A number of blogs about the 6 week portrait painting course
Here are some portrait drawings from the first Advanced Classical Realism Course. It was the first time the students have worked on a long pose from life. They did a good job considering it was their first time and had no prior experience.
The pose lasted 6 weeks which was a bit too long for some people. Next time the course will either be broken down into 2 x 3 week poses or drawing exercises for one half of each class and the sitter posing for the other half.
Just tested the Charcoal Materials for the Workshop this weekend. Did a quick study of Julian at the Tuesday night drop in. Tested out some smooth heavy weight paper and the rest of the materials I will be providing for the students. I’m quite happy with the result.
Here’s a photo of the charcoal materials I will be providing for the workshop which I have listed below.
Each workstation will include;
This week the class focused on mass drawing, rendering the solidity of the subject by masses of tone, without using line to describe the outlines of each form.
Our resident pin up, live from Louis Smiths Studio.
Now getting the studio sorted out for the Classical Art Course. Just installed a new balanced lighting system so the students can see colour clearly. There’s more than enough light for those dark winter nights 🙂
Below is a before and after self portrait, donated by one of the students after the portrait painting course. He used the original pose and the same medium to see how much he had progressed after attending the course.
A self portrait is probably the most difficult subjects to paint. The way we perceive ourselves effects our visual judgement. The challenge is to remain impartial and paint what you see. This is easier said than done.
The Academic discipline is a logical step by step process that helps the artist describe one visual element at a time, developing an objective way to describe reality
In the self portrait below, the student has clearly developed his visual language. Notice the difference in the proportions of the head, understanding of form, draughtsmanship and line weight.
The first of the six week portrait courses has finished and was a great success. All 10 people on the course produced fantastic pieces of work and all said they had a good time learning disciplines that most artists don’t get a chance to touch on.
Below are some images from the course.
