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Portrait Society Conference 2024 #2

mayhewjnm 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.

From a breakout session
From the free drawing studio
From the free drawing studio

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.

Live Portrait group in PA, II

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Here are the results of the second 2 hour session I attended. The model this time was a local veteran. He was a very patient and cheerful sitter!
A photo of the model.

At the end of the session, the model inspected the various representations of himself, with generous comments to all!

The group plans to continue painting veterans every other week, and in Nov 2022 have a display of all the year’s portraits of veterans at the VA hospital. At that time each veteran may choose one portrait of themselves to keep. I thought that was a great plan!

Oil, 9 x 12

Several months later, I painted the same subject again (from my photo), on a larger canvas and with a more expressive background.

Live Portrait Group in PA, I

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During our fall stay in PA, I went to a couple of two hour live portrait sessions at a local art center. On one occasion we painted a class member and on the other, a veteran. There were 6-8 artists present, using a variety of media.

On the first session I attended we painted a class member. I started in charcoal, and was pleased to find I could make a decent likeness in about half an hour.

Charcoal on toned gray paper, 5.5 x 8.5 in

Then I painted the sitter again using a very limited palette of oil paints. This was yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black, titanium white and transparent red oxide (a modifed version of the palette used by Swedish master artist Anders Zorn).

Oil Paint on canvas, 6 x 7.75 in

I started with a very rough block-in, then painted all the shadows with transparent red oxide for the face and ivory black for the clothing. I found the limited number of colors easier to manage and mix.

I was very happy with the glow that the red oxide gave to the face. The other class members had useful comments to make about my efforts and said I’d captured his likeness exactly. It was all very enjoyable and satisfying.