Class Description:

Develop a strong foundation in portrait drawing with this immersive online course.

Learn the essential steps to start a drawing with confidence, proportions of the head, strategies for strengthening a drawing, avoiding common errors, essential head anatomy, and understanding how light reveals form. Drawing the human head is equal parts Artist’s Conception (ideas about the human head) and Human Visual Perception (how the eye perceives). Over this 6-week course, you will learn to analyze the human head through conceptual drawings made during lectures, as well as extended drawings from models. During class meetings, Instructor Noah Buchanan will provide detailed real-time demonstrations, one-on-one feedback, as well as his popular "draw-along" method of lecture. Students new to the course will work in graphite, while repeat students are invited to explore charcoal with white chalk on toned paper, as well as other mediums. Model references will be photographs of current models made exclusively for this course.

Summer II Session Dates:

Scheduled occurrences for the next session of this class are as follows:

Week
Date
Time
Week 1:
6/21/2025
2 - 5 pm ET
Week 2:
6/28/2025
2 - 5 pm ET
Week 3:
7/12/2025
2 - 5 pm ET
Week 4:
7/19/2025
2 - 5 pm ET
Week 5:
7/26/2025
2 - 5 pm ET
Week 6:
8/02/2025
2 - 5 pm ET


  1. Before Class - Welcome & How to Prepare for Class

  2. Week 1 - Head Structure

  3. Week 2 - The Skull

  4. Week 3 - The Laws of Figurative Drawing

  5. Week 4 - Facial Features

  6. Week 5 - Light and Shadow for Artists

  • $430.00
  • Online
  • 6 Weeks
  • Beginner to Intermediate

Meet Your Instructor

Noah Buchanan

Instructor

Noah Buchanan (b. 1976) began his artistic studies in 1994 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied classical drawing and painting, as well as extensive studies in human anatomy. In 2002, he received a Masters of Fine Arts from the New York Academy of Art where he intensified his training in figure painting and anatomy with Martha Mayer Erlebacher and Steven Assael. Noah Buchanan is represented by Dacia Gallery in New York, as well as Winfield Gallery in Carmel, CA. He has participated in exhibitions across the United States from New York to Los Angeles. Buchanan has exhibited internationally in London, Edinburgh, and Tokyo. His paintings and drawings are featured in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA, as well as the Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, PA. His work is based in the mythic and symbolic traditions of the figure.

Achieve your artistic potential

Join us to discover traditional skills and contemporary practice