Wednesday 27th April 2017
Caroline started her demonstration by explaining how she had prepared the surface of the board that she was about to paint on. A strong piece of card had been painted with acrylic white Gesso and then a second tinted mixture mid-tone coat of yellow Ochre mixed with Ultramarine and white Gesso was added.
Caroline started by drawing an outline using an acrylic Burnt Sienna. The position and shape of the head neck shoulders are sketched and then some features were quickly determined with the position and shape of the eyes, nose, ears and mouth relative to each other; to get overall an idea of the composition. She checks and rechecks measurements of head height to width, length of nose, distances from chin to the bottom of the nose to the eyebrows, angle of the eye-line, ears relative to eyebrows and mouth and son on.
Once the under drawing is correct which doesn’t take that long about half an hour Caroline starts to paint. Our model for today was our treasurer Hilmar who is remained remarkably still for the 2 hour period he is warmly lit by a spot light on his right.
Caroline’s palette for today is oil paint in Titanium White, Oxide of Chromium (blue),Raw Umber, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, yellow Ochre, Alizarin Crimson and Naples Yellow thinned with….
A mixture of Raw Umber and Naples Yellow is used to put in the the darkest tones first, Caroline uses a variety of filbert hog hair or badger hair brushes throughout her the demonstration.
The half tones are then added using new mixture of Naples Yellow, Cadmium Red, Raw Umber and a little Alizarin Crimson which is mixed in varying degrees with another mixture of Naples Yellow and Cadmium Red to vary the tone. Essentially blocking in different areas of tone around Hillmans face.
After the light tones are put in Caroline adds some details in the eyes and paints in Hillmar’s shirt.
Thank you Caroline for a wonderful demonstration.
Fine Portraiture 