Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil

This is an incredible step by step guide to colour drawings. It takes the reader from the basic equipment, to the key techniques required to produce lifelike drawings. It's the must have for beginners or even for those who are wanting to develop further.

An absolute masterpiece of a book, breaking down the photorealistic art process into steps that are explicit and easy to follow.

Please see note to publisher re review on BookSmartTV.com

Karen Hull's book on Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil is stunningly beautiful and exceptionally well laid out throughout. This woman could not possibly be more generous with her talent and her skills.

First, it's very difficult to wrap your mind around the fact that you are looking at hand drawn portraits and not photographs. Her work is that fine and realistic. I can only imagine the hours taken to produce each one!

Second, she shares her wealth of knowledge in very practical and easy to understand ways. She's not looking to make you a clone, she's helping you become the best artist YOU can be and explains differences in available tools, and techniques.

There are chapters on Tools & Materials, Basic Colored Pencil Techniques, Capturing Human Emotion and Expression, Working from References, Creating Lifelike Human Textures, Facial Features and Hair, Transferring Your Line Drawing, and, my personal favorite, Putting it All Together.

In Putting it All Together, Hull takes the reader through 5 different projects (Capturing Childlike Innocence, Rendering Aged Skin, Using Color to Create Dynamic Skin Tones and Creating a Light and Bright Portrait). In each project, she gives a list of exactly which pencils she uses and then step-by-step lets us follow as she creates each portrait. I was spell-bound and read it in one sitting!! However, this is a wonderful reference book and definitely belongs on each portrait artist's shelf!

I certainly have a new respect for and perspective on this art form, and for Karen Hull, a tremendously talented artist and wonderful teacher!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Walter Foster Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this beautiful book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Absolutely gorgeous art instruction book about (hyper)realistic portraits in coloured pencil. Materials and techniques, individual features and 5 step by step, very detailed projects that treat young and old skin, Caucasian, black and Asian skin. I shut an eye on the transfer method that I disapprove (I support free-hand drawing) because the beauty of the artwork, the scrupulous explanation, and the pretty layout and presentation nsurely merit 5 stars.

I enjoyed reading this book. Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil taught me a lot about methods. I learned the ins and outs of layering and blending with my favorite medium. I loved that the author included step by step instructions AND pictures. It's easier for me to emulate when I can see them. I recommend this to anyone who wants to pursue portraiture in colored pencils.

This book is really one of the most fantastic art books I've read in a long time. While I try to dabble in sketching and some portraits, the artwork here is the kind that makes you do a double-take each time because you can't believe it's not a photograph. From the layer of film on the iris to the spit in a crying kid's mouth, there is so much detail in these portraits it's incredible.

This book is broken into several sections. Like most art books, it starts with materials. I have read at least 20 of these in the last few years and yet, I learned some new things from this book. And then she moves on to show some colored pencil techniques with great examples of each and why you would use one over the other.

She then moves on to a section where she breaks down every facial feature. She has the obvious ones like eyes and nose and mouth, etc but then much more detail like freckles, wrinkles, pores, membranes, etc. She gives detailed explanations of what you do with each (but not step by steps. In fact there's very little drawing instruction in this book at all, it's very coloring focused.)

The last section is the most awe-inspiring section. She walks you through a few very detailed projects, step by step with every single color she used. There is a lot of detail here, way more than I've seen in other books, and yet there's still, of course, but swathes of areas where she just does it and you have to practice a million times to resemble anything that looks like a human.

For those of you who are comfortable drawing portraits and have even colored some, I think this is a fantastic book. For beginners, this might be a bit intimidating, but I'd still recommend you add it to your arsenal even if just for the incredible inspiration it provides.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

At the beginning of the book, the author conveys that drawing lifelike portraits in colored pencil can be relatively easily. This will clearly not be an accurate estimation for most, but the book is no less fascinating in spite of this. with step by step instructions, progressive images and very detailed instructions I think those who enjoy the process of art will enjoy this book. You may not agree about the relative ease of the process, and you may not end up with a similar product, but I do think will end up with valuable techniques that will be applicable to your own projects. To me, that would be the most satisfying result in the end.

Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil by Karen Hull

What a beautiful book this is! It has intricate step by step illustrations of how to use pencils to create realistic portraits giving tips related to hair and eyes and teeth and so much more. The tools needed, colored pencil colors to have on hand, paper recommended, how to handle facial features and hair and expressions are just the tip of the iceberg when looking through this book. I am not sure I could create as realistic a portrait as this author can but believe that with this book at my side it would be fun to try to do so.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group-Walter Foster for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Karen Hull is extremely well known in the coloured pencil world and I was thrilled to able to review this book. Wow! is all I can say. Superbly written, laid out and explained. This is for anyone wanting to perfect photo realism in pencil and one of the best tutorial books you can buy.

Realistic Portraits in Colored Pencil Learn to draw lifelike portraits in vibrant colored pencil by Karen Hull is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary.
This book is amazing! It starts out showing the reader the tools needed and techniques used. It then goes into step by step instructions for several pieces of art with the focus on different aspects. There are clear close up pictures for each step! It probably isn't for the very beginner but it is excellent for intermediate level for sure! I have it on my wish list!

Honestly, I don’t know if I have the patience to try for realism again. It’s not my thing. I’m still always curious about how people create such realistic portraits out of pencils, especially in color. This book has stunning examples of what can be done with colored pencils. Besides struggling with realism, I also struggle with skin tones. Even how to use the skin tone sets is over my head. There’s a project full of tips for that. Anyone who wants to create anything close to photo realism with colored pencils will benefit from this book. I’m sure I’ll use some of these tips, even if I give up on making a realistic portrait.

Amazing book. Superb step by step instructions for producing realistic pencil portraits. I love the way you can really understand the process and see how to projects are developed. A list of all the pencils used by maker and colour is an excellent addition. The pictures are stunning and the instructions are so good you could actually produce something like. Brilliant, I love it.

The results are just stunning. The techniques are well blended with the learning curves for beginner students. Also, the book contains expert tutorials for professional artists too.

#RealisticPortraitsInColoredPencil #NetGalley

Portrait drawing was a art which i want to master. This book explains clearly about drawing a portraits with colored pencil.......

Every complete image in this book had me asking myself, “How on earth is this a drawing and not a photograph!?” Then the author/artist shows, with plentiful imagery and text, the step by step process they went through to create such images, which wowed me.

I must say that one must already be a somewhat talented artist to achieve what this book instructs one to do, and this is something that will require a lot of practice. I must also say that if drawing very realistic images of people interests you, I highly recommend looking and reading through this book!

Excellent step by step instructions, easy enough to follow along with. Definitely not novice level, but a decent intermediate guide

Extremely detailed explanations on how to create realistic portraits. If you are keen on learning how to paint people you will love this book. Although I highly recommend it to people who love drawing and coloring people, I have just found out that this specific task is not for me. I would never have the patience to spend hours and days to achieve this kind of realistic portrait. Back to painting birds and butterflies, my winged friends!
Thank you Netgalley for a free digital copy in Exchange for an honest review.