Portraits are timeless and enthralling, and a discipline to which many artists aspire. Experienced artist David Thomas demonstrates how to use watercolour, pencil and charcoal to produce rewarding results in your portrait work. This book will show you how to fill your paintings with life and character, and explain clearly how to build your sketches up into more developed drawn artwork, and from there to inspiring watercolour portraits.

Learn to use watercolour, pencil and charcoal to produce fresh and approachable portraits invested with life and character.

This is one of the most comprehensive guides to painting poeple there has been in a very long time. Although a reasonable degree of technical ability is assumed, David does not ignore the basics such as pose proportion and composition. He includes male and female figures,full of half-face poses, young and old sitters and groups as well as single subjects. It is hard to spot anything that has been omitted. As well as the introductory notes, there are plenty of demonstrations andf technical tips that are introduced progressively. Instructions that are longer than is sometimes the case in instructional books, explaining what is happening at every stage. The whole thing is so gentle it’s so easy to forget you’re learning. David’s style is quite loosed, providing an impression rahter than warts and all detail, allowing for a good deal of interpretation while preserving facial structure and likeness. The book is thoroughly recommended.