Portraits With Sabine

Painting and drawing portraits is such a fascinating activity! In addition to the creative dimension of making artwork, working with portraits also connects us to the person depicted and to wider aspects of being human.Working with portraiture is a complex undertaking and a lot of practice is required if we want to achieve likeness.This course approaches working with portraits in a unique way to make this activity and its skills accessible for learners of all skills levels.

We start with drawing sketching-templates from photographs of faces. We use pencils and then thin marker pens to make line-drawings that show a person’s face (we can work from photographs of people that learners bring in). We will learn which photographs are suited for doing this and which don’t and how to precisely use pencils and fine-liners so we can trace the exact proportions of a face and fine details of the eyes.

These, our own tracing templates, can then be used further to add monochrome shading by using hatching with pencils.  

We will also use these templates as the basis of watercolour pictures: we will layer colours to show the face and the background. Sabine will demonstrate the basics of working with watercolour washes and using a watercolour brush to make efficient marks.

We will then transfer our experience from understanding where light and dark is seen in a face to using acrylic paints. Using acrylic paint and brushes is very different from using watercolours. Sabine will show how we use flat brushes to paint a face’s base tone, its shadows and highlights.

The course teaches learners to understand shadows and highlights in a face as the result of the prevailing light situations. We need this knowledge in order to take decisions about where we apply which colour in our pictures.  

Sabine will also demonstrate how to draw a person’s face from observation and learners can try this too.

A lot of practicing is needed to achieve likeness in a picture. Achieving likeness takes some time and does not have to be the only goal when drawing and painting faces and heads!This course aims to teach learners a process of making pictures from faces and heads that remains an active skill beyond the mere ‘paper result’ of the picture.

Sabine will provide plenty of demonstrations for each step and will help each learner individually.

Learners need to bring pencils, fine-liners, watercolours and acrylic paints.

However, for the first session, only the following things will be needed:

- A4 photocopying paper (or slightly thicker paper if they wish)

- pencils (HB, 2B and 4B) and a pencil sharpener

- a water-resistant fine-liner

The course begins on Thursday 8 January 2026

Dr Sabine Kussmaul is a visual artist and fashion designer who has many years of experience in teaching drawing. She holds a PGCE(FE), and a masters degree in Fine Art. In her PhD project, Sabine researched drawing and installation in connection to the outdoor world of the British Peak District.