Succulent Saturday - Oil Painting Workshop, last

 Last week of  the oil-painting portrait workshop. Last, 2+ hour demo from our illustrious instructor.

 Rough block-in.

 Refining areas...

 Starting to add color.

Lovely end result of demo....

 Tools of the trade...

 Then we got a turn. My initial block-in/underpainting.

 Initial color application.

 How far I got in our 2.5 hours...

Then our final critique. Compared to our first week, I think we made amazing progress! In the meantime, I have a teensy bit more of a feel for this thing called oil paint....

Succulent Saturday - Portrait Workshop

Week 3 of this oil painting portrait workshop with Liana Bennett -

We practiced mixing skin tones, and then watched a Liana demo.

It's interesting for me watching this approach to painting -

(SO different and abstract compared to my more typical watercolor...)

We talked quite a bit about color and mixing this week (again - very different from how I normally work).

Things are so soft and mushy with this medium!

Took lots of notes on the thought processes behind applying color and tone...

Liana's lovely underpainting....

So, this is my first attempt at adding color. It was funner to use this week (although I'm not sure I ever really want to paint with this for real....)

One more week....

Succulent Saturday - Portrait Workshop

 Second week of the oil-painting portrait workshop...

(more instructor examples.)

 This week, we were shown several different approaches to underpainting...

 Shadow patterns, silhouettes, vine-charcoal drawings... Shown with the hope that one will 'work' for us in any given situation.

 (I still don't know what I'm doing....)

 (Oil paint is stupid!)

 Charcoal is a little more familiar...

I want to do one of these a day until I get a better feel... Given my current schedule, it's a little bit wishful thinking, but something I'd like to aspire to.

WIP Wednesday - Oil Painting Workshop

 Last week, I started a 4-week oil-painting portrait workshop -

 - taught by the owner of Arts Umbrella, Liana Bennett (studies shown here).

 She's a beautiful portrait painter, and despite me not being versant in oils at ALL, I wanted the chance to hear how she thinks and approaches the face and figure.

 We got to watch her thought processes as she demonstrated an underpainting....

 (all the pretty colors!)

 I don't know how to use this medium, or these stiff brushes or work on this surface, but, it's interesting to mess around with....

First day critique. Now to see if I can get any painting-practice time in...