Portrait Class Lesson 2

We will continue to emphasize drawing. This time we will work from a live model. You should concentrate on the head and face not the entire figure. We will also add color in a controlled manner:



Step1: Use tone as well as line. This indicates areas of shadow. Sometimes it is ok to use just line but painting will be easier later if you use some tone and shadings here. The point is also to leave some of the underlying canvas showing through the drawing, either pure white canvas or the toned ground.

Step2: Use big brushes to mass in the larger forms. Use alizarin crimsin plus white for the pinks on the cheeks and nose. Use ultramarine blue and white plus alizarin crimson and white for light highlights on nose and forehead. Use warm colors for highlights (cad red light plus yellow ochre plus white.


Establish color mixes: one pale rose and the other pale olive. The first is cad red light, raw sienna, and white the second is green, yellow ochre, and white for the olive.

Establish a color mix for shadows: Below the chin, green, yellow ochre, cad yellow, and white. Under the nose, raw sienna, burnt sienna, and white. Dark parts of the hair are alizarin and black plus ulta ble and biurnt sienna.

Note: In class this week we would like to get to this stage within one hour and then switch to another pose and try to get to the same stage on another canvas or board. The goal is to practe the sketch and then the large block in. Here is another example: