Adult Summer Workshop

Portrait Sessions - An Introduction to Portraiture

  • Cost

    £210

  • Tutor

    Lexi Strauss

  • Duration

    4 days

  • Dates

    5th - 8th August

A loose pencil sketch portrait of a person wearing glasses.

Whether you’re a complete beginner or just brushing up existing skills, this four day portraiture workshop will build confidence through solid exercises and enjoyable experiments in portraiture technique.

Overview


This 4-day portraiture course is designed to build your confidence and skills in drawing portraits, with a focus on both capturing likeness and expressive mark-making.

Working in a friendly, social studio environment, you’ll explore facial structure, anatomy, and the art of conveying character and emotion. Through guided exercises and plenty of individual support, you’ll experiment with graphite, charcoal, ink, and pastels for those wishing to introduce colour.

We’ll cover the fundamentals of line, tone, proportion, and composition, while encouraging you to develop your own creative style.

A yellow painting of a man reclining.
A woman with long dark brown hair standing at an easel. Her arm is outstretched and she is looking off-camera towards her subject.
A loose sketchy pencil drawing of a man holding a cigarette.
A group of people sat around a portrait model. They are all sat at drawing desks and are focussing on drawing the woman in front of them.
Photo of Lexi Strauss painting a colourful painting. She is wearing a neon pink beret and is smiling at the camera.

About the Tutor

Lexi, an MA Painting graduate from the Royal College of Art (2014) and Fine Art graduate from Hereford College of Arts (2011), is a painter and performer known for her unique paintings, theatrical installations and art clown performances. Her work bridges art, theatre, and comedy, often exploring themes of humour and trauma—a focus recently supported by Arts Council England funding.

See more of Lexi's work

FAQs

All materials will be provided including inks, paints, paper, pencils and sketchbooks. You will also have the opportunity to buy your own materials in our on-campus shop if you want to. 

Make sure to bring some water, and wear clothes that you can get messy. 

Feeling inspired?

Spaces are limited. Book your place today!

A wide shot of the Folly Lane Print workshop. Various students are working at different workstations throughout the workshop. The room is filled with old fashioned printing presses, ink stations and is flooded with natural light from big windows.

Industry standard workshops and studios

This is where you make your ideas happen. Find out more about the professional kit and spaces we provide at HCA.

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