Hello Reader,

This week I begin a new portrait painting course, and as I've been preparing lessons, I've found myself thinking about faces and what makes them memorable.

There are formulas for drawing and painting portraits. Artists learn proportions, measuring techniques, and guidelines that help us place the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears in roughly the right locations. These "maps" are incredibly helpful. They give us a place to start and help us understand the landscape of the face.

But the interesting thing is that the people we remember most often don't fit the formula perfectly.

Think of Angelina Jolie's famously full lips, Julia Roberts' wide smile, Owen Wilson's distinctive nose, or Barbra Streisand's unmistakable profile. If every face fit the textbook ideal, many of the people we recognize instantly would look far less interesting.

The map helps us understand what is typical.

The art comes from seeing what is unique.

As portrait artists, our goal isn't simply to paint eyes, noses, and mouths in the right places. Our goal is to look beyond the formula and discover what makes each individual who they are. What is the expression they wear when they're lost in thought? How does the light reveal their character? What feature catches your attention first?

In many ways, portrait painting is an exercise in truly seeing another person.

I think this applies to life as well.

It's easy to compare ourselves to some imaginary standard and focus on the ways we don't measure up. Yet the very things we worry about are often the things that make us memorable, recognizable, and uniquely ourselves.

The weathered saddle tells a richer story than the brand-new one.

The old barn has more character than the freshly painted shed.

And people are much the same.

Perhaps beauty isn't found in perfection at all. Perhaps beauty is found in the stories written across our faces, in the things that make us different, and in the courage to be exactly who we are.

Over the next five weeks, my portrait students and I will be exploring the map of the face, but we'll also be learning to look beyond it—to see the individuality, character, and humanity that make portraits come alive. And honestly, that's my favorite part.

Follow along in my weekly newsletters to see what we create

Here's to seeing the world with artist eyes,

Leslie