In this lesson, Iliya takes the classical portrait one step further with the inclusion of one of the most emotive parts of the body: The hands.

In the last part of our Russian Academic Drawing Course, Iliya taught us the anatomical structures of the head & neck. In this next part, we take everything we’ve learned, and use it to take on one of the more popular challenges of the Russian Academic Method: The Portrait.

In this famous assignment from the Repin Academy you will be drawing a portrait from life (or from provided reference) at a large scale over stretched paper. You will be introducing the hands and the upper body into your work, requiring more planning and development of the composition in this challenging project.

The New Masters Academy Coaching Program directly supports this Course. If you enroll in the coaching program, you can request an artist trained in the Russian Academic Method including Iliya Mirochnik himself. Click here to enroll in the Coaching Program.

Materials

• Graphite pencils
• Kneaded and Hard Erasers
• Roll of Paper, Smooth Sketchbook paper
• Easel
• Light source

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