Expressive Oil Portrait: Color, Gesture & Essence (Online Course) Spring 2025 w/ Andres Kal
May 10 to May 31 (Saturdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 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/vptoBy47Dqk
Course Description
This course explores portraiture from a gestural and emotional perspective, setting aside detailed realism to focus on the essence of the individual through simplification, emotional color, and gestural structure. Participants, with some prior painting experience or not, will delve into oil techniques that emphasize the identity and energy of the subject, capturing emotions and features in a personal and expressive way.
Course Outline
Session 1: Understanding Gesture and Form
Objective: Explore gesture as an essential element to capture the essence of a portrait.
Introduction and demonstration of gestural portraits in oil, showing how line and expression can capture character.
Quick gesture and posture sketching exercises to capture energy without precise detail.
Establishing a base of the portrait in oil using only lines and color blocks to build initial character.
Session 2: The Power of Emotional Color
Objective: Understand the role of color in conveying emotions and creating an emotional connection in the portrait.
Analysis of examples where color symbolizes emotional traits in portraiture.
Selecting a limited color palette for each portrait, aiming for tones that reflect personality or an emotion.
Main Exercise: Create a portrait where color dominates form and detail, emphasizing emotions through tonal variations without precise realism.
Session 3: Simplification and Abstraction of Form
Objective: Experiment with simplification in portraiture, using broad shapes, contours, and basic textures.
“Essential Shapes” using the contrast between figure and background to capture the subject’s essence with contour and color areas.
Use broad brushstrokes, palette knives, and other tools to create textures and maintain form without details.
Discussion on reducing image complexity to highlight the essence in the portrait.
Session 4: Expression and Completion
Objective: Complete the portrait by combining gesture, color, and simplification to create a resonant and expressive work.
Activities:
Review and adjustments to balance gesture and emotional color.
Refining the image, simplifying and adding final touches without losing the essence of gesture and color.
Group reflection and presentation of portraits, analyzing how the elements worked contribute to personal expression in the portrait.
Course Materials List
Oil Paints:
Titanium White
Cad Yellow
Lemon Yellow or Bismuth Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Raw Sienna
Cad Red
Alizarin Crimson permanent is fine but if find Permanent rose or any Magenta Quinacridone will be good!
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian Green
Burn Umber
Raw Umber
Violet or Dioxazine Purple
Gamsol or sansodor
Liquin (or any alkid medium )
Paper Towels. (sturdy ones better.)
Palette: medium size with gray surface if posible
small mirror
Painting Surface:
3 to 4 pieces but you can work just in one the whole 4 sessions.
canvas or panels
from gessoed wood, Cotton Canvas, to Primed Linen
30x40cm / 40/40 or 40x50cm is Fine min. 12” to max around 25 inch
masking tape
Brushes
flat synthetic rough ( bristles) and smooth hair. different sizes 2,4 6,8,10,12
and household brush 1” 1/2 or 2”
knife palette. 2 or tree different sizes and shapes.
small rubber(silicon) squeegee window cleaner (household tool)
sand paper- grain:medium
May 10 to May 31 (Saturdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 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/vptoBy47Dqk
Course Description
This course explores portraiture from a gestural and emotional perspective, setting aside detailed realism to focus on the essence of the individual through simplification, emotional color, and gestural structure. Participants, with some prior painting experience or not, will delve into oil techniques that emphasize the identity and energy of the subject, capturing emotions and features in a personal and expressive way.
Course Outline
Session 1: Understanding Gesture and Form
Objective: Explore gesture as an essential element to capture the essence of a portrait.
Introduction and demonstration of gestural portraits in oil, showing how line and expression can capture character.
Quick gesture and posture sketching exercises to capture energy without precise detail.
Establishing a base of the portrait in oil using only lines and color blocks to build initial character.
Session 2: The Power of Emotional Color
Objective: Understand the role of color in conveying emotions and creating an emotional connection in the portrait.
Analysis of examples where color symbolizes emotional traits in portraiture.
Selecting a limited color palette for each portrait, aiming for tones that reflect personality or an emotion.
Main Exercise: Create a portrait where color dominates form and detail, emphasizing emotions through tonal variations without precise realism.
Session 3: Simplification and Abstraction of Form
Objective: Experiment with simplification in portraiture, using broad shapes, contours, and basic textures.
“Essential Shapes” using the contrast between figure and background to capture the subject’s essence with contour and color areas.
Use broad brushstrokes, palette knives, and other tools to create textures and maintain form without details.
Discussion on reducing image complexity to highlight the essence in the portrait.
Session 4: Expression and Completion
Objective: Complete the portrait by combining gesture, color, and simplification to create a resonant and expressive work.
Activities:
Review and adjustments to balance gesture and emotional color.
Refining the image, simplifying and adding final touches without losing the essence of gesture and color.
Group reflection and presentation of portraits, analyzing how the elements worked contribute to personal expression in the portrait.
Course Materials List
Oil Paints:
Titanium White
Cad Yellow
Lemon Yellow or Bismuth Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Raw Sienna
Cad Red
Alizarin Crimson permanent is fine but if find Permanent rose or any Magenta Quinacridone will be good!
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian Green
Burn Umber
Raw Umber
Violet or Dioxazine Purple
Gamsol or sansodor
Liquin (or any alkid medium )
Paper Towels. (sturdy ones better.)
Palette: medium size with gray surface if posible
small mirror
Painting Surface:
3 to 4 pieces but you can work just in one the whole 4 sessions.
canvas or panels
from gessoed wood, Cotton Canvas, to Primed Linen
30x40cm / 40/40 or 40x50cm is Fine min. 12” to max around 25 inch
masking tape
Brushes
flat synthetic rough ( bristles) and smooth hair. different sizes 2,4 6,8,10,12
and household brush 1” 1/2 or 2”
knife palette. 2 or tree different sizes and shapes.
small rubber(silicon) squeegee window cleaner (household tool)
sand paper- grain:medium
May 10 to May 31 (Saturdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 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/vptoBy47Dqk
Course Description
This course explores portraiture from a gestural and emotional perspective, setting aside detailed realism to focus on the essence of the individual through simplification, emotional color, and gestural structure. Participants, with some prior painting experience or not, will delve into oil techniques that emphasize the identity and energy of the subject, capturing emotions and features in a personal and expressive way.
Course Outline
Session 1: Understanding Gesture and Form
Objective: Explore gesture as an essential element to capture the essence of a portrait.
Introduction and demonstration of gestural portraits in oil, showing how line and expression can capture character.
Quick gesture and posture sketching exercises to capture energy without precise detail.
Establishing a base of the portrait in oil using only lines and color blocks to build initial character.
Session 2: The Power of Emotional Color
Objective: Understand the role of color in conveying emotions and creating an emotional connection in the portrait.
Analysis of examples where color symbolizes emotional traits in portraiture.
Selecting a limited color palette for each portrait, aiming for tones that reflect personality or an emotion.
Main Exercise: Create a portrait where color dominates form and detail, emphasizing emotions through tonal variations without precise realism.
Session 3: Simplification and Abstraction of Form
Objective: Experiment with simplification in portraiture, using broad shapes, contours, and basic textures.
“Essential Shapes” using the contrast between figure and background to capture the subject’s essence with contour and color areas.
Use broad brushstrokes, palette knives, and other tools to create textures and maintain form without details.
Discussion on reducing image complexity to highlight the essence in the portrait.
Session 4: Expression and Completion
Objective: Complete the portrait by combining gesture, color, and simplification to create a resonant and expressive work.
Activities:
Review and adjustments to balance gesture and emotional color.
Refining the image, simplifying and adding final touches without losing the essence of gesture and color.
Group reflection and presentation of portraits, analyzing how the elements worked contribute to personal expression in the portrait.
Course Materials List
Oil Paints:
Titanium White
Cad Yellow
Lemon Yellow or Bismuth Yellow
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Sienna
Raw Sienna
Cad Red
Alizarin Crimson permanent is fine but if find Permanent rose or any Magenta Quinacridone will be good!
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian Green
Burn Umber
Raw Umber
Violet or Dioxazine Purple
Gamsol or sansodor
Liquin (or any alkid medium )
Paper Towels. (sturdy ones better.)
Palette: medium size with gray surface if posible
small mirror
Painting Surface:
3 to 4 pieces but you can work just in one the whole 4 sessions.
canvas or panels
from gessoed wood, Cotton Canvas, to Primed Linen
30x40cm / 40/40 or 40x50cm is Fine min. 12” to max around 25 inch
masking tape
Brushes
flat synthetic rough ( bristles) and smooth hair. different sizes 2,4 6,8,10,12
and household brush 1” 1/2 or 2”
knife palette. 2 or tree different sizes and shapes.
small rubber(silicon) squeegee window cleaner (household tool)
sand paper- grain:medium