How to start your portrait drawing.

I can help you draw & paint better ⬇

Description: Andrew Loomis gave us a great tool to help block in a drawing. There are others like Bridgman, Vanderpool, and even my own, but Loomis is by far the most well-known. In this demo you will learn how to draw one from start to finish.

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#artlessons #drawingtips #howtodraw

00:00 - Start
00:39 - Starting the demo
05:33 - Thirds of the face
09:13 - Review
10:27 - Block In Bootcamp

About me:
My work focuses on the human figure. I've given drawing and painting workshops and demos throughout the United States and Europe. I have been making realistic drawing and painting tutorials for two years now that I release through my Patreon page.

[krzemirhelinski]

Stephen is... GREAT! I'm an architect. Seeking proper tutorial for my teen daughter, I watched thousand of tutorials on drawing. Stephen's are absolutely the best!!! 🥰🥰🥰

[thinhnguyenart]

When I was in middle school, I came across Loomis' Heads & Hands book. I remember copying all the exercises and being obsessed with figuring out the exact proportions. I've realized along the way, they were only helpful rules and parameters to ground something on, but when creating from references, they will deviate naturally. Found his techniques to be very informative! Thanks for going over this!

[juleswinnfield]

Been drawing Loomis heads for about 6 months now and this has got to be THE BEST explanation of its steps I've seen so far.

[SiNNeR]

I have been drawing since i was 10 yrs old. I spent a lot of years incarcerated in a cell since i was 18. And with nothing to do for a total of about 13 years. I got really into improving my art skills, and inside are some unbelievably skilled artists. I got taught by some of the most skilled artists I have ever met. Which pushed me to another level with my art. I'm 40 now, and I am still learning new things. This gave me another way of approaching portraits. Thanks for informative and clear explanations of each step you demonstrated.

[brown_recluse_human]

The Loomis technique, combined with some college level drawing classes, were game changers for me.

[jimc]

I have the Loomis book and you describe the process better than the book. I have been struggling with following the book due to not really understanding what Loomis is teaching in the book. He doesn’t give a lot of the “why’s” in the technique like you just explained. Thanks for posting this!

[vikky.pavlova]

The best explanation of this method on Youtube

[BuddAyye]

This video is so valuable! I just got back into sketching after lying dormant for about 15 years and the use of three dimensional shapes is absolutely brilliant. I’m going to practice drawing just spheres for a little!

[SockMonkeyofcourse]

A well-designed module! Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them. As an instructional designer, I can profess that this is the fundamental composition of a well-designed module of instruction. Nice work Stephen!

[howardmceachern]

I have found this tutorial to be one of the best in the Loomis method. Thanks for your patience and instruction.

[yasamanhoorfar]

best loomis video out there! Showing the skull was very effective to visualize and understand why the portions and the guiding skeleton is designed this way in the loomis method. Thank you so much! I recently graduated from art school and being there for 6 years absolutely killed my drawing skills because of too much technology. I want to get into a fashion school and it feels great to go back to the basics and boy am I rusty.

[nean]

Excellent excellent demo. My work changed dramatically using this method as a student. Before that my portrait work felt "flat". Ironically, I could get a facimile of a likeness but not structurally cohesive. I was lucky enough to have a professor who used a modified version of the Loomis. He used to say even if your drawing isn't an exact likeness at least you have a believable head. Getting to the likeness is the next big step. Love all of your demos by the way. Nice that you include them without a fee too. gives inspiration to pursue the more intense classses. Good luck!

[RealShinpin]

I’m a firm believer in mastering shape and form before learning this type of stuff. I learned these things before form, and lost years of progress because of it.

[janicealderson]

Thanks for this, I have been drawing for decades never got encouragement from parents (I think I surprised them too much) Am attending a lovely class in France, the teacher is very dinamic, my work is really good now - but needed to improve my knowledge. Went to Art school but unfortunately ended up as a nurse! I once asked the teacher how to do perspective - he said; 'if you don't know by now you never will' - so much for art school!

[justmedidi]

wow. yknow i tried learning the loomis method years ago, but i could not for anything get into it. the instruction wasn't clear enough for me and, honestly, i found the material super boring and i lost motivation to continue it. after watching this video, i have such a better understanding of the loomis head. true i have gained some knowledge over time so the material is easier for me to grasp than back then when my skill wasn't where it is now (not an expert of course but there's been growth), but this video had me riveted from start to finish. just wanted to commend you for your teaching, stephen. i'll give this method another go with fresh eyes :)

[awayoflife]

I like how you had a recap at the end! Thanks for the lesson 👍🏼

[garygimmestad]

I’ve watched several Loomis head videos. In terms of a logical progression of shapes and lines, yours is the best route to success. Now that I’m less frustrated with my inability to relate proportions and intersections, I can now actually enjoy exploring head directions. Yes, it’s generic, but it’s really helping me to see the basic forms of the human head. Thank you!

[timw]

ive never had any proportional training when it comes to portraits. Its always been me using the position of one feature to the position of the other feature. I always found it difficult to get my proportions correct. this makes alot more sense and could really help my portrait art get alot better. This seems to be fairly simple and helpful now i finally know how other artists get their proportions correct.

[cna]

After watching many tutorials and trying to recreate from books, I am very surprised how good this explanation was. The seemless blending in of skull an markers without leaving the drawing was very helpful. And the description was easy to follow yet dense. Some other videos take 20 to 30 minutes to deliver a similar thing.

[eliseintheattic]

At 4:14 when you added the jaw, you mentioned that you would explain how to determine the length of the jaw later in the video. I couldn't find that part. This is one of the pieces I'm missing in this technique and it seems important as my attempts are looking really wonky. I did enjoy your explanation as it was far more detailed than others I've watched. I want to learn the method rules and follow them strictly for practice purposes.