Contemporary Portraits with Graphite

You’ll learn how to create contemporary realistic portraits in graphite, blend mixed media like watercolor and pastels, select and compose references, apply advanced shading, and preserve your artwork from initial inspiration through final digitalization.

The course is designed for intermediate level, perfect if you already have basic drawing skills and want to refine realistic portraits and mixed media techniques.

You’ll need graphite pencils of various hardness, smooth paper, blending stumps, an electric eraser, stencil brushes, pastels, watercolors, painter’s tape, and access to Photoshop for digital compositions.

Basic drawing experience is recommended since the course covers intermediate and advanced portrait and composition techniques.

The course teaches you to use graphite for the base drawing, add detail and expressiveness with watercolor and pastels, and manage the workflow to avoid material contamination and achieve professional finishes.

You’ll be able to create hyperrealistic contemporary graphite portraits, add creative and colorful elements, and apply custom backgrounds using traditional and digital mixed media techniques.

Yes, the course covers how to choose reference images, transfer them to paper using traditional grid methods or digital grids in Photoshop, and place details precisely.

Domestika courses are online classes that allow you to learn new skills and create incredible projects. All our courses include the opportunity to share your work with other students and/or teachers, creating an active learning community. We offer different formats:
Original Courses: Complete classes that combine videos, texts, and educational materials to complete a specific project from start to finish.
Basics Courses: Specialized training where you master specific software tools step by step.
Specialization Courses: Learning paths with various expert teachers on the same topic, perfect for becoming a specialist by learning from different approaches.
Guided Courses: Practical experiences ideal for directly acquiring specific skills.
Intensive Courses (Deep Dives): New creative processes based on artificial intelligence tools in an accessible format for in-depth and dynamic understanding.

All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.

The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.

You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.

If you're a Plus member, when you complete a course you've purchased, you'll instantly get your personalized certificate. You can see all your certificates in the Certificates section of your profile. You can download your certificates as PDFs and share the link online. Learn more about certificates.