WASHINGTON – John Hutton starts every White House portrait with an egg-shaped frame.
He sketches the nose, mouth, eyes, and eyebrows, then outlines the face using a grid of horizontal and vertical lines within the oval. Next, he adds hair, and then the neck and shoulders, crafting his paper drawings to resemble figures like President George Washington or First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, as well as other presidents and first ladies, including Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
Hutton, an art history professor from North Carolina who enjoys drawing in his leisure time, has shared his four-step method in his newly released book, “How to Draw the Presidents & First Ladies,” published by the White House Historical Association in July. He showcased this technique for The Associated Press.
Learning to draw by following patterns is possible for everyone, according to Hutton, who designed patterns for each president and first lady. One instructional approach utilizes an egg-shaped outline segmented into thirds. Hutton expanded on this concept.
“In my version, we follow four steps,” he explained. “First, we draw the facial features. Second, we outline the face. Third, we add the hair, or occasionally a bonnet for some historic first ladies, and finally, in the fourth step, we sketch the neck and shoulders slightly to anchor the face.”
“Many believe they can’t draw because they lack a starting point,” Hutton noted. “I developed a set of line patterns for each portrait. By replicating the pattern I created for facial features and face shape, if you get the shapes right, you’re halfway done.”
If the shapes are right and correctly placed, “you’ve got a really good portrait,” he said.
An AP journalist used Hutton’s patterns and four-step approach to create drawings of Washington and Jacqueline Kennedy, achieving a reasonable likeness on the first attempt.
The easiest presidents and first ladies to draw are the most recognizable ones and those with strong features “because people recognize that they’ve done a good job more quickly than they would if we were doing Franklin Pierce,” Hutton said. “Nobody knows who he is.”
Those with small features are the hardest to draw, he said.
Hutton, 64, has taught art history for more than 30 years at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife, Kathleen, also an artist.
He studied at Princeton, Harvard and the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London, and is the illustrator of a series of award-winning children’s books published by the White House Historical Association. Hutton also gives lessons to children during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
He has been drawing since he was 3 and now spends his free time drawing people and landscapes. Hutton started drawing presidents and first ladies when he illustrated an alphabet book for the historical association. His latest book is an update of an earlier one about drawing presidents.
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