The Art of the Portrait Sketch

This course is open to: students of all levels of experience. This course is ideal for beginners, and is a great starting point if you would like to take oil painting courses at the Atelier afterwards.

“A simple sketch can have an immediacy and a spontaneity that surpasses the emotional impact of even a highly finished work. The fluidity of line, and the direct connection between the artist’s thoughts and the marks upon the page have a unique sway over our imaginations.” -Sarah Margaret Gibson

Learn the art of the portrait sketch in this 5-day course with GAFA’s academic director, Sarah Margaret Gibson. In this course, Sarah will guide you through the process of drawing a portrait in graphite, from capturing the model’s likeness, to giving structure and three-dimensionality to a portrait drawing, to effectively utilising hatch marks and line quality to give a sense of form, light, and vivacity to the finished work.

Each day of the course will be divided into two sessions; in the morning session, students will learn the method by first listening to a brief lecture on the concepts to be covered that day, and by watching a demonstration by Sarah. Once the demonstration is complete, students will spend the remainder of the morning session, and the entirety of the afternoon session working on their own drawings. Working from the live model, students will build up their drawings in a series of simple stages.

Instruction will be given in the form of a group lecture and demonstration at the beginning of each day, and then through individually tailored critiques.

During this course, you will gain an understanding of the following key concepts:

-Understanding the structure of the human head

-How to break down the portrait into abstract shapes to create a likeness

-How to accurately measure proportion through comparative measure technique

-How to express form through line

-How to use line weight, line direction, and hatching to create an expressive sketch

-VALUES:

       • The light and shadow families

       • Grouping values within a finite scale

Materials List

All materials can be purchased on either Jacksonsart.com or Cassart.co.uk

Drawing Materials:

-Staedler or Faber Castell graphite pencils: 2B, B, HB, H (at least one of each, preferably two)

Paper:

- No need to purchase paper. Stonehenge paper will be provided for each student on the first day of classes. 

Other Materials:

-1 graphite sanding pad 

- 1 Stanley blade or exacto knife for sharpening pencils

-1 Conte brand gum eraser (grey coloured, not white)

-assorted set of paper stumps (Cass Art)

-1 roll of masking tape

INSTRUCTOR BIO

Sarah Margaret Gibson (b. 1988) is from Cincinnati, OH.

Sarah Margaret is a world-renowned master in contemporary realist painting. She specialises in portraiture, bird and floral paintings, and in still-lifes. Characterized by a rich tenebrism, Gibson’s work dramatically juxtaposes light against shadow. She believes that light, and all of its symbolic qualities, are most poetic when contrasted against dark. Through her drawings and paintings, Gibson opens up a dialogue with nature, responding to what she finds beautiful and endeavoring to communicate this through the medium of oil paint.

Gibson received her formal training in drawing and painting in Florence, Italy. She studied at the Angel Academy of Art from 2008-2010, and then completed the full three-year program at The Florence Academy of Art, from which she graduated in 2013 and where she subsequently taught as a Principal Instructor in their Intermediate Drawing and Painting Programme.

In 2015 Sarah Margaret moved to the west coast of Scotland, alongside her husband and fellow artist, Lee Craigmile. Together they co-founded the Glasgow Academy of Fine Art in 2019, a formal training academy at which she taught traditional methods of representational drawing and painting to aspiring professional artists. In 2024, Gibson and Craigmile decided to transition the Academy, moving the school to Lee’s hometown on the west coast and combining it with their personal painting studio to create Ayrshire Atelier of Fine Art. Gibson acts as Creative Director and Principal Instructor of Studio Workshops at the atelier, and she splits her time between painting for galleries and commissions, teaching, and raising her young son.

Gibson's work is shown throughout the U.S., U.K. and Europe and can be found in the New Britain Museum of American Art, The New Salem Museum of Art and in numerous private collections. She is represented by Arcadia Contemporary in Soho, NYC.

ACCOMMODATION and Travel details

Please visit our About the Studio page for more information on traveling to Largs and on finding accommodation.