Review: Simple Techniques for Better Portraits by Alisha Dall'Osto (Craftsy)

Alisha Oall'Osto is a professional artist and instructor based in Seattle. She has been teaching drawing and figurative art for more than ten years in various schools.

Alisha has a course on Craftsy called Simple Techniques for Better Portraits and it's a fantastic course. It's a complete course on drawing portraits for beginners.

Here are the list of lessons included in this 143-min course:

• Framing and Composition - 22 min
• Mass, Proportion and Features - 27 min
• The Gesture - 15 min
• Block In, Part 1 - 22 min
• Block In, Part 2 - 18 min
• Form and Cast Shadows - 25 min
• Finishing the Portrait - 14 min

Best part of the course is how she emphasises the importance of measuring and proportion in order to get the likeness. She was able to show how you can achieve the same likeness by paying attention to how you draw, and she also teaches you the techniques on how to look. In just a few lessons, even before the shading stage, you can get an accurate line art portrait.

The later lessons cover shading and how to deal with all the subtle shades and transitions on the face. The result of the finished portrait is one similar to those you would see from fine art drawings.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to draw portraits that look lifelike and bears a resemblance to your model, this is the course to take. In just a few lessons, you can do so, and that should be worth the money.

You can check out more reviews on the course page below.

Disclosure: This course was provided to me by Craftsy for review purposes. You can support Parka Blogs by using the affiliate links as I get a little commission from each sale. :-)