Painterly Portrait Course, Spring 2024
Tag Portrait
Learning Pastels
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.
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
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.
Holding On—No Longer
(I wrote this post earlier this year, but then did not want to publish it, as my mum was declining. Now that she is gone, I feel I can honor her by publishing it. She liked the painting and had a print of it made and kept it in her kitchen).
I miss her. This painting brings me good memories.
Oil on Canvas Panel, 16 x 20 ins
This is a painting of someone very dear to me. She was widowed at age 74, survived a lymphoma at age 79, and here in this painting at 86 is still living a brave, determined and out-ward focused life.
The painting won First Place in Oil Painting at the Wabash Valley Art Guild Spring Show this year.
Frozen For a Moment
After painting ‘Katherine in Grey’ I decided to try a full color painting using a grisaille underpainting. I bought an online class to help me—Oil Painting Portrait Glazing class by Will Kemp.
For all of the figure and dress I used two simple triads of colors—Mars Yellow, Chinese Vermillion, and Turquoise light, all by Sennelier, plus Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Umber and Titanium White by Geneva Fine Art.
I enjoyed the process of all the steps and layers. Maybe I’ll try it again!
Katherine in Gray
After doing some underpaintings in Black and white (and gray!) I started this one of Katherine. I used an app called Value Study to get the basic idea. The background is a light layer of burnt sienna.
I was planning to paint color layers over it, but so many people said they like it as it is that I left it!
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!
Cara, Oil on gessoed MDF board, 9 x 12 ins.
I painted this, using my own photo, after watching lessons by Jane French on Domestika.
She uses a direct approach and a square brush technique. I like her paintings because she uses surprising colors on the skin tones, and yet from a distance they meld in beautifully.
I did not achieve the same colors in the skin tones here. That needs another attempt. I’m happy with the brushwork changes I made.
The picture reminds me of a happy conversation on a pleasant evening with friends.
Lesson by Jane French
The Green Look
Oil on Canvas Panel 12 x 16 ins
I painted this portrait of my daughter from a photo I took while we were sitting on our deck one sunny lunchtime. I was struck by the lovely green reflection of her shirt in her cheek and chin. It really seemed to jump up there!
Here are some of the steps I took in the painting:
Happy in Greece
This is my brother!
Last summer I delivered paintings of his wife and his son to them when we visited. He very gently hinted that it might be fitting to have one of himself to go with them.
When I returned home I collected all the photos I had of him and sent him a selection of my favorites as possibilities for painting. We both agreed that this one was our choice. It’s from a vacation in Greece (I didn’t take the photo!).
I liked the warmth and happiness of the photo. It was a full-length shot and the resolution was not very high when I enlarged it, but the expression and the colors were so great I proceeded anyway.
He and I are both pleased with the result and I will deliver it to him in the UK later this year.
marymayhewart 