The Beauty Within

What would it be like to capture a moment of wonder, contemplation, or warm nostalgia in a portrait? Although these subtle but powerful experiences are invisible, they often inspire creativity, hope, and a sense of connection. I invite you to tap into your own treasure trove of beautiful feelings within and learn to create inspiring portraits with me.

Inside this class, I will share with you a variety of tools and techniques to help you draw dreamy portraits with meaning. To do this, I will focus on three wonderful feelings – wonder, nostalgia, and contemplation – and then I will demonstrate how I express each feeling in a portrait combining graphite pencil, pastel, acrylic paint, and collage.

Lastly, I will provide image resources for you to use, however; feel free to find your own images that express your own feelings about each topic. In fact, I encourage it!

Two Sheets of Hot Press, 140lb, Watercolor Paper, aprox. 11” x 17” or larger. I am using 11.69” x 16.53” Arches Hot Press Water Color Pad Or you can buy one large individual sheet and then cut it into several sheets.
One 12” x 16” Gessoed Surface that is sturdy. It could be a stretched canvas, 300lb watercolor paper, or a hard wood panel.
Several 8.5”x11” sheets of your favorite drawing paper. Your paper shouldn’t be any thicker than scrapbook paper – aprox. 24lb to 60lb.
A board to tape your watercolor paper to and some Masking or Painters Tape.
Graphite Pencils- assorted soft and hard
Erasers: White Plastic Eraser & a Kneadable Eraser.
Blending Stumps or Q-tips
A Basic Set of Nu-Pastels.
However, if you can afford pan pastels they are even better for creating backgrounds. If you opt for pan pastels, you will also need to have a stick of black and white pastel to go with it.
Recommended Colors are: Dark Blue, Medium Blue, Light Blue, a Violet or Purple, a Pink or Magenta Tint, Yellow, White, and Black.
Acrylics - A basic set of artist grade acrylics. Recommended Colors are: Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange, Green, White, Black, Burnt Sienna, & Yellow Ochre.

Acrylic Matte Varnish
Matte Fixative
A Basic Set of Acrylic Paint Brushes
A Fan Brush
1”to 2” Foam Brush or Golden Talon Brush (for brushing on acrylic varnish)
Decorative Collage Papers
or Download and Print Patterns Found on www.Unsplash.com
Craft Knife or Small Scissors for cutting collage elements
Cutting Matt or a Piece of Cardboard
A Compass for Drawing Circles
or a round plate you can trace.
Texture Cards for Mixed Media
or you can use a sheet of cardboard or an old credit card to make your own
A Nail File, plastic knife, palette knife, or something comparable for shaving stick pastels safely. If you have pan pastels don’t worry about it.
Pallet for your paint
Water & Paper Towels

‍Optional Supplies:

Various Templates or Paper Doilies
Decorative Foam Stamps or your own rubber stamps
Round Foam Sponges for creating textures
Clickable Eraser for fine details
Gold Metallic Acrylic Paint
Black and white dry stick pastel
White Gel Pen
A Brayer or an Old Credit Card or something you can use to safely press down your collage.

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