At first inspiring skepticism that a book could deliver excellent portrait teaching, Portrait Drawing by John T. Freeman was a pleasant surprise. The book covers every aspect of drawing the human face and how to make it seem “real” in beautiful illustrations and easy-to-follow language.
This book is perfect for a beginning portraitist, but can also be found valuable by the advanced artist. The farther you read, the more advanced the techniques get. Starting at pencil handling, proportions and planes, the book progresses into gestures, cross-hatching, muscles and profiles.
One thing that this book covers, but most others miss out on, is how to draw individual face parts in detail. The eye, lip, nose, and ear are coved in detail. The eyebrows and lashes are not forgotten, either. Not only does Portrait Drawing show how to draw these parts of the face, but it also gives detailed instructions on how to draw them expressing emotion.
Portrait Drawing also covers how to draw hands. This is a bit of a surprise, but makes sense since many portrait poses include the chin propped by a hand and such. In fact, Freeman addresses this right off the bat in his book’s preface, “I am dismayed to see countless drawings of the human form where the face and hands are absent…. But, ultimately, to deprive a person of their face or hands in a life drawing is to deprive them of their humanity: art, I believe, should always endeavor to celebrate this humanity, not to denigrate it.”
The book also incorporates the ideas of developing the proper attitude towards drawing, “grammar of the face”, and “shorthand” studies. These all hit on the unique views of Freeman, and give the reader a different take on the subject at hand. The book also delves into the art of caricature, an often overlooked form of portraiture.
One problem a beginning artist may find when using Portrait Drawing is that the book focuses on female faces almost exclusively. The author says in the book’s preface that this is because, “it encompasses all of the finer aspects and subtle difficulties encountered within portrait drawing“. The book also leaves out the mechanics of drawing of children and babies, reducing the subject to one page, so the beginning artist is left to find that information elsewhere.
Overall, the artist will find this book a satisfying “meal” of in-depth portrait drawing hints and techniques, even if they may have to find dessert elsewhere.
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