Breathe Life Into Your Portraits (Online Workshop) Summer 2024 w/ Calvin Lai
August 10 to August 24 (Saturdays), 2:00 PM to 5:00 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/7P2dQwTcIYs
Workshop Description
Portraiture is one of the hardest subjects in painting. Not only do you need to see proportions, value, and colors correctly in order to render a believable piece, you also need to try and capture the character of who you’re painting. It is the combination of all of these elements that breathe life into your portraits. This workshop is designed to enable an artist to gain skills to improve one’s portrait paintings. It will go into ways to break down a subject, how to work in stages, tips on paint application, information on color theory, and how to develop details and an artistic style. Through these sessions I will give you information on how to make your portraits come to life.
Workshop Outline
Week 1:
Talk about materials and introduce what the workshop will be working on.
Begin a 12”x16” portrait.
Demo the sketch.
Lay in the first layer of the painting. Blocking off large shapes and beginning very generally.
Week 2:
Work on second stage of the painting.
Introduce concept of oiling up.
Develop details and begin thinking about focal points.
Begin mixing some pigments for more accurate color rendering.
Week 3:
Work on the final stage of the painting.
Mix necessary pigments for thicker paint application.
Start deciding what to develop the most and what to leave more suggestive.
Talk about artistic style.
Workshop Materials List
Main colors we’ll be using:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Yellow Ochre
Cadmium Red Light
Alizarin Crimson
Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean Blue (Hue)
Burnt Umber
Tera Rosa
Sap Green
Optional colors that you can get:
Burnt Sienna
Naples Yellow Light
Pthalo Green
Ivory Black
As far as paints go, everyone has their own preferred palette. If you have colors similar to what I’ve listed it’ll work to a certain degree, but try to get the same colors I use as it will help with matching the pigments we mix. In general I feel that if you have a darker and a lighter shade of yellow, red, and blue, a white, and a brown you can recreate a variety of colors. I sometimes mix my own black, that’s why I have pthalo green as optional, but you can also buy ivory black if you want. The other optional colors I listed help a lot with various skin tones.
Brushes
I mainly use flat brushes... but this is also very individual. If you already have brushes then I would say use those that you’re comfortable with, but if you want to use what I’m using, below is the bare minimum for what I suggest. Also note that you should not use your acrylic brushes to paint with oils.
synthetic hair flat – size 2, 4, 6, 8
natural bristle flat – size 4, 6, 8, 10
foam brush – 2”, 3” (these foam brushes are an affordable alternative to larger brushes. If you can get larger size brushes I would recommend it)... and if you can just get more brushes than what I’ve listed I would also recommend that.The more brushes you have helps.
Other Material
Palette knives: just a couple for mixing paint
Palette
Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits or Turpenoid
Walnut oil or linseed oil
Many jars
Rags or paper towels
Murphy’s Oil Soap (for cleaning the brushes after) 1 stretched canvas or wood panel or hardboard panel 12”x16”