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Portrait Drawing For Beginners (Udemy.com)

How To Draw Human Faces : Realistic Portrait Drawing : Beginners Portraiture Step by Step : How To Draw Portraits : Art

Created by: Chris Petrocchi

Last updated April 2026

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What you will learn

  • Portraiture - Discover my 7-step system for compelling portraits in graphite and charcoal
  • Face Drawing Step by Step - Create your own portrait masterpiece
  • How To Draw Portraits - How to make your portraits more believable
  • Master the fundamentals such as: how to see like an artist, construct solid forms, features, anatomy and more
  • The simple secret to keep your viewers coming back again and agian
  • Drawing from imagination

How it compares

Against the other 194 rated Udemy courses in Drawing on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.3 out of 5higher than 11% of them
  • Reviews2,365#29 of 195 by number of reviews
  • Length14.1 hourslonger than 89% of them
  • Last updatedApril 2026more recently than 91% of them

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Course Description

Discover my simple 7-step portrait drawing system for drawing the human face

You have a passion for drawing the human face and using it to tell your stories, express your visions and draw portraits. This is who you are. It's your calling and it's deep, and I am here to guide you on your way to reaching your goals.

Discover my simple 7-step portrait drawing system for drawing the human face. In this course I am going to help you draw the face really believably in the style you choose and apply it to your career or personal visions. You will be able to do it quickly with purpose in a way that is clear and carries meaning to your viewers. At the end of this course you will have an awesome portrait for your portfolio that you can feel proud of and attract attention.

WHAT YOU GET

  • 13+ hours of On Demand video lesson content

  • 2 portrait drawing demonstrations from start to finish

  • 20 Downloadable resources to help you practice

  • Bonus lectures on anatomy, planes and tons of portrait tips from my years of professional experience

  • Full lifetime access

  • Access on mobile and TV

  • Assignments

  • 10 articles

  • Certificate of CompletionArt direction secrets to make your portraits stand out

...and MUCH more


WHAT STUDENTS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE COURSE:

The first thing to say is that unlike some 'art instructors' Mr. Petrocchi is clearly an accomplished artist. He's not simply some guy who's always liked to draw, got a microphone for Christmas and thought it'd be cool to make a course. I regard myself as an exceptionally unexceptional draftsman but can already sense some improvement in the way I'm tackling portraits.The value I've already received leaves me with absolutely no complaints. You'll be getting A LOT of information from a guy who knows what he's doing with this course. And the demos - from blank sheet of paper to finished, fully rendered drawing - are both highly informative and inspirational. I'm not sure you can ask for more than that from any instructor. It's a keeper. Many Thanks, Mr P for putting this together.

–Sam Pollard

Of all the elements of drawing, portraiture is one of the most difficult to master. Practice alone is not enough to create portraits that come alive. That is the core value of this course. It provides a strong foundation for the individual to begin to master the creation of portraits of substance. This is not a course for the lazy. It requires patience and practice. But it will provide a roadmap that will allow the student to create fulfilling and satisfying portraits.

–Stuart Givot

An Excellent Course. I was Impressed by Chris's Level of Knowledge, Experience and Expertise. This course has differently give me knowledge that will help me improve my work and help me integrate into work with Charcoal.

–Aisha Smith

I was blown away of how great of a teacher Mr. Petrocchi is. He provided some incredible insights into helping me improve my facial drawing skills. It's amazing of how easy and simple he teaches technique. I feel inspired and highly recommend his courses. I can't wait to learn more from him!!!

–Tuese Ahkiong

Here is a clear, deep and well made course. Chris's sense of art teaching is excellent, it's like hanging out in his studio, looking over his shoulder (literally sometimes) and learning from following a professional. He talks out loud what goes on in his thoughts as he mindfully works his image. Seeing him work really helps me. His own career is used as an example, and I love all the personal stories that talk about his journey in the art world and specifically in this field of drawing portraits. The course is full of gold nuggets of info, stories, metaphors that help me put words and structure in my work. (I love the "Valley of the Suck" concept–so true! ) This course really helped me to clarify my work in regards to values. Also, it helps to come back to those foundations of the underlying structure of the face. I would recommend this course to anyone who wants to build a strong foundation and seriously wants to get into portrait art. As it is in my case, I would recommend it as well to any professional that wants to come back and touch those foundations again, one tends to forget stuff! Thank you Chris, and I agree "the figure is a song"!

–Philippe Ames

If you are ready to improve and go higher than you ever thought you could with your portraits then this course is for you!

See you inside,

Chris Petrocchi | Draw Juice studio

#portrait #portraiture #drawing #draw #human #faces #beginners #pencil #charcoal

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Instructor Details

Chris Petrocchi

Mr. Petrocchi has been working in the entertainment industry for 20 years as an animator and illustrator for TV and film, and as a concept artist for the last 10 years. Currently he is freelancing in both the game and illustration industry and has taught at the Walt Disney Family Museum, the Academy of Art University, San Jose State University and the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier. Mr. Petrocchi had the privilege of working overseas in Shanghai, China as an art director and concept artist for an American firm. While there he also lectured and gave demonstrations on several occasions on the subject of concept art in Shanghai at Fantasy China Cartoon and Game Convention, and at Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Art.

Some of his clients include companies such as Magic The Gathering, EA (Godfather, Lord of the Rings, The Simms, Spore), Factor 5, Activision, THQ, Wildbrain (Layout Artist), Warner Brothers (Storyboard) and Colossal Pictures. In his spare time he likes to sing, play guitar, read and dance.

Follow him on Instagram @drawjuice

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Reviews

4.3

2,365 ratings on Udemy

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By Abraham Eliseo Cruz Herrera on 9/4/2022

I was simply happy to be able to get a course by Chris Petrocchi himself! I draw since I was a kid, and I know how to draw, but the style and expressiveness of Chris' work amazed me. So, I can say what I liked about the course and the experience overall: - You never stop learning - Seeing a master artist is always so valuable - Having comments by the author himself while working adds up - The explanation and techniques on human face anatomy felt novel to me - The Goals setting section was like an advice from a friend, also helpful for other situations in life

By Yazeed Ashrafi on 11/21/2020

new information and so great full.

By Yuri Silva on 11/14/2020

Muito Obrigado!!

By Donae1234 on 11/14/2020

Thanks alot for made this class. Help and inspire alot

By Er.Dipesh G Rathod on 11/14/2020

just not satisfied by the concept, was expecting 7 steps to recreate the model/image but it completely not as it says.

By Laurene St Amand on 11/14/2020

I have watched the entire course through for the first time and will now go back and attempt to apply what I have learned. This was a very detailed and comprehensive course but I don't feel intimidated and afraid to start. I am not an expert artist but I am trying to improve and I am certain this course will help me accomplish that.

By Vrynas Grigorios on 11/7/2020

yes, i think so far.

By Jos Antnio da Costa Vieira on 11/1/2020

Sim . Muito bem explicado.

By Toby Mandelman on 11/1/2020

A truly wonderful portrait drawing course. You may want to consider taking a basic drawing course first before you tackle this one. However, Chris does a great job teaching you the basics if you want to start off as a complete beginner. The main reason I would suggest taking a basic course first is to see just how different Chris' teaching style is. He can really take your drawing to the next level, so that you are not just trying to 'copy' a photo, but you are starting to create real works of art. He'll help you to discover your own style and to see drawing as telling a story and expressing yourself in art. I found it a bit scary at first as I tend to just want to copy what I see, but once I got the hang of it, it was quite fun and freeing. I really made a big leap in my drawing skills after taking this course. This is the first time I feel confident in trying to draw my own portraits without any help from an instructor. The only strange thing was that he mentioned 'seeing you later' in the last video, but there were no more videos! A very comprehensive and well-thought out course.... you won't regret taking it.

By Navya Jain on 10/27/2020

It is exceptional and the way that everything has been broken down in this course is not only interesting it is helpful and provides basic knowledge about art as well as how our brain interprets art.

By Tamia Chambers on 10/25/2020

Great course!

By Mary Jane Lanverman on 10/16/2020

So far I like it and am learning something new.

Showing 12 of 224 reviews

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Overall Score : 86 / 100