A course taught by Glenn Hirsch at UC Berkeley Extension's San Francisco Downtown Design Center each spring. For more information, email glennhirsch@earthlink.net or visit http://www.glennhirsch.com/id9.html

1. Exploring the Portrait & Self-Portrait
Glenn Hirsch

2. Drawing the
Head

3. Van Gogh before and after. He started the study of drawing as an
adult, worked hard at it for years. Above we see his progress after
the first 18 months.

4. Variety of line = "beauty"
'Searching line' - draw and
redraw until you find what
you want - this is what the
masters did.
In this Leonardo drawing,
the baby's legs are drawn
several times.
Leonardo

5. Variety of line = "beauty"
fast/slow
thick/thin
light/dark
Leonardo

6. Variety of line = "beauty"
fast/slow
thick/thin
light/dark
What does the line say about
character in this self-portrait?
Complexity and strength!
Jerry Giefer

7. Blind contour drawing is drawing without looking at the paper, an
exercise to build sensitivity to pressure and speed, creating more
variety of line (and beauty).

8. Gesture drawings - 60 second drawings on newsprint as a warm-up in
which you gain practice quickly finding the orientation of the head in space

9. Gesture
drawings.
Practice
describing the
orientation of the
head in space
quickly.

10. Start the drawing by positioning the head as an oval ("egg") in space.
The tilt of the head and the shoulders are sketched in before detail.

11. Imagine the head
is an 'egg,' which
direction is it
pointing?
Giorgio de Chirico

12. Imagine the head is
an 'egg,' which
direction is it
pointing?
Raphael

13. Imagine the head is
an 'egg,' which
direction is it
pointing?
Raphael

14. Body language
The tilt of the head
gives added
interest to a
portrait.
Auguste Rodin, The
Bust of Madame Morla
Vicuna

15. Light and shadow on
the face:
-Eyes are in shadow;
- The upper lip is in
shadow;
-There’s a 'ball' at the
end of the nose;
-The chin is rounded.
Lucien Freud portrait
of Francis Bacon

16. Anatomy reveals
structure
we study
anatomy by
drawing it
memorizing the
'landmarks'
which will guide
us when we
draw from life.
study of Vincent
Perez

17. The skull
viewed from
the front
and lit from
the side.

18. The skull in 3/4 view
(the view in which you
most often see it in
life).

20. The skull in 3/4 view
(the view in which you
most often see it in
life).
Directional light from a
single source helps to
define the planes of
the skull.
Otto Dix, 1913

21. The boundary
between the
side of the face
and the front.
Raphael

22. The boundary
between the
side of the face
and the front.

23. The boundary
between the side
of the face and
the front.
Robin Groesbeck

24. Painting the Head

25. The brush
follows the
contours of
the head.
The
background
cuts in and
redefines the
cheek.
Glenn Hirsch

26. Glenn Hirsch, 1986

27. David
Park,
1958

28. Paula Rego,
1980

29. Lucian
Freud,
1983

30. skin color

31. Skin color
depends on
the color of
the light.
Elmer
Bischoff

32. Skin color
depends on
heredity.

33. Skin color
depends on
the
reflection of
surrounding
objects.
(Skin is
greasy so it
reflects
light.)

34. Skin color also
includes subtle
greenish hues.
Peter Paul
Rubens
detail

35. Skin color also includes
subtle greenish hues.
Andre Derain

36. Portrait
Concept
Exploring the Portrait/Self-Portrait

37. “The highest
aim of
portraiture is to
capture a
fleeting
moment of
lifelike
emotion.”
– Rembrandt

38. Portraiture
freezes a
moment in
time forever.
Portrait of Eutyches
c. 50 BC.

39. Portraiture
freezes a
moment in
time forever.
John Heisch

40. If portraiture freezes a moment in time forever, why paint? Why not use
photographs? This is a huge black and white painting, not a photograph.
What does the media - and the size - do to our perception of a 'portrait?'
Pamela Bennett

41. For 30,000 years in Paleolithic caves, the face was taboo (there are
no faces in the caves).

42. The earliest
realistic
portraiture.
Portrait of
Queen Nefertiti,
1450 BC
The Egyptian
concept of
“beauty” was
similar to
“glamour”
photography
today – high
cheekbones.

43. How many
artists
have
worked in
the
tradition of
the ‘selfportrait’?
Anonymous,
1402 (detail
from an
illuminated
manuscript in
the Bibliotheque
Nationale,
Paris)

44. This is a detail
of a larger
painting.
Renaissance
artists often
included their
own portraits
in larger work.
Self-portrait by
Botticelli
(1476).

45. Rembrandt did 80 self-portraits, using them to explore technique
(lighting & texture), as well as theatrical characters.

46. Artist self-portraits
changed in the
Renaissance with Jan
Van Eyck in 1433 – In
this painting, he asserts
his authorship, his idea
and voice; not a mere
craftsman anymore,
Renaissance artists
made new claims for
their art.
(Note the towel on his
head, he advertises his
prowess in painting by
painting drapery.)

47. 'Self-portrait in a hat'
In this assignment hats can give you
costume and a
shadow across your
eyes.
Keiko Randolph

48. 'Personality'
comes from the
Greek word
persona, which
means mask.
James Ensor,
1899

49. Frida Kahlo focused on self-portraits to explore dream, identity, and the
imagination.

50. Each student selects a master to study in pastel and then the student does a
self-portrait in the style of the master just studied. (Joy Stroehmann)

51. 'Self-portrait at
home'
assignment you in your
surroundings.
Elliot Glass

52. Self-portrait in a
dream
assignment "detail is the life
of dreams.”
Jane Willson

53. One of the assignments is
a 'full body portrait' of a
friend.
Angela Pryor

54. Models pose in most
classes.
Here is a portrait of
the model with
imagined
background (the
sea).
In portraiture,
clothes are
important too, they
say a lot about
character.
Minh-son Dang

55. Painting of the
model - posing in
costume.
Peter Demarest

56. Our models
always pose in
costume.
(Vine
charcoal.)
Peter
Demarest

57. Portrait of the model in
pastel.
There are many styles
in art – students are
encouraged to
experiment when a
model poses.
Mike Dewey

58. Oil painting of
the model posing in
costume.
Dan
Browneye

59. Acrylic painting of the
model posing in
costume.
In portraiture, clothes
are important, they say
a lot about character.
Stephanie Lowe

60. Exploring the Portrait/Self-Portrait
A course in drawing and painting the head.