5-Day Portrait Workshop - January 2025
January 13-17, 2025
10:00am to 4:15pm (with 45 min for lunch)
Tutors: Sally Ryan & Ben Ryan
In this workshop, participants will develop a single portrait painting of a live model over five days. It is suitable for students with any level of experience.
Students will start by creating a portrait drawing, which will be transferred to a canvas or board. We will then take paintings through a set of stages from an initial block in through to a carefully-modelled oil portrait. All aspects of this process will be discussed and demonstrated, and individual feedback will be tailored to the needs and interests of each student. Concepts covered include drawing, proportion, gesture, tone, colour-mixing, paint application, materials and more.
MATERIALS
Participants will start with a preparatory drawing which will be transferred onto a canvas, so you will need some basic drawing materials on the first day. These can also be purchased at the studio. We also have a very limited range of painting materials for sale. The studio supplies easels, and we have plenty of palettes that you can borrow if you don’t want to bring your own.
DRAWING:
- A2 size cartridge paper
- HB+2B pencil
- Kneadable eraser
PAINTING:
Brushes – we recommend bringing brushes in a range of shapes and sizes. We tend to use primarily hog-hair filbert brushes. We also recommend bringing a few softer brushes for softening edges. It is also useful to have a few flat brushes, as well as some small round brushes for details. A soft fan brush can also be useful for softening edges.
* Brushes must be in good condition. In terms of brands, we like Isabey, Rosemary, Robert Simmons Signet, Escoda or Da Vinci.
Canvas/Board– at least 14x16 inches, but preferably a little bit larger (16x20 inches is a comfortable size). Working too small can be restrictive. We recommend toning your surface with a mid-tone neutral grey colour (raw umber with white for instance). It must be dry prior to the class. This can be done with oil paint or, assuming you’re using an acrylic-primed surface, acrylic paint. Acrylic paints are not to be used during the workshop though.
Colours:
The following oil colours we consider essential for portrait painting–
- Titanium White (or Cremnitz, or a Titanium/Zinc mix)
- A bright yellow (e.g.Cadmium Yellow, Cad Yellow Pale or Cad Yellow Lemon)
- Yellow Ochre
- Cadmium Red Light (or Vermilion)
- An earth red (e.g. Transparent Red Oxide, Burnt Sienna, Venetian Red, English Red)
- Alizarin Crimson or Alizarin Claret
- Raw Umber
- Ultramarine Blue
- Ivory Black
*We mostly use Michael Harding and Old Holland paints but they are expensive because they have higher levels of pigment than student quality paints. Any artist quality paints are acceptable -Windsor & Newton, Gamblin, Rembrandt etc - do not buy oil paint sets.
Other Materials:
- Paper towel
- Rags
- Odorless mineral spirits
- Linseed Oil
- A dipper for medium (or you can borrow one of ours)