How to Get Better at Drawing Portraits 

I’m a retired illustrator and graphic artist. For well over 30 years, I did art to meet the needs of my clients, and I did very well. After retiring, I have struggled trying to get back to the joy I had as a kid doing art for fun. For me, it’s like starting over learning new skills. Your advice is definitely helpful. Sometimes you need someone to remind you of the basics and to try a different philosophy from time to time.

I used the rule of 3 when I started drawing. Just draw anything 3 times for however long you have the time. Eventually your proportions get better, shading gets better and so on. Then one day you will nail it. I kinda see like learning how not to draw and then being an artist all of a sudden. Practice makes improvement

Sage advice. As the Chinese say, there are many paths to the top of the mountain. As someone who's struggling in the foothills I always value the guidance given by those who are capable of the kind of quality portraits you post here.

5:11 is great advice. As a child I was discouraged from drawing because I was drawing from references that I really liked a lot, but friends and family simply saw it as "copying". I cannot stress this enough, a healthy practice from references are invaluable. Art professionals in the animation, and game industry are prime examples that working with references never stop being one of the many tools in your toolbelt. Furthermore, drawing from a reference, still life, and/or from Life will continuously build an artist's "visual library", thus giving you increasing familiarity and understand with shape, form, structure, proportionality, how light interacts with the subject, and three dimensionality.

Your voice is like music to my ears and your artworks are fallen pieces of heaven itself.

This is my first comment on RU-vid ever... but I saw your first videos two years ago... I copied every one of your pictures in charcoal... you draw people's souls. I learned that from you... when I draw I'm scared, but I learned from you how to capture the soul... I rarely show my pictures but when I do, people are amazed, thanks to you... thank you very much again

As an old school Parsons student, I'm 56 now, I wish you could have been my teacher... what you said in this one video rang so true for me... THANK YOU SIR and a hello from Central Mexico...

I could listen to a audiobook voiced by you. You have such an informative way to your voice

0:21 this part made me chuckle 😂

This is the best art video I ever watched! Inspiring encouraging and empowering! Thank you!

You actually made my drawings better,even tho I have been doing portraits for as long as I can remember I always try to do things in different ways just to learn more Thanks for everything you do

This is the video I needed at this time of me doubting my art journey. Solid advice, not sugarcoating it, straight to the point and informative. Thank u so much for this. The part where u said that some people or artist take offense in u learning and drawing from reference is true. Most if not all veteran or professional artists would tell you to draw from reference and it's often times the amateurs or people who have no idea how drawing works and put it on to "talent" that says otherwise.

this was great! i love that your advice on the best approach is simply to pick the one that works for you

I can sit and listen to you all day.

Really good advice. More important than the sketches shown. Listen, think and then draw. And draw, and draw, and draw, and draw. No substrate for practice.

3:28 is like a trap, I've been told to do this specific thing. What nobody told me is proportions can change, there are a lot of parameters that can be changed in the facial structure. I very much agree on your opinions.

wow, I love that head construction between 3:09 and 4:00, so quick and so effective!

ASMR voice says wise things that help me relax about my weird methods. Thank you!

0:49 “less developed and less refined…” whoa!!! Incredible!

Thanks man, I started drawing again after not picking up a pencil for years even tho I’m 19 years old, listening to this advice not only made get out of my mental block but also made me get some anatomy books to study more about it😂, I appreciate it

This is such a great video. I have always loved drawing ( my late mum was an accomplished artist who did amazing drawings and paintings) ❤ I’m not very good, but have enjoyed sketching my 5 grandchildren over the years. They seem to like the pics and I love spending time with them watching them do creative things. ❤

Jeff, I follow you on your Facebook page and have benefitted from the drawings posted. Charcoal at first intimidated me because of the dustiness plus getting the lifelikeness proportion and value being issues I struggled with, my artwork wasn't pleasing. So I am happy for your knowledge and for sharing with us vital techniques to get better results. Thank you, Mr. Haines

Thank you for your words of wisdom! I'm an incoming architecture student and I know for a fact that I'll be able to apply your advices in my studies as well as my drawings. ❤

I'm very grateful for this man's advice, and hard work.

Thank you for posting this, Jeff! It is very helpful and inspiring!

I'm told that I am far too critical of my work. I don't fish for compliments. I just see what can be better with practice and when I get it right I am the first person to say that I love it.

Great video! I’m getting back into drawing after not doing it consistently for a decade. I’m trying to start with the basics & work on fundamentals. I draw regularly but I’m guilty of trying to to complete things & spending too much time rendering. I need to work on structure a lot more.

I draw portraits for 6 years, I can do pretty good ones already, and still point number 1 is relevant - the most crucial mistakes are from the incorrect construction and inability to see the mistakes in proportions

Thank you, thank you!!! Everything you said is true. Best for me, thinking that there's a specific way/rule to drawing/painting. I searched so hard and and I tried to copy every one else, and in the process I forgot myself. It's my way, my painting, my look at the world! Thank you kindly

Jeff, really thank you man about the advices, your work is sooo nice, your portraits so unique..keep us learning with the right way mate!

No questions. I just like your work. It's great. Thanks

This video is an absolute masterpiece. Beautiful drawings, beautiful advice. Thank you for this.

thank you i feel i found this video at the perfect time for me in my journey so yes i cant thank you enough for making it!

I just found you and subscribed; love the use of the phrase/point "healthy dissatisfaction" (re all one's previous work). I will be working with overwhelmingly organic forms, mainly animals, but bringing in effective figures with true likenesses is a plus, for all that formal human portraiture was never studied - thank you!

Greetings Jeff - wanted to say thanks so much for uploading these videos. Your work is a real inspiration to someone like myself that used to enjoy art as a kid and now returning to it many years later just for the enjoyment, and challenge of it. So cool! Please consider making more tutorials or commentary vids they are so immensely helpful! If you had a course for sale I'd buy it in a heartbeat (I'm sure I'm not the only one). Thanks for sharing your work and your thoughts, looking forward to more.

I'm really glad I watched this particular video. All of your points are valuable, but the quantity over quality exercise is probably something I need to do. Thanks for posting this, and keep posting!

Oh man, it is super helpful when you said choose the method for that is right for me. I am super struggling with calculate methods, but still keep doing it cause it seems like everyone is doing that. Thank you so much. And I love your videos 😊

Quantity over quality hit me right between the eyes. I have been naturally blessed in my capabilities of fine detail and fully rendering but I have always been mystified at how people could sketch such great looking work so quickly and I take forever. It is because I have been struggling through the beginning to get to the end, where it is easier for me. As a result I struggle with proportion and perspective every time I draw! Thank you so much for this video, this is life changing for me.

Wow, Jeff your advice is spot on and pure gold. The quantity over quality, was especially insightful. This was the first time I enjoyed one of your videos, but you caught a devoted follower all the same. Thank you !

Bob Ross said it best. My art is my art and your art is your art. You should never try to paint my paintings. You strive to paint your paintings similar to mine if you’re painting a portrait with me.

I value your opinion, and you've won a subscription. Beautiful drawings, all of them.

Thank you for the lesson 🤝❤

Thank you Jeff for making this video. Much good advice and information.

I don't usually write comments, but really thank you for making this video. I have had the longest art block until now. I was so stuck on making everything perfect that i barley made any progress. I dont know how to explain this, something in this video clicked something. I feel like a printing machine. I just did three portraits in an hour and im super happy with them. Keep up the good work

Great video and very concise. So many good statements under advice. Btw! I could listen to you voice for hours. 😊

This video was totally golden for me!! Thank you for these tips. It’s time for me to go back to practicing portraits again. This was a very inspiring video for me.👏👏👏

I really like your teaching style. Your explanations are excellent.

You're very honest and I appreciate you and your video.

What a great points. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Jeff you are a talented artist and teacher. So glad I came across this video. Your advice to focus on quantity and structure/construction certainly seems to ring true.

This video was really motivating and I agreed with everything you said. I feel like I have learned my methods through watching videos and taking parts of other artists methods and combining ones that worked for me, such as the loomis method and measurements for the face. Now I’m working on preserving gesture as I know that’s my current problem area. Thanks for sharing! 👍🏻💯

This is a great video! The advice is spot on. I'm an anime-stylized artist and everything here applies just the same to my type of work. I feel like I'm being held back by the lack of quantity, and planning to fix that by regularly doing copies/studies. It's a bit weird that copies can be a bit controversial whereas drawing from nature isn't. But I think it's a fair game if we're honest and upfront about the work being a copy/study. What I like the most about this type of practice is that it shortens the time to start drawing -- no agonizing over the subject, the pose, the burden of being creative 😅 And I hope (well, I know) that these skills will transfer to my original work in the future.

GREAT wisdom here, every artist needs to hear this. Actually, every person needs to hear it.

Wow, this is so true. I'm a beginner and have always had a bit of natural skill. But always end up spending a lot of time rendering and very little sketching, so I don't seem to progress. Will start doing this!

title should be "Earl Nightingale tells you how to get good at drawing"

Really great advice, thank you 😊

Love your videos Jeff and I find this one to be one of the best. Golden advices to the aspiring portrait artists 🧑‍🎨 thank you for sharing your wisdom and expertise 🙏 ❤

Great, great job. I’m a fine art portrait drawer and you definitely hit the nail on the head all around

Great advice! straight to the point and very practical. I once attended an atelier school where student spend months working on perfecting a painting. I completely agreed with you take that it is more beneficial to paint more less perfect painting and working on only one perfect painting. Needles to say, I quickly quit the atelier and paint daily on my own.

The video matches your drawing skills, Amazing.

my fav tip is to draw pets!!! it really helps with simplifying because when they move thats it the drawings done so your forced to find work arounds

Like many others, I’m getting back to drawing that I enjoyed when I was a kid. This video is very helpful and inspiring. Thanks.

I agree and appreciate all your instructions. Very good!

01:00 - best insight I've heard when it comes to practice and it's something I'll keep in mind every time I attempt to draw portraits. I've always wondered why I struggle to draw freehand. Now it makes sense to me. I've developed good techniques for rendering, but my ability to abstract reality to draw the underlying construction of my subject is severely lacking. I get bogged down with seeing details and my tendency is to render as I construct. Forcing myself to just practice the construction in my journal can hopefully detach me from the tendency to focus on details.

This is top advice, thank you

Thankyou Jeff. your tips on improving portraiture are a great help & cemented my works progress, am looking forward to continued improvement 👍

Excellent advice; to work more on the quick studies then trying to do complete portraits when starting off. Thanks!

Great video, great advice! Your voice sounds like Bryan Cranston too

This is so incredibly helpful

I love that endinh part...drswing is really subjective

TBH, I've been learning to draw faces for quite some time now yet I feel like I'm not getting anywhere. I want to be a comic book artist but I feel like I may never get there. I've been on Udemy for a year now and I just want it SO MUCH and SO BAD but who knows what's gonna happen years from. All the best to everyone still grinding!

Brilliant advice sir……only matched by your obviously fabulous drawing skills. Many thanks and good wishes from England

I envy your art style

This is my second video I’ve watched, and I noticed how you draw the chin into the head. I’ve never thought to do it in that way and I think I’ll try it in my next practice session.

Wow, thanks! Your comments were so freeing.

First time seeing your videos. I gotta say, what an awesome voice you have! 😮 It reminds me of the old radio voices of the 1920s! Subscribing for that and the art! XD

Great video Jeff

Man that the best advice I have gotten in years

When something doesn't look like something at the beginning of the drawing, I get desperate and can never be patient. The solution to this, of course, is to practice a lot. But sometimes I act like I don't have an eraser, like I can never fix it. This is a situation I experience frequently in my life. I don't have the patience to try some things, I feel like giving up at the beginning. I hope I can solve it. Thank you very much for your advices.❤

Oh waw you got a deep voice..🤩

Thats VERY GOOD advice to go MANY incomplete to the last detail portraits. I will make it my goal 2024. thanks

This is great a masterpiece. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! I will put into practice your suggestions!

Great advices, thank you so much

Very helpful. Thank you!

merci beaucouppour cette brillante explication j'adore votre art👍👍👍👍

I really like how you mentioned that those who claim that there is only one way to doing things are trying to sell you something. I'm not a beginner, but I'm certainly not crazy good yet and that bothers me a lot. I've been drawing on and off for the last 10 years, and if i had invested more time into drawing, I would be miles ahead from where I'm at right now. Nonetheless, what matters is that I draw almost every day now. However, I have discovered that drawing without measuring is often more enjoyable and I can get the likeness faster. The problem is that I tend to get stuck a lot. Drawing people is insanely hard. Like, I'm improving fast with my anatomy and perspective, but drawing people seems to be the ultimate challenge I can't surpass right now and it hurts my pride as an artist. My goal right now is to draw realistically and to get really good at it, but I know progress is not linear and that it will take me a lot fo time before I can get 90% or more accuracy. I'm stuck in the 60/70%. Hope I get to improve soon though. Drawing get more fun the more you do it and the better you get at it!

Interesting vedio it is true for example I been using the Loomis method or the oval or the cross method so many of them but I made it easy to understand it making it my way, for example the Loomis method can be changed in son many ways even Loomis him self you can tell from his sketch es he does draw in different ways he did not only use the ball method or dividing the ball he does all kinds of alternative s

This is a fantastic video! The drawings are exquisite throughout too.

Really enjoyed your talk. All good and welcome advice. I'm not a professional but I've been drawing on and off my whole life and about drawing from references. I completely agree that drawing from life is great, if only because one tends to do it infrequently and it presents new challenges. Just setting up little still lives under a lamp to really observe shadow, I think every artist should do this. But most drawing I think is done from photo reference and that's completely fine, and please let's not overlook drawing from other drawings. So called, "copying" -- it's one of the oldest training methods and it's a good one! In 8th grade when I first began drawing seriously I stumbled into a wonderful resource and it became my private tutor, it was a book called "Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters" and I began copying images that inspired me ... copying Rembrandt and Michelangleo and Duhrer and Rubens etc etc... these things combined with my own life studies taught me sooo much, taught me about the worth of every line, taught me how incredibly intensely these great artists looked at their subjects and how sensitive they were to contour and form, taught me sooo much anatomy. If I have one regret about drawing and art it's that I let myself stop drawing many years, and stopped thinking of art as a possible career because I became discouraged by meeting artists my own age who were even more accomplished than I was. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you're good! You meet someone better and suddenly you are in a crisis! Don't compare yourself, at all... it's a trap! Just draw what you love, train your eye... and train your .

I really like the video, I subscribed. I hope you can make more videos especially for beginners. Looking forward to your future videos!

Thank you very much for the advice. Everything you said is all great advice, to me it was about not spend too much time with details especially when practicing. Thanks

This helped alot !! totally agree sir! 👍your work is beautiful !

Hey Jeff, I was wondering if you could make a video about drawing with charcoal for starters, any thanks!

Lots of good stuff Jeff :)

This is a very helpful video. Thank you.

Your voice very soothing and the content reassuring I’m a rank amateur, but loving it

How does one know in a drawing demonstration that a device like the Camera Lucida app or the Da Vinci Eye app is or is not being used? I believe recording in time lapse is an indication. Also the camera seemingly is between the artist’s eye and hand. Never making a mistake while drawing is an apparent indication, too.

I think at first people tend to hyperfocus on the details in portraits! Great advice!

Thank you for this video. It was informative and inspiring.