Expressive Portraiture – Journey from Referenced to Original Portraits by Justine Florentino

If reference portraits feel safe but original work feels scary, this class closes that gap. Justine Florentino walks you through a clear, repeatable system to paint expressive faces with real emotion — from value studies and color studies to a full referenced portrait and your own original character.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How to break the head down into simple shapes, proportions, and planes
• How to control values with squinting, shadow mapping, and light source studies
• How to paint realistic skin tones, color harmony, and dynamic lighting
• How to use brush economy and alla prima techniques for lively, loose work
• How to paint facial features, head structure, and natural flowing hair
• How to build custom digital brushes and use curated palettes for speed
• How to go from thumbnail and reference gathering to a finished original portrait

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic drawing fundamentals and familiarity with layers and brushes in a digital painting app
• Tools: Digital painting software with custom brush support, drawing tablet with pressure sensitivity
• Hardware: Computer capable of running Photoshop or similar, stable internet for streaming lessons

📝 Description

This isn’t theory for theory’s sake. Justine teaches the way he actually paints — start simple, build in layers, and finish with personality. You’ll work through 20 guided exercises that stack on each other, so you always know what to practice next. No guessing, no unfinished sketches left in a folder.

You’ll start with shapes, proportions, and brush economy. That means fewer, smarter strokes instead of over-blending everything to death. Then you’ll dig into value structure with squinting exercises, shadow identification, and light source studies. Once you can read light correctly, color gets a lot easier.

Color is where portraits start to breathe. You’ll practice turning color refs into black-and-white and back again, test color harmony, and learn how to mix believable skin tones under different lighting. Justine includes his 20 most-used brushes, a full guide to making your own, plus 10 pre-made palettes so you can skip the setup pain and just paint.

The last stretch is the fun part: facial anatomy, features, and an in-depth hair painting session focused on flow and texture. You’ll finish four portfolio pieces — a value study, a color study, a referenced portrait, and an original portrait. By the end you have a workflow you can reuse for any character, fanart or original IP.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Beginner artists who want a structured, step-by-step way into portraiture without feeling lost
• Intermediate painters who want to bring traditional painting logic into their digital workflow
• Character artists and illustrators who want more expressive, lifelike faces with story behind them

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Justine Florentino is a full-time illustrator known for expressive, painterly portraits with strong light and emotion. He didn’t start in art school — he’s an IT graduate who kept a tech job while sketching on the side for years. That side hustle turned into a career through steady practice and a focus on portrait painting fundamentals.

Now he works as a professional digital illustrator, sharing a practical blend of traditional principles and digital tools. His teaching is direct and process-driven: custom brushes, curated references, and demo files you can actually follow along with.

🏁 Final Result

• Value study showing clean light/shadow separation and solid form
• Color study with natural skin tones and controlled harmony
• Finished referenced portrait with likeness, texture, and mood
• Original character portrait designed from thumbnails to final paint — ready for portfolio or social

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.