Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces [Paperback]

Carrie Stuart Parks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2003

Draw amazingly accurate portraits starting today!

Even if you're an absolute beginner, you can render strikingly realistic faces and self-portraits! Instructor and FBI-trained artist Carrie Stuart Parks makes it simple with foolproof step-by-step instructions that are fun and easy to follow. You'll quickly begin to:

• Master proportions and map facial features accurately
• Study shapes within a composition and draw them realistically
• Use value, light and shading to add life and depth to any portrait
• Render tricky details, including eyes, noses, mouths and hair

Proven, hands-on exercises and before-and-after examples from Parks' students ensure instant success! It's all the guidance and inspiration you need to draw realistic faces with precision, confidence and style!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Artist Parks claims that even beginners can draw faces realistically by perceiving proportions and accurately rendering, via facial mapping, the features that make one face distinct from another. In Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces, the author isolates individual features for detailed examination, using many black-and-white drawings to illustrate a range of techniques. Her useful and far-ranging discussion of materials includes an evaluation of pencils' graphite grades, kneaded and electric erasers, blending tools, and papers. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Carrie Stuart Parks is an award-winning artist and is acknowledged as one of the top forensic art instructors in the nation for her innovative training. An author and illustrator of five North Light books, Carrie has also created drawing and painting videos for adults and children. For more about Carrie and her artwork, visit her online at StuartParks.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books; 1 edition (January 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581802161
• ISBN-13: 978-1581802160
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #44,850 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Arts & Photography > Drawing > Figure Drawing

More About the Author

Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks met in the romantic hallways of the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. They married in nineteen eighty-nine and formed a dynamic and successful team in their fine and forensic art, working on major national and international cases and creating exquisite watercolors and stone carvings. They travel internationally, teaching forensic art to a variety of participants: from the Secret Service to the FBI, from large law enforcement agencies to the smallest two-man departments in their one-week classes. They welcome civilian artists to attend their courses as well. Carrie has won numerous awards for her innovative teaching methods and general career excellence and is a signature member of the Idaho Watercolor Society. Rick has received national recognition for his exquisite art placed on musical instruments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

114 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change Over Night, September 13, 2003

By 

Walter Stoneburner (Ashburn, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (Paperback)

I have to admit, I was highly skeptical when the author says she can teach people to draw (and some of the student drawings are amazing) in 3 classes of instruction. However, since my interests were cartooning and simple sketching (both of which demonstrated I had no talent whatsoever), I thought it might be fun to see what she was saying. I had already gotten bored with Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain -- it was too long, it had so many excercises, it should couldn't hold my attention span. I wanted a quick fix solution.

And this book gave it. The author says she's not an artist, but a police sketch artist who basically winged it coming in and took a class or two. She had the opportunity to see lots of faces and measure them. And she breaks down the mental block of why you can draw somethings and not others. Finally, you learn all the tricks to make soft portrait-like pictures that lift off the page.

About 3 hours of entertaining reading and I was able to produce very realistic faces that I'm proud to show off. I *highly* endorse this book. Now that I have some fundamentals, I feel like I can go back to the dry reads since I know what to look for.

49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish I had this growing up!!!, October 21, 2004

By 

Isabella Valentine - www.IsabellaValentine.com (Bloomington, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (Paperback)

Wow. This is probably my favorite drawing book. Period.

I must have at least 20 or 30 books on drawing - each one of them have different ways to teach or guide people on doing different techniques. But this book really really REALLY looks far more realistic than the others. And DOABLE too!!! I can tell a 500% improvement in my own art based on what I've learned from this book.

The author gives excellent tips, and her blending technique is easy to follow and she only gives you a tiny list of things you need (special pencils, bristol paper, kneaded rubber, and a blending stump - which all adds up to less than what you'd pay for lunch).

I was a fairly decent drawer to begin with, so I was actually VERY relieved that she didn't spend pages and pages talking about the really basic stuff like other books do. She gets RIGHT INTO how to do it, and how to do it well.

She uses amazing drawings as a way of SHOWING you how to do it, rather than just writing it all out. I am a visual learner, as are a lot of people... and anyone can follow this.

My sister and I both really enjoy this book and have gotten loads of inspiration and tips from this book.

Even advanced level artists can learn a few things from this.

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, January 27, 2003

By 

Eileen (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (Paperback)

This book is an outstanding resource for any artist who is interested in improving the accuracy of their drawings. The author's techniques apply to all subject matter, not just faces. When drawing portraits, I have always had difficulty with certain areas of the face, namely the curve of the jawbone area and the curve of the nostril. As the author explains, this is because my mind is drawing pictures from a memorized pattern of these facial features. She then gives many effective techniques that are designed to help you overcome these patterns and actually draw what you see, techniques that I had never thought to use before. Her ideas for checking the accuracy of your drawings help you to produce your most realistic work ever. I think that this book, in combination with Lee Hammonds' How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photograpsh, will give anyone (including those who can only draw stick figures) the ability to produce beautiful pencil portraits in a short amount of time. I should know, because I am one of those stick figure people myself! I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who desires to draw more realistically. The ideas contained in this book are extremely helpful and this book is well worth its price.