Introduction to likeness: Portraits

Join award-winning portrait artist Mathew Lynn in this comprehensive workshop designed to provide both beginners and experienced students with a strong foundation in portrait drawing and painting.

Mathew will guide you through step-by-step processes, covering portrait history, essential materials, composition, facial structure, and key techniques such as proportions, shading, and line drawing. Students will work from A4 prints of faces they are drawn to, learning how to use grids and other methods to transfer images to their artwork. The workshop also includes a demonstration on transferring drawings to canvas, color theory, mixing, and applying paint. More experienced students can work at their own pace, focusing on areas of their practice needing attention. This supportive, lively environment encourages conversation and constructive feedback, helping you build confidence and essential skills to tackle more challenging portrait work in the future.

About your teacher

Sydney-based artist Mathew Lynn is renowned for his portraiture and contemporary figurative and landscape painting. With over twenty years of success, Lynn has exhibited with Nanda\Hobbs, exploring themes of personhood and meditative experience. A Master of Art graduate from the University of New South Wales, Lynn has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize eighteen times, winning the People’s Choice Award in 1997 and the Packers’ Prize in 2013. He has also been a finalist in the Wynne, Sulman, Shirley Hannan, and Doug Moran National Portrait Prizes. His work is held in major collections, including the National Portrait Gallery Canberra and Government House Sydney.