Brush Bravely: Draw a Direct-Ink Portrait with Pau Tremouilles

In this lesson (68 mins), artist Pau Tremouilles invites you to embrace the thrill of direct ink drawing using a brush pen. 

Instead of chasing a flawless, rigid replica of a photograph, you will learn to look past the literal features of a face and see the subject as a beautiful collection of abstract shapes, deep shadows, and striking highlights. 

This lesson will help you feel present, leaning into the risks of an unforgiving medium, and discover your own authentic expressive voice through boldly made mistakes.

Working from a high-contrast, deeply personal photograph of her grandmother, Pau guides you step-by-step through her fluid and intuitive process.

What You’ll Learn:

• The Art of Direct Ink: How to bypass the preliminary pencil sketch and go straight to the paper with confidence, treating every "mistake" as a playful opportunity for redirection.
• Seeing Globally, Not Locally: Techniques for squinting past details like eyes and noses to map out massive, dramatic shapes of light and shadow.
• Mastering the Brush Pen: How to manipulate a nylon-fiber brush pen to achieve everything from whisper-soft, feathered tones to bold, ink-heavy expressive lines just by changing your pressure.
• Framing Your Focus: A clever trick using paper tape to create a "window" on your page, giving your final sketch a sharp, beautifully clean border.

Ready to brush bravely with Pau? Let's get started!