Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces: A Mixed-Media Portrait Workshop

I have many art related books on my book shelf. This is one of my favorite. Although I only received this book 4 (?) days ago, I have read it from beginning to end and I recommend it, with no reservations; but beware, this is not a book that you will simply read through once and put it away. You will read it over and over as you practice and perfect your art of drawing the face. Why do i say this?One and a half years ago, I thought that I couldn't draw! After three months in my first class with Jane, I was astounded that I was learning the art faster than I'd ever imagined. Make no mistake, I still consider myself a beginner artist and I have an immense amount to learn. Yet, the pace at which I am learning, I solely attribute to Jane. If you can't take one of Jane's classes, this book is a must.Standing alone, the book is filled with rich colors that delight the eye. Nevertheless, Beautiful Faces is dedicated to ANYONE who wants to draw and paint. As an initial matter, I must say that Jane is passionate about drawing, painting and art supplies. :) Her passion stokes a student's creativity, while making art fun. She has a bubbly personality and is prone to laughter and random displays of humor. She doesn't take herself too seriously, which in turn, puts the novice at ease, and as you will find in the book, is overly generous in sharing her knowledge, and tips.In Beautiful Faces, Jane describes the various art supplies that one uses, for instance, paper, watercolor, pencils, paints, markers, inks, mediums, and more. She explains how and what they are used for. Before beginning the details of drawing, she covers the basic foundation that one needs to understand in order to make the learning process easier. Her drawing and painting instructions are clear, concise and easy to follow along with her. She covers all aspects of drawing the face, including my favorite and most difficult, drawing hair. She provides step-by-step instructions for drawing each feature. In the chapter on painting, she touches on various topics, including the all important topic of "shading." The tone of the book is encouraging from beginning to end, and the book is peppered with examples of Jane's work. All in all the book is clearly designed so that we too, can draw beautiful faces.Finally, I'd like to point out that this is an amazing book that is worth every penny. After studying , if you are sincerely interested in drawing, I heartily recommend that you register for the online e-course Beautiful Faces, or one of the many courses that Jane offers. They are reasonably priced and offer more detailed instructions than she can possibly include in this one book.

I have a confession. I was horrible at drawing faces on my fashion sketches. For decadesI just left them blank. And, by the way, I'm a fashion designer who went to FIT! I could render clothing but fine but felt so lacking because of my faceless sketches. Honestly, illustrative sketches are the smallest part of the job. The reality is technical sketches are what really are used. Sketches just get the overall ideas at the beginning of each season.This void in my skills really bothered me. My brain couldn't make the leap from the fine art, highly detailed, life drawing I knew to the mere suggestion of faces used in fashion sketches. I tried book after book to teach myself.I came across Jane Davenport's fanciful illustrations on YouTube. I also learned that she started out in fashion illustration. After watching more than a few videos I decided to get this book. From the first excercise, I was able to master the skills that eluded me! Her lessons include step by step technical instruction and brilliant advice on how to loosen up and go with the flow. Granted, I have years of sketching behind me, so some hand/eye coordination and skill came back to me but the improvement has been incredible.I can't thank Jane Davenport enough. She isn't just an extremely talent artist, she is a great and thoughtful teacher as well. Seriously, my professor at FIT told me I needed to "Run through the streets of New York naked," to loosen up! What I really needed was to do through Jane's exercises over and over as just as she explains.I can't explain how liberating this has been. I do love art journaling, playing with different materials and just playing. I can't wait to complete my journey through the rest of this beautiful book.

Jane Davenport is an excellent art instructor, probably one of the best in the world. I don't know her personally, but since I began taking her online classes, my ability to draw faces and figures has been so strengthened that I am amazed at how much my art has improved.The way she teaches students how to draw faces is very easily understood and followed. In her video lessons, she's very thorough, and explains things simply without talking down to her students, and her bubbly personality removes any stress from drawing that a student might have. What's that got to do with this book, one could ask? Well, it's that she writes exactly how she talks in her lessons. I can hear her voice as I read this book and she breaks everything down just as beautifully as she does in her videos. Her enthusiasm and supportive personality comes through in this book, which is very rare for a teacher who is charismatic in person, but who can't write all that well.I love the way she presents color and teaches students to think outside the box when shading portraits. And the way she teaches students how to use all of their different media together is wonderful--one might believe she put the mixed in mixed media art! She suggests ways to use media that I never would have thought of, and I'm always messing about with paints and pencils and inks and papers. All of that color play is in this book, giving readers a chance to try all of these different techniques right away.Finally, this book is a treat to look at. The colors are vivid and eye-catching, the faces and figures are fluid and full of life and movement. Jane has vision and in presenting it so clearly in this book, she encourages readers and students to develop their own vision and style.A lovely book all around. Well worth your time if you want to learn how to draw really beautiful faces with every kind of art supply out there!