WASHINGTON (AP) – John Hutton begins every White House portrait in an oval frame.
He adds nose, mouth, eyes and eyebrows, and outlines his face, guided by a series of horizontal and vertical lines through an oval shape. Hair comes next, neck and shoulders follow, adding definitions and rendering his thesis looks like President George Washington or First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
Hatton, a professor of art history in North Carolina, draws in his spare time, outlined his four-step technique in a new book, “How to Draw a President & First Ladies,” published in July by the White House Historical Society. He demonstrated it for the Associated Press.
Hatton, who created the pattern for all the presidents and first lady, said that anyone can learn to draw with the following patterns. One teaching method is based on an oval frame divided into a third. Hatton went a step further.
“My version is that there are four steps,” he said. “We first draw facial features. We draw the face profiles second. We draw the hair, or some bonnets of the first woman from the old days, then a little of the neck and shoulders.”
“A lot of people don’t know where to start and think they can’t draw,” Hutton said. “So what I did was create a series of line patterns for each portrait. And then I have them copy the line patterns I created for each facial feature, such as the shape of the face, the shape of the face, and if I copy the shape correctly, it’s in the middle.”
If the shape is correct and placed correctly, “You have a really good portrait,” he said.
The AP Reporter painted portraits of Washington and Jacqueline Kennedy using a Hatton pattern and four steps.
The easiest president and first woman are the most famous presidents, because “people realize that people did a better job than they did with Franklin Piercing,” Hutton said. “No one knows who he is.”
He said that people with smaller features are the most difficult to draw.
Hatton, 64, has taught art history for over 30 years at Salem University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
He studied at Princeton, Harvard University and the prestigious Court Law Institute of Arts, and is an illustrator of a series of award-winning children’s books published by the White House Historical Society. Hatton also teaches annual children lessons White House Easter Egg Roll.
He has been drawing since he was three years old, and now he spends his free time drawing people and landscapes. Hutton began drawing the president and the first woman when he drew the Historical Society’s alphabet book. His latest book is an update to a previous book on portraying the president.
