Steve Huston Draws From Life

2023-09-07 - The Underside Of The Face_The Third Plane

In this lesson, we learn to use the "digastric plane" of the under jaw to give our head drawing more structure and solid position in space.

Suggested Homework:

Using the reference provided, draw solid constructions of the he...

2023-08-31 - Drawing the Nose in Deep Perspective

Drawing the Nose from underneath the head can be particularly difficult in not just construction. But in position and proportion.

We tackle all of that in this lesson.

2023-08-24 Drawing the Nose in Perspective

In this continuation of understanding the nose in structure and in vaired perspectives, we rely heavily on the wonderful drawings of Piazzetta.

Suggested Homework:

Work on drawing the full wedge-like structure of the nose, w...

Drawing The Nose With All Of Its Parts

In this training I show you how to draw all of the various structures of the nose, how they fit to together, integrate into the great landscape of the face, and how they can radically vary from person to person.

(And I apologize for the sett...

2023-08-10_ Drawing the Nose

In this Training, I give you the basic strategies for drawing a nose well placed on a face.

Suggested Homework:

Using the reference provided, after constructing a basic head, find the wedge between the eyebrows that ends the...

2023_07_27 - The Nose Part 1

In this lesson, I not only explain the challenges around drawing a beautiful nose, I explain the process of actually how we build skills and . . .

A couple ways to reduce the friction towards leveling up.

Suggested Homework:...

2023_07_20 - Deep Practice

There's one secret weapon all world class performers in any skill have that most of us don't --

That's deep practice. In this very important training I share this surprisingly simple way to level up your level of craft.

Suggested Homew...

2023-07-13 Rendering Techniques For The Eye And For Everything Else

Most of the technically great craftsmen actually follow the same rendering process. 

That is to render down shadows to a middle dark and lights to a middle light.

And then, as the add details they down the da...

Norman Rockwell: His Use Of Silhouettes And Expressions

In this training, we talk about how there are few artists in history who can approach Rockwell in conveying story and emotion just with the silhouette of a figure.

And on top of brilliant use of silhouette he his viewer in then further with ...

How To Draw The Eyes Part 3

In this lesson I explain how the complexity of the eyes can be simplified down to a series of positions for each part of whole eye area. 

Specifically, stepping back the telltale features from eyebrow to eyeball and then back out to che...

2023-06-22 - Lessons In How I Draw The Head Part 19 - The Eyes Part 2

In this lesson, using a beautiful Nicoli Fechin charcoal portrait, I show you how to understand the biggest possible structure by way of both the step construction and symmetry of a ziggurat (step pyramid).

Suggested Homework-

Drawing The Eye Part 1

One of the toughest things to draw in all of nature is the eye. 

So, as always, when in doubt, we simplify.

In this training, I show the simplest way I know to draw an eye without all the structural and anato...

-How I Draw The Head and Neck Part 1

Just as critical to being able to draw each body part is the understanding of how it connects to all the others.

I this training we begin to uncover the many connections of the head and neck.

Suggested Homework: 2023-06-05 19:33:02 +0000 UTC View Post

2023-05-25 _Deep Perspective Heads Part 1

(Just a heads up -- We had a rain and hailstorm during a good chunk of the stream. So the sound isn't great in those parts.)

In this one, I explain how to get control of the proportion issues associated with deep perspective.

2023-05-18 _Underside Of The Jaw And A Strategy For Mastery

In this training, I explain how important (using the LTL idea) the "third side" is to creating real volume in the head of in any structure at all.

I also give you a very useful way to practice craft to build towards mas...

2023-05-11 17-01-25_Cheek, Jaw, and Chin Pt 2

In this training, we continue developing our understanding the greater structures of the lower part of the face.

Suggested Homework:

Using the reference provided, practice working off the zigzagging corner around the eye soc...

2023-05-04 _Cheeks, Jaw, and Chin Part 1

In this training, I talk about the relationship of the forehead, cheekbones, Jaw and Chin and how they create a Zigzagging corner separating the front plane of the face and skull from the side plane.

Suggested Homework:

...

Balancing Top Down and Bottom Up Thinking To Skyrocket Your Growth

If we can have a basic understanding of how creative thinking happens and very simple ways to tap into that, we never have to worry about that frustrating plateaus that stall our growth.

In other words, we never have to be a slave to the lim...

2023-04-20_Rhythms And Structures Of The Forehead, Temple, And Cheekbones

The understanding of the structure of any body part is not complete unless you have a strategy for how fits and flows into the next.

Suggested Homework:

Using the reference provided, Find the rhythms as I describe...

How Do Artists Bring Energy To Their Compositions?

There’s a lot of answers to that, of course?

But one of the wisest ways I know is to realize that areas of energy only feels energetic if they sit in relationship to areas of quiet.

Learn to bring in those quiet moments to ...

2023-04-13 Forehead, Temple, and Back of the Skull

Here I take you through how to add in the secondary forms of the Upper Face and Skull to lay the ground work of those all-important features.

Suggested Homework:

Use the reference provided to find that Temple stru...

2023-04-06 Symmetry and Asymmetry In The Head

[PATREON IS HAVING TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH SHOWING THUMBNAILS- We'll fix it as soon as possible]

Symmetry often is seen as health and beauty. While Asymmetry can show us drama and relief from boredom.

In this training, I...

Analyzing An Old Master

[PATREON IS HAVING TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH SHOWING THUMBNAILS- We'll fix it as soon as possible]

In this one, I talk about how to study an artwork that inspires you. The most productive way I know is to look at it w...

Aging the Face Part Two

As we study the aging face, we dig into the 3 most common and useful Drapery Folds: Diaper, Interlock, and Zigzag.

Suggested Homework:

Practice finding our 3 fold structures in the reference portfolio below.

Aging The Face

I explain how the rules of drapery apply perfectly to aging skin as we explore heads drawings from slightly different point of view.

Suggested Homework:

Using the reference portfolio provided below, Sketch out the Construcit...

Understand Structure to Understand Value

In this training, we learn that to move convincingly from Big Simple Structures to the Smaller Complex ones, we must learn to track the Big Simple Value Patterns.

Suggested Homework:

Do basic construction models of heads using the refe...

Drawing The Head With Depth Clues

We continue to carefully explore the head in perspective and the characteristics that make it seem to sit just so in our drawings.

And the key and simplest marker in doing this is the ear and where we place it.

Suggested Homework:

2023-03-09- LTL and Depth Clues For Deeper Perspective

In this training, I show you how to use LTL in ever more useful ways and what to do when we are missing the LTL Construction Lines.

Suggested Homework:

Practice you LTL Constructions, paying particular attention to micro adjusting each...

Finding The 3-D Through Whistle Notches & The LTLs

One of the most difficult problems in drawing a head is to make it look three dimensional in any position close to a profile. 

Being able to draw the eye socket as a grand corner between the front of the face and the side of the head is...

2023-02-16 Head Drawing Lesson Part 7- The Whistle Notch/Eye Socket

Building off the "LTL" strategies learned in Part 6, I draw out a process to go from a simple, big, two-dimensional construction of the head to mapping out it's primary corner by way of the Eye Socket.

Suggested Homework:

Wo...