Part 4 (of 6): [Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That]
o far we’ve talked about how the old way of learning to draw portraits just doesn’t work.
It takes too long and doesn’t teach you the important stuff so you can get the results you actually want.
The old way is broken. It has to go.
But there’s one more ingredient in the new way I’ve been sharing with you…
And this last ingredient is possibly the most important one. It’s the one that will ENSURE that you see huge progress in your portraits in DAYS, rather than years…
But first, let me tell you a story…
When I was about eleven years old, I sat in the kitchen, chatting with my mom as she baked a birthday cake for my little brother’s birthday.
The cake was a new recipe, and it was a huge hit. It became THE birthday cake for our family, and quickly rose in the ranks to become my favorite dessert.
I would ask my mom all the time to make that cake, but she always insisted that it was just for special occasions.
You can imagine my disappointment!
Being the industrious pre-teen that I was, however, I felt sure I could figure it out. I had seen her bake the cake more than once. I remembered the ingredients she used, what pan she poured the batter into…
So one day while my mom was out at some church event, I tried it.
I poured all the ingredients into a bowl, mixed it up, and poured it into the pan. Of course, without a recipe, I was guessing on specifics. How much of each thing, what temperature to bake it at… All guesses.
It did not go well.
In fact, it was pretty awful.
I hid the evidence and went on begging my mom to make it for me any chance I got.
Years went by, and as I learned to bake myself, I made it a mission to figure out that cake.
I looked up recipes online.
I bought cookbooks.
I searched Pinterest until I was blue in the face.
Nothing was quite the same.
I’d tweak the recipes, trying different things, but that usually only made it worse.
Finally, years later, I went back to my mom. “You’ve got to give me the recipe,” I said. “I’ve been trying to figure it out for years! How do you make that birthday cake?” I was practically begging. I was getting really tired of eating all those terrible cakes.
My mom laughed and looked at me like I was a little crazy. “You could have just asked,” she said.
“You said no…” I replied, thinking back to my 11-year-old self asking for cake on some random day in February. “You said it was just for special occasions.”
She laughed. “You were eleven!” She got up and went to the kitchen, plucked a recipe card from a little box in the cabinet, and handed it to me.
My jaw dropped.
I had wasted so much time trying to figure it out on my own, when all I had to do was ask!
Now, I can whip up that cake any time I want in under an hour flat. I can have birthday cake any day I want, because I have the recipe.
You see, it didn’t matter that I knew all the ingredients. What mattered was that I had a PLAN to follow. Clear instructions that got me the results I wanted with no confusion or fuss.
I didn’t have to spend years wasting time and money (think of all that wasted flour!) trying to figure it out on my own.
I could have avoided all that frustration!
Unfortunately, many people (myself included) do just that with our art.
We spend years and years struggling, trying, failing, and searching. We cobble together different methods and tips and try to turn it into something that works…
We end up with a crumbly mess. Not cake.
That’s why the last ingredient in learning to draw lifelike portraits QUICKLY and EASILY…
…is to have a simple, consistent system to guide you along. A recipe, if you will.
I mean, you’ve probably seen how much information is out there on the subject of drawing portraits. Just a simple Google search returns literally over ONE BILLION results!
And YouTube isn’t any better…
There are thousands and thousands of videos to weed through, most of which are not very helpful at all, and in fact are probably teaching you stuff that will make it HARDER for you to learn, not easier.
Take a look at these results:
Then there’s Facebook. There are lots of Facebook groups about drawing, right?
True. I mean, literally thousands.
Most of them aren’t any better than the YouTube videos we just saw, but even in the ones that are, you’re competing against THOUSANDS of other members for any help or attention.
Do you really want to join a group of over 84 THOUSAND members?
How in the world are you supposed to filter through that to find anything helpful?
You could always go the route of learning through books. But if you’re looking for a simple path to follow there, you’re still out of luck.
There are probably millions of books out there about drawing. Trying to find one that actually teaches the right stuff is like searching for a needle in a haystack!
If structure is so important for learning a new skill, how are you supposed to find it in all this mess?
That’s why I decided it was time to create a portrait drawing course of my own.
One that didn’t make the same mistakes that most other art training does.
One that will actually teach you the important stuff, the stuff that will make a real difference for you…
One that would get my students REAL results, REALLY fast.
I’m at war with the establishment.
I’m at war with the idea that you have to go to art school to become a real artist, and that the only training left for the rest of us is bad, inefficient, and just plain doesn’t work.
Bad art training has been ruining students for too long!
Too many artists have been discouraged and pushed away from art… The very thing that they should be able to turn to when they want to relax or enjoy themselves.
When I created Lifelike Portraits in 21 Days, I made it for the Susans and the Lydias of the world.
For the people who were tired and frustrated…
For those who want to get JOY from their drawings, not tears and frustration.
I didn’t want to create another program that just strings you along indefinitely in the hopes that eventually you’ll see some improvement, milking you for all you’re worth.
Instead, I took everything I’ve learned… everything I’ve discovered that ACTUALLY make a difference, and put it into a simple program that will show you EXACTLY how to get real results in no time at all.
To be honest, I fully expect blowback from the art education community.
I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up any day now to angry emails from art instructors, telling me I’m “ruining” art.
Imagine that…
Just because I’m getting you real results, teaching you the stuff that normally is only taught in small, serious circles of serious artists… (and only after they’ve duly invested a stupid amount of money on their art education).
I’m putting traditional art teachers out of a job! (Sorry, guys!)
The truth is, most of the training available to artists who aren’t on the “professional artist” track just doesn’t cut it.
It’s not given by real artists, and it won’t help you to reach your goals.
Most education for those who DO want to become professional artists is unnecessarily time consuming and expensive!
My method is about teaching you the important skills and techniques that will get you to your goals quickly. NOT after thousands of dollars, and NOT after many years of practice.
You can MASTER this skill in no time (and by the way, it is a SKILL, not a talent. You don’t have to be born with it)!
That’s why I’ve declared war on the traditional way of learning to draw. I’m drawing a line in the sand. I’m fighting for YOU to get the results you want.
It shouldn’t take you years to see results in your portrait drawings.
You deserve to be happy with your work — NOW, not in 5 years!
That’s why I left out all the weird and pointless art class exercises. No fruit bowls to be found! No abstract theory or expensive, drawn out classes.
Just real results, broken down into a simple, easy-to-learn system that can have you drawing beautiful portraits in no time, whether you’ve been at this for years or you’re just getting started.
The students who have gone through this material are already seeing huge results!
Here’s what one student had to say after she used the techniques in this course to draw a portrait in honor of her friend’s father who had passed away:
Now, what if Ahna had been more like Susan? What if she’d used the old way of drawing… spent six months trying and failing and eventually giving up?
She would have missed the opportunity to bless her friend with something so beautiful during that difficult time.
If she’d ever finished it, it would have been months, maybe years later, and the moment would have passed.
I’m sure her friend would have appreciated it, but how much more meaningful was it that she could give this gift when she did?
And here’s Pam who was a complete beginner when she found this course:
I have to tell you, seeing stories like Ahna’s and Pam’s make my whole long journey feel worth it.
(Even the part where I locked myself in my studio for months on end while I filmed the course!)
Now, I have a question for you…
Are you ready for the new normal in portrait drawing? Are you ready to get results… fast?