Stop Painting Flat Faces (Do This Instead)

If your portraits feel flat, or you struggle to simplify a head into the right shapes and values, the Asaro Head is the single fastest way to fix it. This compiled tutorial walks you through the full RSA Asaro Head process in one video, from measurements and block-in to final refinement.It's the same exercise we teach at the studio before students touch a live portrait, and it builds the foundation that makes every drawing and painting after it stronger. What you'll learn: - Why the Asaro Head is the most efficient tool in Portrait Painting - How to measure and simplify a head down to its essential shapes - The drawing-first, painting-second logic behind a classical approach - How to build, push, and refine values from wash to finished painting - Common mistakes that flatten the form (and how to correct them) ⏱ Chapters: 00:00 Why the Asaro Head 01:00 Portrait Measurements 02:57 Simplify the Features 05:44 Add Neck and Base 07:49 Fix & Mix Values 08:49 Wash & Block In 10:21 Add Background 11:11 Adjust as You Paint 12:34 Focus on Smaller Planes 14:08 Oil Out Your Painting 14:55 Push Tonal Values 16:42 Refine Feature Shapes 17:40 Adjust Neighboring Values 20:00 Finalize Your Background 21:28 Start to Finish Recap 🎨 Series — Portrait Fundamentals at RSA: Part 1 | The Drawing — https://youtu.be/I9Ev6w4tm5E Part 2 | The Block-In — https://youtu.be/sfRT2ooHUkw Part 3 | The Refinement — https://youtu.be/l5hUID1aPWM 🏫📍 About Raminfard School of Arts: RSA has been teaching classical fine art since 2000, now based in Agoura Hills and serving the Conejo Valley. We offer group classes, private lessons, workshops, summer camps, and corporate paint events for beginners through advanced students. 🌐 raminfardart.com 🔔 Subscribe for weekly classical drawing and painting tutorials from a working studio. 💬 Have you painted or drawn the Asaro Head before? What gave you the most trouble — finding the planes, the shadow shapes, or the soft transitions? Tell me in the comments. #AsaroHead #PortraitPainting #PortraitDrawing #LearnToPaint #ClassicalArt #PortraitTutorial #OilPainting #PlanesOfTheFace #ArtInstruction #RaminfardSchoolOfArts #AgouraHills #ConejoValley