Portrait Society Conference 2024 #2

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

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.

Portrait Society Conference 2023

In May I attended the Annual Conference of The Portrait Society, my second year to go, this time in Reston, VA. I had a wonderful time, meeting people from last year, meeting new people, learning new things and receiving critiques.

This year I attended a pre-conference workshop, 9 am-4 pm on Thursday before the Conference started. From the 4 options available I chose ‘Drawing on Emotion’ with Mary Whyte. She gave us drawing instruction in the morning and I drew each of the two models.

In the afternoon she guided us through considering how to instruct and pose the models to depict a certain, chosen emotion. Again I drew the two models. She walked around and gave us helpful critiques on our drawings.

The first main event of the Conference on Thursday evening was the ‘Face-Off’, where 18 artists paint or sculpt 6 models, 3 artists to each model. Attendees could walk around and watch the portraits in progress—all very different approaches!

I also enjoyed two breakout sessions, several main stage demos and talks, the Gala Banquet, and the talks with artists who were the finalists in the International Competition. A highlight for me, as last year, were the lunch time Critique Sessions. I showed my portfolio to six different artists and received very helpful advice.

All in all it was a wonderful four days of learning and inspiration!