Portrait Painting Weekend Workshop (Waterford)

In this studio workshop, you will cover many of the technical aspects of portrait painting, from the structure and anatomy of facial features to achieving likeness and creating expression. You will then have the opportunity to work directly from life, with a live model on the final day of the workshop – Sunday. As well as topics that are specific to portrait painting, we will also look at essential principles and techniques in oil painting.

Direct Painting Method Alla Prima

The direct method of painting (or alla prima, ‘at the first’) encourages you to be aware of each brush stroke, seeking out a direct, concise and expressive application of paint. By this means, great control and dexterity in handling the paint is developed, leading towards the completion of expressive and realistic portraits.

Drawing & Edge Work

The more accurate we are in our painting, the more realistic and believable our portraits will be. Learning some fundamental drawing skills – with paint – is essential. Measuring proportions and transferring the size, position and placement of shapes onto canvas provides the starting point or scaffolding for our portrait painting.

Value & Colour

One of the central subjects of painting is light – and its counterpart, shadow – and this will be explained in detail, and showing how the true nature of light can be represented in painting, and what specific techniques are required to do this.

This brings us then to colour – both the theory and the practice. Learning how colour relationships work and how to create colour harmony, and how to mix colours on the palette and apply them effectively onto canvas, will make up a full day of this workshop.

Facial Features

Although alla prima painting focuses more on shape, size, placement, light and colour rather than the detailed make-up and understanding of each form, we will look at each individual facial feature: the eyes, the nose, the mouth or lips, the ears, and hair. The structure and anatomy of these features, common painting errors and misjudgements, and lots of practised examples will combine to give you a comprehensive guide.

Painting Techniques

Many painting techniques will be discussed, explained and demonstrated, including:

• Dry brush technique
• Textural effects like scumbling, glazing, sgraffito and impasto
• Blending and transitions
• Edge quality
• Utilising solvents and mediums appropriately

Working from Photos & Painting from Life

For centuries, artists have used photographic technologies to assist their work, from the camera obscura to daguerrotypes to the digital photograph. Photographs can be either a help or a hindrance depending on how we use them, and rather than slavishly copying them, we should aim to use them only as a tool and our paintings should transcend these references.

Working from life is the ultimate goal, and is the defining aspect of direct painting. This introduces some new and exciting challenges and there are many tried and tested techniques to help us overcome any difficulties involved.