download.

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Guidelines for using the photographs

Please do:

• Use the pictures to draw, paint, print and sculpt from, being as realistic or creative as you like

• Share the artwork you’ve made with us and the world - in books, in exhibitions, on social media, or on your fridge

• Tag us in work you make (@drawbrighton / #drawbrighton) – you don’t have to, but we love to see what you’ve made!

• Edit the screenshots as reference for your own drawings - you can change the contrasts, colours and backgrounds to provide more tailored reference for yourself.

Please don't:

• Share these pictures with anybody else – they are between you and us

• Share the pictures themselves online – thanks for respecting our models’ privacy

• Edit the pictures themselves for artwork – we want to see original work you’ve made

Thanks!

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Having trouble viewing the video? You can watch it directly HERE