Painterly Portrait Course, Spring 2024

May 31, 2024November 17, 2024mayhewjnm Leave a comment

Self-portrait, 9 x 12 ins, pastel on Pastelmat

Photo taken by my sister. I was sitting by a north facing window: there was no other illumination.

Placing the features by using comparative distances (with a skewer!) I am really glad to have improved at this skill from the teaching in the Painterly Portrait Course.

The color chart and underpainting (a thin layer of pastel in local colors, brushed with rubbing alcohol).

Learning Pastels

May 29, 2024May 25, 2024mayhewjnm 2 Comments

For a long time I have admired the luminosity and colors of paintings done using the pastel medium, but have considered it too messy of a process.

In February, I saw Alain Picard’s ‘Portrait Week’ advertised. His portraits really appeal to me, and I wanted to know how he achieved his effects, so I signed up.

I found that he is a very well-organized, knowledgeable, and encouraging teacher.

My reference photo, from Raw Umber Studios, UK

The finished product, at the end of the week.

This painting has some wild color choices (how do pastel artists achieve color harmony!?—in oils we use a limited palette of colors; I have a lot to learn!).

Additionally, the pastel marks are too linear and scribbly. Making more blocky marks requires breaking the pastel sticks into smaller pieces; I just couldn’t bear to break up my lovely sticks yet!

The 3 x 3 block on the lower left shows my color choices for the skin tone palette, cool to warm across, and light to dark downwards. (This seems to be the first step in controlling color harmony).

Overall, for a first attempt I was encouraged enough to keep going!

So I signed up for his six week ‘Painterly Portrait Course’, held in March and April…

Portrait Society Conference 2024 #2

May 27, 2024May 25, 2024mayhewjnm 2 Comments

One of the great aspects of the Portrait Society Conference is the opportunity to draw from life—the wonderful models they engage for the conference time.

The first drawing here was from a breakout session (workshop) which I had chosen. The model was dressed and posed very similarly to a drawing by John Singer Sargent. We also had a copy of that drawing to refer to.

The other two drawings were from an evening open studio. There were three models present, and during the 3 hours of the studio we could choose one, or all three. Several faculty were present, to give advice when needed.

All there drawings are on gray-toned sketch paper.

I also loved watching professional artists paint people from life, receiving critiques from professional artists on my own paintings, learning some very helpful and interesting information from the talks and lectures, and meeting up with faculty and attendees that I’ve met at the previous conferences.

Portrait Society Conference 2024, #1

May 24, 2024mayhewjnm Leave a comment

Per-Conference Workshop

In April I went to the annual conference of the Portrait Society of America, this year in Atlanta, GA. I had a wonderful time!

I took an all-day pre-conference workshop with Louis Carr, on preparing for painting by doing color studies. He was a great teacher, starting with a fascinating talk on human perception and the illusions of color.

All 30 people in the class painted color studies under his direction, from small photos of other paintings, just trying to match their shapes and colors.