Jordan Rhodes is a portrait artist based in Nashville. He has worked with clients, such as Columbia Records, Disney Plus, Strathmore, and Grammy-nominated artist, D Smoke.
Do you want to learn how to paint amazing portraits that will impress your viewers? Are you fascinated by this but don’t know where to start? Do you feel intimidated, assuming it’s an advanced skill that only professional artists can master?
Well, good news! It’s MUCH easier than you might think! Get ready to learn the basics of painting portraits and techniques for using gouache!
Gouache is a fun, vibrant medium that dries into a beautiful, flat matte finish. In this course, you’ll discover the nature of gouache and learn how to use it skillfully like a pro.
Your instructor, Jordan Rhodes, demystifies the process of portrait painting, by explaining in detail each step, giving you clear demonstrations and teaching you easy techniques that you can use right away. With Jordan’s guidance and helpful tips, you’ll realize that creating a portrait is nowhere near as daunting as you thought!
By the end of this course, you’ll have a whole new skillset under your belt, and a new-found confidence in your artistic abilities. Your friends and loved ones will be amazed and thrilled when they see the gorgeous portraits that you create!
Welcome to this course!
In this video, you’ll get to know your instructor, talented artist and portrait master, Jordan Rhodes. Jordan also outlines the exciting lessons awaiting you in his course!
Jordan will teach you the fundamental properties of gouache, such as how it differs from watercolor and acrylics, and how to control the paint consistency, so you can harness its full potential.
He also shows you the exact materials and tools he uses, explains their benefits and gives recommendations for what you can use.
Next, you’ll put brush to paper with some easy, warm-up exercises to get comfortable with how gouache works, for example: layering on top of wet vs. dry paint, adding white paint vs. adding water.
INCLUDED:
2 Cheat Sheets
List of Recommended Resources
In this practice lesson, you’ll follow along with Jordan as he paints the Asaro head statue; a unique exercise in understanding the various planes of a face.
Starting off with a base layer, Jordan teaches you how to build layer on top of layer, explaining exactly what he is doing and why.
You’ll learn how light interacts with the facial planes, how to study values and clean up edges, and discover techniques for painting shadows and highlights.
INCLUDED:
1 Homework Template
And now is the part you’ve been waiting for: ‘It’s TIME TO paint an amazing portrait of your own!
Follow along with Jordan as he shows you how to create your very own portrait from scratch. He teaches you how to analyze a reference image and what to look for when studying it.
After that, you’ll learn how to paint a thin wash for the base and then break down the head into two or three values to lay the foundation for the following steps. Next Jordan explains how to add colors, shadows and highlights, increasing the paint opacity as he goes.
Then as the last step, he gives you unique tips on how to add fun details, like eyelashes, fly-away hairs and jewelry, enhancing the finished portrait and making it sparkle with life.
You are now ready to create your own amazing portraits of your friends and family! Good luck and have fun!
INCLUDED:
1 Homework Template
Final Image
Course rating
(Based on 123 reviews)
Jordan is a Ph.D. Chemist, turned artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. What started out as a way to relax in his leisure time after working in the lab quickly grew into his passion. He has worked with Strathmore, Princeton Brushes, Columbia Records, Disney Plus, Sktchy, and an album cover for DSmoke (Grammy nominated artist).
Follow Jordan on
Full bio21 Draw is an online learning community where students of all skill levels can learn how to be a better artist. Our contributing artists and instructors are the best in the world.
Our streaming platform on www.21-draw.com makes it possible for anyone to watch hundreds of video lessons by industry legends who have worked for Disney, Marvel, DC, Dreamworks, Pixar & more. A membership gives full access to our streaming platform.
On books.21-draw.com you can buy our popular learn-to-draw ebooks and physical books, separate from the courses, and they too are also delivered to you by the heavyweights of the art industry.
Membership includes unlimited access to all 50+ courses taught by the world’s best artists PLUS new courses as they are released.
Each class includes 10-20 video lessons that are 7 minutes long on average. Most classes include exercise sheets, assignments, and layered PSD or PNG files.
Some classes include the ability to chat with the instructor in a public forum, e.g. if you want feedback on your artwork.
Yes! When you complete a 21 Draw course, you will receive a certificate of completion, which you can download and share with your friends, relatives, co-workers, and potential employers!
21 Draw courses are on-demand (pre-recorded) video tutorials that you can watch online with any digital devices anytime and for an unlimited number of times! This means you can easily watch (and rewatch) them at your own pace and convenience.
We have classes for all levels, even for those with zero drawing experience. In general, artists at all levels can benefit from these courses—whether beginner, intermediate or advanced.
Many lessons in our courses apply to both digital and traditional art. In a few tutorials, digital drawing software, e.g. Photoshop or Procreate for iPad is required. However, for the majority of lessons it is more about the underlying concepts and all that is needed is a pen and paper.
You can download the course resources (exercise sheets, assignments, PSD files, etc.) from the site, but you cannot download the video lessons to your computer.
Normally it costs $1835/year. However, there is a special sale running now for a limited time: Save 75%! This means you can get an annual membership for just $461 HKD/year.
If you purchase the annual membership at a discounted price, it will remain at that price for each consecutive year, so long as your membership is not cancelled.
If for any reason at all you are unhappy with our courses or feel it isn’t what you are looking for—then just fill out this form or email us at [email protected]. We’ll be more than happy to give you a full refund within 30 days of your first purchase. No questions asked. Just a guarantee you can trust.
You can easily cancel your membership renewal on your My Account page. Follow the prompts to cancel (Billing > Change Plan > Cancel Membership) and your membership will immediately be terminated. Please note: Refunds ONLY possible within 30 days after the date of purchase.
If you have more questions, please check out our Knowledge base or write to us here. We’re happy to assist in any way we can!