About this site:

This is mainly a "tutorial" site, written by me, J.R. Dunster. I enjoy sharing information about things that are important to me. Since art is important to me—I created this site.

To get the most out of the tutorials and information on this site, a modest understanding of drawing and art is recommended. But, this does not mean that the newest of art newbies can't get something from my ramblings. I will try to cover a lot of basic art concepts. But, I won't cover every remedial concept about drawing. Therefore, I will be offering links and book suggestions that will (I hope) "fill in any blanks" that I may leave.

What I hope to provide here is my unique viewpoint on portrait art. I also give a few specific tips that I feel are not commonly covered in other tutorial sites. I also point out specific problems that I feel "newbie" portrait artists often have, and I try to offer solutions.

About me (J.R. Dunster):

I am a native of Southern California, and started drawing at a very young age. I was especially interested in drawing animals and people. When I was a teenager, I took lessons from local San Fernando Valley artist Shirlee Prescott Morgan. Later, I attended Otis Art College in Los Angeles, where I studied drawing, painting and illustration.

I have sold many portraits to private collectors, and my artwork is even owned by a few celebrities, like Jaclyn Smith ("Charlie's Angels"), Robert Ito ("Quincy"), Greg Evigan ("My Two Dads") and David Hasselhoff ("Baywatch").

I have branched out to painting on pottery, and also am making art digitally (using Photoshop).

I also work on several other websites. My biggest site (aside from this one) is Bearclover.net, which has a little more about portrait art, has a few tutorials on Photoshop and pottery, but mostly focuses on my photography of Yosemite National Park and California.

About the artwork:

I created all the artwork seen on this site. Some of it was specifically created for this site. Other artwork is currently owned by art collectors. (I sell a lot of portraits to movie and TV fans.) Some of the artwork is scanned in from old sketchbooks.

I use a variety of mediums in my portrait art - pencil, pen and ink, Rapidograph, colored pencil, oils, watercolors, and even the computer (with a digital tablet and graphics software).

Many of the little illustrations and "sketches" (like the ones on this page) are created with very exotic materials. (I hope you detect the sarcasm there!) I use an inexpensive sketchbook from K-Mart, Bic ball-point pens, and those cheap little mechanical pencils. (With the .05 lead, HB hardness.)

Sometimes people will ask me who I used as models for many of these drawings (like the ones on this page). The answer is, there are no models. I just made up "generic" people. Such drawings are easy to create, once an artist has practiced their drawing skills, and understands the structure of the face and head.