Sketching The Portrait With Casey Baugh

Reviewer: Jeffrey F.

This is quite a good video, and Casey is highly skilled. There are almost no quality videos about drawing, and charcoal in particular, so this really is a must-see.

He introduced me to methods I had never considered, such as the "charcoal sock" which puffs charcoal dust on the page. This is what he uses to start the drawing, to keep it general and light. He then develops the center of interest, and works out from there. Casey uses methods such as sprinkling charcoal dust on the page, then spraying it with acetone. He also manipulates the image with a paintbrush dipped in acetone.

The video loses a point for being a bit stingy. The actual instructional part of the DVD is 41 minutes long. Come on, Casy. There was plenty of opportunity to give more info, discuss various techniques, and share more knowledge. I believe this video is part of an upcoming series, so he's probably planning to stretch one DVD of instruction into two or three disks.

Note also that the disk is defective. The bonus material has no sound. Casey is talking, but all you get is a hiss from the TV.

But the bonus material was skimpy as well. It's divided into sections for each drawing tool, and each bonus video is only about 30 seconds long. I doubt that the longest one is a full minute. Casey really was holding back.

Casey is very young (around 22), and very skilled. Despite the brevity, the video is absolutely worth renting.

Reviewer: Grace S.

Casey's charcoal drawings are beautiful. His commentary with the DVD is clear but not too elaborate. Good Demonstration. I like it!

Reviewer: UNKNOWN

A lot can be learned from this DVD. There are great methods but it is very short and he only draws one picture. Even with its brevity, I still learned a ton of methods using charcoal and I would highly recommend this.

Reviewer: Amit K.

It was nice and worth renting. It had good charcoal techniques

Reviewer: Sumit R.

This DVD will help you to draw a new way of portrait drawing using charcoal. I must appreciate his technique which was new to me. Cassey as an artist is brillant and no doubt that future of this self taught artist is very bright. Most probably this is his first DVD so we will expect more step by step information in his next video representation. Kudos to Cassey.

Reviewer: Gerard P.

While Casey Baugh is very talented,and his portrait was beautiful,as a learning DVD,it was not a learning experience.

Reviewer: angela h.

Loved the video! Despite lukewarm reviews, decided to rent it and don't regret it! Its not for the novice, and still I didn't feel like he was holding back. Very insightful,the quality of the DVD is great, liked the classical theme that he was conveying, and the special features work just fine, the sound is loud and clear. And of course, I learned some new techniques, which I can now combine with my own, especially painterly effects. Awesome video, totally worth renting!!!

Reviewer: Cory D.

Casey is vary fast... A bit too fast. I wish he did at least once more study. Since he did bring up how he could tackle the project. Once being Direct observation (Good for beginners) and then his Artistic observation (good for fine art majors). He could of had a good comparing and sharing the different workflows.

On a side note I found his site and the DVD is $50 for about an hour of content... Not a vary good value in my book. So I am glad I rented before I bought the DVD. One thing that I would really like to buy would be how he renders cloth especially semi translucent and bright clothing. One of his drawings in the gallery (Last one I think) relay popped out to me.

As for the sound issues:: I had it too, and I could not use my computers PowerDVD program. My work around for the sound issue is to use Windows Media Player and it worked.

Reviewer: Monique B.

Having never seen any actual charcoal techniques demonstrated live before, I learned enough from this DVD to make it worthwhile. The audio is a bit low in some areas though which makes it harder to hear.

Reviewer: Steven P.

This was an excellent video of how to do a portrait with charcoal. The artist was very good in explaining how to use charcoal and made the directions to complete the portrait easy to understand. I was surprised someone so young could do an portrait so well using just charcoal, a charcoal pencil, a charcoal sock and a small amount of white to work on a light background. He explained his philosophy of art, of how to make the portrait look not like a photograph, but an artist rendition of someones face. I always had a problem doing the hair, but he explained how to do the hair and block out the shapes very well for the face, then nose, and lips, etc. I would recommend this video to anyone who would like to learn how to do a excellent portrait using just charcoal, a charcoal sock, and a charcoal pencil. If you have any more DVDs from this artist, I would be happy to rent them.

Reviewer: Richard W.

I heard that Casey Baugh is working on several new videos that will be available soon including sketching the portrait of master painter, Richard Schmid. What fun! I personally think his last video to be the work of a genius and cannot wait to see and learn more!

Reviewer: John Y.

Very informative. Video was well presented with good detail shots. Materials used were well explained. Important because his technique in unconventional.

Reviewer: Brenda R.

Delightful! I really enjoyed the last section showing the painting step by step. Very clear instructions.

Reviewer: Samir I.

I loved it. I have always used smooth newsprint and charcoal to draw - I avoided white paper and charcoal because that combination was always too unforgiving when it came to mistakes. But then, he showed his trick with the sock! That solved the problem for me. I will be using his techniques from now on.

One word of caution: Watching this is a very humbling experience. He's just that good.

Reviewer: Rebecca G.

Mostly Casey gave us some of his style techniques and showed his formidable drawing ability. In that regard, it opened me up to new adventures. It did not convey any in-depth help for basic drawing lessons. Too short.

Reviewer: paul g.

Very interesting techniques and helpful as well. A nice job by the artist. I would rent his next volume when you get it.

Reviewer: Natasha N.

My only problem with this video was that it was entirely too short. Otherwise, beautiful technique!

Reviewer: Natasha N.

My only problem with this video was that it was entirely too short. Otherwise, beautiful technique!