Turn Drawing Upside with Laura Cronin

Some portraits you draw. Others you uncover, gently coaxing your subject from the blank page, one soft shadow at a time.

In this graphite lesson, Laura Cronin builds her portrait with care and curiosity, using a shifting array of pencil grades from 2B to 14B. Rather than chasing photorealism, she invites you to observe values in motion: to see the face not as a fixed object, but as a living surface of light, age, expression, and form.

You’ll follow Laura’s method of loose construction, subtle measuring, and tonal layering to create a portrait full of personality and quiet complexity. Along the way, she shares techniques for turning your paper, refining features in stages, and capturing the beauty of wrinkles, cheekbones, and those elusive glimmers in the eyes.

This is a lesson in patience and presence—how to let a face emerge gradually, like a memory, from the page.

Ready to turn drawing upside with Laura? Let's get started!