Membership
Treat yourself or a loved one with the gift of Membership: enjoy free access to all exhibitions, access to our Members’ Room, priority booking to evening talks, and much more.
Join today
Sketching Portraits
Online course
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Spend six weeks with one of the UK’s leading drawing teachers, Jake Spicer, as we cover the fundamentals of portrait drawing, combining practical observational skills with focused examination of the elements that make up a face.
The aim of the course is to help you to establish a competent and responsive portrait drawing practice, helping you to make clearer observations and more confident mark-making. Expect weekly live tutorials and hands-on feedback from Jake, as well as specially recorded video lessons and weekly 'Spotlight' sessions with artists and V&A curators, focusing on what we can learn from the wonders of the V&A's collection.
The aim of the course is to help you to establish a competent and responsive portrait drawing practice, helping you to make clearer observations and more confident mark-making. Expect weekly live tutorials and hands-on feedback from Jake, as well as specially recorded video lessons and weekly 'Spotlight' sessions with artists and V&A curators, focusing on what we can learn from the wonders of the V&A's collection.
Workshop Leader
Jake Spicer
Jake is a visual artist, author and educator. He is head tutor of 'Draw' in Brighton, which he founded in 2009, and a co-director of 'The Drawing Circus'. Jake has written a series of best-selling instructional books, and is a regular tutor with, among other, the V&A and Cass Art as well as Derwent Pencils, for whom he is an ambassador.
I really felt I learned something, the structure was great...loads of space for individual study and expression Previous V&A Academy Student
Course overview
Week 1: An introduction to sketching portraits. We'll start with the skills and attitudes that underpin observational portrait sketching, starting with energetic exercises to establish drawing as a regular habit.
Week 2: Turns & tilts of the head. Next we'll look at the challenges associated with drawing the head from different angles, exploring turns of the head and tilts back and forward.
Week 3: The neck & shoulders. Often overlooked in favour of the face, we'll focus on the contribution that the head and shoulders make to the expression and structure of a portrait.
Week 4: Structural features: nose & ears. Next, we'll zoom in on the features, looking at how the nose and ears contribute to our understanding of structure in the head and how we can use their shape and position to improve the proportions of our drawings.
Week 5: Expressive features: mouth & eyes. We'll take a look at expressive features of the face, the seat of likeness and identity in a portrait.
Week 6: Hair & clothing. We'll conclude the course with an exploration of the shape and texture of hair and clothing followed by a wrapping up of all of the elements we have covered.
V&A Academy Online. A learning environment you can trust.
Membership Priority Booking will open at 10.00 BST on Wednesday 25 June. General Booking will open at 10.00 BST on Monday 7 July 2025.
Enrol now
Online course: Sketching Portraits
4 November 2025 - 9 December 2025
£240.00
Need help enrolling? Talk to the admissions team:
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Open 10.00 - 13.00, Monday to Sunday (closed 24-26 December)
Related events
Header image: Jake Spicer