Gesture Portraits (Online Workshop) Fall 2024 w/ Rose Irelan

$250.00

November 5 to November 19 (Tuesdays), 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Eastern Time

**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.

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Workshop Description

We will be working in “Alla Prima” style (painting done all at once) on a small scale, capturing the “gesture” of the human head. Paintings will be executed in 20, 30 minute – 1 hour sessions. Emphasis will be on the indication of color notes and value control and intuitive color. This class is designed to help artists develop a “juicy” style of painting alla prima and to push out of a perfectionist mindset to a joyful flow painting state!

• Some key fundamentals we will cover in this 3 week course
• Proportions and Rhythms of the Human head
• Learning how to see the underlaying “armature” of the human head
• Quick notan sketches to begin the process of simplifying shadow, light and form
• Retaining form and values with color quickly
• Practical and pragmatic approach to color mixing that works
• How to achieve color harmony
• Setting up your painting with a simplified value scheme and sticking to that when mixing your colors
• Using the Zorn limited palette of just 3 colors plus white
• Using a warm/cool palette
• Brushwork and calligraphy (mark-making)

Workshop Outline

Week 1 –

Introduction to gesture portrait work with samples of works done by Master Artists in an impressionistic and painterly style and discuss what works and why in these examples. We will start the course with a review of the proportions of the human head, the Rhythms and planes of the head. These will serve as our foundation for “good drawing” for the first class and other subsequent classes.

• Proportions
• Rhythms and Planes of the Head
• Notan thumbnail sketches to quickly indicate “light/dark” pattern in a simple abstraction. This will be a practice we will do in all our gesture studies
• Light and shadow on form. The importance of keeping Light and Shadow families separate in values and colors

• Instructor demo on a Gesture portrait
• Homework assignment

Week 2 –

Slide show on Ander’s Zorn’s work and review of the Zorn palette, followed by a demonstration. Feedback on student work

• Review of the Zorn palette and how to shift mixes to warm and cool
• Instructor Demo
• Homework assignment

Week 3 –

Full Warm/Cool palette.

Demonstration of Gesture Portrait using full warm/cool palette. Review of strategies for mixing color skin tones and creating harmonious color.

• Feedback on student work
• Instructor Portrait Gesture Demo