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Draw a Realistic Graphite Portrait with Justin Maas

Museletter x Museum

Apr 19, 2024 — 2 min read

Justin Maas is a Canadian portrait artist who has been working professionally for more than 20 years. He is best known for his “famous faces” series of portraits on Instagram, where he posts daily drawings of your favorite celebrities for his 400,000+ followers.

Maas’ pencil portraits have been reposted and retweeted by hundreds of celebrities including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Queen Latifah, Paul McCartney, Mr Bean, Ice Cube, Viola Davis, Ewan McGregor, and many more.

A multi-award winning artist, Justin is a Senior Signature Member of the Federation of Canadian Artists (SFCA), an Elected Member of the Society of Canadian Artists (SCA), and the author of Drawing Realistic Pencil Portraits Step by Step from Penguin Random House.

“When I was a teenager, a critic once said of my work, ‘Why not just take a photo?’ That has always stuck with me and challenged me to try to make my portrait drawings show something that a photo can’t.

"By playing with focal points, areas of detail and contrast, I like to think that my drawings go beyond what most photos say about the subject.”

In this lesson (51 mins), Justin will guide you through the process of drawing an inspiring Museum muse using graphite pencil. Let's get started!

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