Gesture Portraits (Online Workshop) Fall 2024 w/ Rose Irelan

November 5 to November 19 (Tuesdays), 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Eastern Time

**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.

Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite.

DEMO: https://youtu.be/zs4HGnuKQ5c

Workshop Description

We will be working in “Alla Prima” style (painting done all at once) on a small scale, capturing the “gesture” of the human head. Paintings will be executed in 20, 30 minute - 1 hour sessions. Emphasis will be on the indication of color notes and value control and intuitive color. This class is designed to help artists develop a “juicy” style of painting alla prima and to push out of a perfectionist mindset to a joyful flow painting state!

• Some key fundamentals we will cover in this 3 week course

• Proportions and Rhythms of the Human head

• Learning how to see the underlaying “armature” of the human head

• Quick notan sketches to begin the process of simplifying shadow, light and form

• Retaining form and values with color quickly

• Practical and pragmatic approach to color mixing that works

• How to achieve color harmony

• Setting up your painting with a simplified value scheme and sticking to that when mixing your colors

• Using the Zorn limited palette of just 3 colors plus white

• Using a warm/cool palette

• Brushwork and calligraphy (mark-making)

Workshop Outline

Week 1 -

Introduction to gesture portrait work with samples of works done by Master Artists in an impressionistic and painterly style and discuss what works and why in these examples. We will start the course with a review of the proportions of the human head, the Rhythms and planes of the head. These will serve as our foundation for “good drawing” for the first class and other subsequent classes.

• Proportions

• Rhythms and Planes of the Head

• Notan thumbnail sketches to quickly indicate “light/dark” pattern in a simple abstraction. This will be a practice we will do in all our gesture studies

• Light and shadow on form. The importance of keeping Light and Shadow families separate in values and colors

• Instructor demo on a Gesture portrait

• Homework assignment

Week 2 -

Slide show on Ander’s Zorn’s work and review of the Zorn palette, followed by a demonstration. Feedback on student work

• Review of the Zorn palette and how to shift mixes to warm and cool

• Instructor Demo

• Homework assignment

Week 3 -

Full Warm/Cool palette.

Demonstration of Gesture Portrait using full warm/cool palette. Review of strategies for mixing color skin tones and creating harmonious color.

• Feedback on student work

• Instructor Portrait Gesture Demo

Workshop Materials List

PAINTS (oil, water based oils or acrylic)

Cadmium Yellow Lemon or Light

Cadmium Yellow Deep

*Cadmium Orange

Yellow Ochre (or Gold Ochre by Holbein, which is my preference. I also like Rembrandt Yellow Ochre)

Cadmium Red Light (make sure you have a red light not medium)

Alizarin Crimson

Viridian Green Hue (Holbein) or a regular Viridian green. I prefer the punch of the “hue”

Cerulean Blue Hue (great for skies, some water, and some paler greens)

Cobalt Blue (I love Holbein Cobalt Blue Pale but it is expensive so any other brand is fine)

Ultramarine Blue Deep (Ultramarine Blue. Holbein is the brand I use for the Ultramarine Deep. Rembrandt also has it. Regular Ultramarine or French Ultramarine Blue is fine.)

Mineral Violet or Manganese Violet

Quinacridone Rose or Permanent Rose (mostly used for flowers, sometimes for skies and more brilliant

violets)

Ivory Black or Chromatic Black. for value studies and for mixing only. Not straight out of the tube or to “darken” . Black is used as another option for blue as a modifier and mixer. I also keep a tube of blue/black, from Holbein, but do not use blue/black for value studies.

Titanium/Zinc White or regular Titanium White (large tube- 150 ml). Gamblin makes the blend that I use most. You can use plain Titanium White if that is what you have on hand. I use both for different reasons which we will go into in class.

DAILY TOOLS

Small Sketch book.

Color wheel

Value Scale

Paper towels

Disposable gloves or thin gardening gloves

Brushes can be cleaned with Murphy’s oil soap, dishwashing detergent, a soap bar or The Master’s Brush Cleaner (my favorite)

Sharpie Chisel Point Marker and 1 or 2 other black markers of varying points, Pencil

for quick sketches and pen for taking notes.

* optional Gray markers (Tomboy or Blick Studio Gray markers) at least 3 shades of gray (optional but handy. Could use a pencil and vary grays). These could be used for small thumbnail sketches before you move on to your assignment each week.

BRUSHES

Silver Grand Prix Extra long Flats in 2, 4 and 6 OR similar brand: Natural Bristle Brushes or Hog Bristle brushes.

I also like Synthetic Flats-Brands: Princeton Aspen, Princeton Dakota (less expensive and great quality). I also use Rosemary brushes, Ivory Extra long flats in 2,4, and 6)

Flats/Long Flats in a variety of natural hog bristle and Synthetic. Sizes: 1,2,4,6

You can use what you have if close and you can always get a pack of brushes to make it more affordable.

Short flats synthetics: size 3, 5, and 8 (optional but handy for initial wash-ins)

A few synthetic rounds for small detail work: 1 and 2 size

PALETTE KNIVES

A small and medium palette knife for mixing and painting. Make sure that they are the steel- tip kind, not plastic. I like the ones that are shaped like a long stretched-out diamond shape.

PAINTING SUBSTRATES/SURFACES

Painting Panels

5”x 7” size, 6” x 8”, 8” x 10”. I will ask you to do many small studies vs one longer one. So you should have at least 6- 9 panels depending if you choose to use the Strathmore paper (see below)

*Optional: Strathmore 400 Oil painting paper and divide that with masking tape into 2 or 4 sections for your studies.

Arches and/or Strathmore 400 oil painting pads (9” x 12”) are great for studies and are a cost-effective solution. You can shellac the paper which gives it less absorption.

For studies or a beginner painter, canvas panels (with cotton duck canvas) or fine to start with. Some artists shellac the cheaper panels so the paint does not absorb into the cotton canvas.

Linen panels are great to work with and don’t absorb like cotton duck panels. Centurion linen panels and Fredrix Linen Panels from Blick Art Supplies or Jerrys Artarama are affordable linen panels. Linen is much more forgiving to work with as you can wipe off paint more easily on linen.

You can also use gessoed masonite panels.

SOLVENTS

Gamsol. I use an air-tight stainless steel brush washer that is about 31/2” high.