Demonstrations

Here is a demonstration from life at the beginning of a two-day workshop in portrait painting at Penlee House Museum, Penzance, UK, May 18, 19, 2013. The model is Katherine Ashton, Director of Education at the museum, who sat for us for two days, still as a statue. The photos are by Tim Newman  of Penzance.

Slide demo on Munnings and Lamorna bravura painters, Garry Ashton in background.

Simple palette: Titanium white, cad yellow, cad lemon, cad red light, quinacridone rose, prussian blue.

White, untoned canvas

Laying in fleshtone.

Carving around fleshtone with hair.

Adding background value.

Modelling head with shadows.

Lowering values in flesh, adding chroma.

Modelling head with light impressions, setting up places for features.

Turning test-spots into features.

All features indicated lightly.

Strengthening the eyes.

Features made more prominent.

Checking the whole with a mirror.

Restating shadows.

Sketch at the end of two hours.

Heated discussion with participants. Pictured, left to right: Geraldine, Ellen, Jane, Neal, Sue, and Anne.

Here is a demonstration from life done at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in Manchester, NH, USA, Summer of 2010, I think. The photos were taken, I think by Grace Cohen, painter, photographer, NH, USA. All told, it was probably about 2 hours sitting/painting. My model was Lexi Bye, budding fourteen year old artist, lots of talent.

Demo of excellent model Jon Lave, at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, sometime 2010. You can see other head studies of him done prior to this demo. The usual amount of time, about 2.5 hours.

Adding the hair shape to the flesh shape.

Modelling the flesh shape with shadows.

Simple blocking in of shadows, and rough placement of features.

Features spotted-in with light color.

Features painted into spots, modelling refined, some lights added to hair.

Almost finished, other sketches of Jon in background.

Complete.

Another one, at NHIA, Summer of 2011, I think. My model was painter Paul Oleary. He was also a student in the class. Students will often model for free. In his case, I paid him with the painting itself.