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 Throughout the age’s artists have learned by copying the work of master artists.  If you want to study portraiture you can learn from John Singer Sargent by copying his drawings in the book “Sargent Portrait Drawings, 42 works by John Singer Sargent.”

This book, by Dover Art Library, is an inexpensive paperback filled with Sargent’s sketches of his friends.  These were drawn for fun and study and hold a wealth of information for artists to dissect and learn from.

A copy of Sargent's self portrait from my sketch book.

Copying a master work helps you to understand the process of the artist.  Here are three things to pay attention to when you copy portraits from this book.

Gesture: look how Sargent gives a feeling of action to the portraits, they are turning, tilting, and tipping.  Notice how the action adds to the personality of the subject.

 Simple value pattern: study how Sargent joins light and dark shapes together to create a sense of form.  The form is more important than the features.

Features are suggested: Sargent was brilliant at adding just enough information to tell you what was going on.  Notice how the features are often suggested rather than rendered?  What he leaves out is just as important as what he puts in.  You can copy individual features of his portraits to see how effective he is at suggestion.

 If copying the portraits scares you then begin by tracing them.   Don’t outline but fill in the dark shapes to see how they connect.  Once you have that silhouette you can finish by adding details.  To get an unbiased critique compare your work to Sargent’s by photographing them together and viewing them on a screen.  Use this critique to figure out the difference and adjust your drawing.

I traced the value pattern onto tracing paper to find a simple silhouette, then I built the drawing by adding more values into the shadow and light areas.

Sargent himself learned by copying master paintings.  You can continue the tradition and learn portraiture from master artist John Singer Sargent, and yes it only cost $6.95.

Here is the link to the book on Amazon. Sargent Portrait Drawings

This is my very well loved copy of the book.