How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs

Lee Hammond is known as “The Queen of Art”, by her publisher, North Light Books! She is a prolific writer and artist, in a variety of themes. With more than 40 years' experience, she is the true pro when it comes to art instruction, illustration, and forensic art.

POLLY “LEE” HAMMOND
Lee Hammond is an author, illustrator and art instructor from the Kansas City area, who now resides in Naples, Florida. Her career spans more than 35 years. She is now the Artist in Residence for the Rookery Bay Research Reserve in Naples, Florida, where she teaches art in a variety of mediums and subject matter. She is also the official artist for the Friends of the Florida Panther organization, and the Naples Zoo.

Lee Hammond's passion is teaching, and has owned and operated private teaching studios her entire career. Within her studios she has taught fine art to literally thousands of aspiring artists.
Lee is also a prolific writer who has had more than 35 books on art instruction published by North Light Books in Cincinnati. She has been their best selling author for more than 20 years and releases new books for them on a regular basis Her books feature step-by-step instructions for drawing and painting, utilizing her own proven, self taught techniques.

Lee is also a forensic illustrator and sketch artist for the Police. She started a career in law enforcement in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1978, where she was trained as a forensic artist, and certified with Smith and Wesson. She continues to aid various law enforcement agencies by drawing composites of suspects, as well as reconstruction drawings for identifying John Doe cases. She is also an expert age progression artist. Her drawings have been integral in solving many cases.
She moved to Kansas City in 1981 to work for the Kansas City metro Police Departments and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. She then married. Raising a family forced her into a self imposed retirement from law enforcement in 1983, finding it too difficult to be on call with small children. She then concentrated on teaching and writing, creating a very successful career with a strong following of loyal students and readers. She wrote books on illustration, specifically portraiture, and continued to hone her skills and expertise in facial anatomy.

The murder of a young woman in Leawood, Kansas in 2002 prompted her return to law enforcement, and she volunteered her services to help with the case. When the case was not immediately solved, the TV show “America's Most Wanted” was also called in to gather national attention. They created a show based on the unsolved murder, and asked for leads. Because of the professionalism of her work, the producers of “America's Most Wanted” hired her to work on their show, to help them with future cases. The case that brought them to Kansas was ultimately solved due to her drawing.

She worked for “America's Most Wanted” on many cases, and is also on other true crime shows. She continues to offer her services to Police Departments in SW Florida.

Other career highlights for Lee include working as an illustrator for NASCAR®, creating drawings and paintings of the race car drivers. Those prints were sold all over the country, and on QVC.
Her prints are not limited to the sports market however. Lee also creates beautiful drawings and paintings of many different subjects, including animals, scenery, and floral. Fine art prints of these pieces of artwork are sold nationwide.

Lee's newest endeavor is branching out into other genres in the publishing world. She is releasing a motivational book titled REACH!, in 2016, through Balboa Press, a division of Hay House Publishing. She will be offering motivational speeches and lectures upon its release, as well as REACH related artwork, illustrations and note cards.

Lee is also working on a novel titled “Remembering Anthony”, which addresses teenage suicide and bullying. Based on a childhood friend who took his own life more than 40