Image: Quick portraits during Drawing with Dylan
Portrait Sketching Summary
Here’s a recap of the Portrait Sessions included in this article:
- MONDAY: Drawing is Free
- TUESDAY: Drawing with Dylan
- WEDNESDAY: Musink Sessions
- THURSDAY: Pencils4Tea
I wrote a popular article a while ago about online life drawing classes, and thought it was about time I spread the word about the live Portrait Drawing sessions available. I’ve provided a list of the artist who host weekly or monthly live portrait drawing sessions online, as well as some additional information about the benefits of speed sketching, and where you can find some useful references for portrait sketching.
Timed Portrait Sketching
Timed portrait sketching practice is essential for developing your observation skills as well as building your hand-eye coordination. It’s good training to help you let go of perfectionism and embrace your expressive lines.
Observational Skills
When you’re faced with a live model and a short time limit, it’s easy to fall into the trap of relying on stored memory to sketch facial details, rather than sketching what you’re actually looking at. So building sharp observation skills is the foundation for drawing, no matter what subject you’re trying to capture.
Check out this video for some simple to follow tips about really looking at what you want to sketch: 7 Tips to Improve Your Observation for Drawing
Check out this video to see how to Draw A Face in 12 Seconds using the Loomis Method.
List of Portrait Sketching Sessions Online
Here are the online portrait sketching session in chronological order by day of the week. It’s indicated whether the session is free to attend, donation, or payment required.
1. Drawing in Free
Live online portrait drawing sessions, most Monday mornings and evenings hosted by Chloe Briggs. You don’t need to register. Just turn up! Chloë will ask people who join the zoom to model for the group! Last time I attended, there were over 500+ people on the call, so it’s the luck of the draw whether you get picked to pose.
Each pose is the length of a music track, so between 3 to 5 minutes. During the one hour session, you can expect to sketch about 12 portraits.
- Monday
- 9am to 10am and 6pm to 7pm Paris Time
- 8am to 9am and 5pm to 6pm (UK and Portugal Time)
- Free and Open to all.
- Zoom Link for Portrait Sketching
- https://drawingisfree.org/Monday-Live-Portrait-Sessions
- Drawing is Free on Instagram
Here’s some of my Drawing is Free speed sketches
2. Drawing with Dylan
Join Dylan and his international group of sketchers for a weekly two-hour sketching session for unguided poses, based on different prompts.
There’s a short break and the one-hour mark.
Dylan hosts uninstructed portrait drawing sessions. As an urban sketcher who wants to get better at drawing faces quickly this is an AMAZING resource. Each artist is drawn, and creates a pose based on a prompt provided by the previous model. Each artist takes it in turns to pose and provide the prompts. It’s fun and interactive, and a good training ground for quick portrait sketches.
- Tuesday
- 7:30pm to 9:30pm German Time
- 6:30pm to 8:30pm (UK and Portugal Time)
- €6 or pay what you want
- https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9271971442
- https://www.dylansara.com/learn-with-me.html
- Dylan Sara on Instagram
10 Minute Daily Portrait Sketching Session on YouTube
Dylan has also been hosting a 10 minute live stream portrait sketching event every morning on YouTube. Check out his historical Daily Drawing streams, or join live at 10am German Time.
Here’s some of my Drawing with Dylan speed sketches
3. Musink
Weekly live portrait speed sketching session to music tracks hosted by Mark.
- Wednesday
- First Half 5:30pm CET – Zoom Link 4:30pm (UK and Portugal Time)
- Second Half 6:00pm CET – Zoom Link 5:00pm (UK and Portugal Time)
- Free to attend
- Musink on Instagram
Here’s some of my Musink Session speed sketches
4. Pencils4tea
Weekly live portrait speed sketching to music tracks hosted by Kirsty Lockhart.
- Thursday
- 6pm-7pm UK time
- Free to attend
- Zoom Link for Portrait Sketching
- https://bio.site/kirsty.lockhart
- Pencils4Tea on Instagram
Here’s some of my Pencils4tea speed sketches
London Drawing
Monthly online instructor-led portrait event. This is a tutored class with two tutors drawing along, talking about their drawing process and answering questions. The model for each session is displayed on Eventbrite and Instagram.
- Saturday – once per month (Jan 2026 was held on the 24th)
- 4pm to 6pm UK time
- Tickets available on eventbrite £12 + 12p booking fee
- London Drawing on Instagram
- https://londondrawing.com/recorded-classes/
Tips For Timed Sketches
I open the stopwatch on my phone and click START at the beginning of a timed sketch, so I have a good idea when it’s coming to an end. This is especially useful when each pose is a different length. I find it’s much easier to use the stopwatch than fiddle about with setting the timer for different times for each pose.
These are the only regular portrait sketching sessions I know about, but if you host a regular event, or know of one, please leave me a comment and I'll add it to the list.
Portrait References
If you’re looking for Portrait References, here’s some online sources:
Judith Yaws Portrait Challage References
References are free to use. You just need to tag @jyportraitchallenge on your post or #jyportraitchallenge in caption.
