I’ve been teaching an expressive portraits class on Friday nights. In the first few classes we talked about common pitfalls including the blueberry pancake effect of features floating in the middle of a round face shape. We practiced how to measure proportions quickly, how to see the three dimensional aspects of a face, what makes a good reference photograph (or real life pose), and how to navigate your way through a difficult angle, such as the person looking up. After all that, I figured it was time to let loose a little. I had everyone grab some wet media and something to scribble with. I didn’t have any ink, so I made some with coffee and a bit of leftover clothing dye. My drawing tools for the evening were a chopstick and a paper towel. Other students used household tools like a mascara brush, garden sticks, and bamboo skewers. Hooray for adaptability! We all made a pile of portraits, and enjoyed a very fun evening while our portraits just got better and better.
For the expressive portion of our Expressive Portraits class, we drew some funny and seriously moody old fogies, including Marlon Brando and my puppy – the funniest character challenge of them all, and a playful way to end an evening.
Artworks by Mimi Torchia Boothby, Shima Bhamra, Sophie Frieda, Liz Hejlsberg, Katie Jo Keppinger, Kim Jackson, and Anne Walker.
We’ve opened this class up to newcomers! If you have some experience drawing, you are welcome to jump in for a 2 or 4 week slice of this ongoing portraits session. It will be great to see you!
The Kodak Model 1 Box camera sold for $25 (about $680 today) with 100 exposures of film preloaded. The artist only needed to point and pull the wire (pre-shutter button). …
Welcome to the 30SAL Creative Challenge! Broaden your creative skills Every day this January we’ll post a creative challenge to our V. Notes blog. Subscribers will receive these posts in …
In recent V. Notes I talked about how artists learn and get inspired by studying works by other artists. I posted transcriptions by Jonathan Harkham, and I posted Frank Auerbach’s …
Marlon Brando, some grumpy old fogies, and my puppy
I’ve been teaching an expressive portraits class on Friday nights. In the first few classes we talked about common pitfalls including the blueberry pancake effect of features floating in the middle of a round face shape. We practiced how to measure proportions quickly, how to see the three dimensional aspects of a face, what makes a good reference photograph (or real life pose), and how to navigate your way through a difficult angle, such as the person looking up. After all that, I figured it was time to let loose a little. I had everyone grab some wet media and something to scribble with. I didn’t have any ink, so I made some with coffee and a bit of leftover clothing dye. My drawing tools for the evening were a chopstick and a paper towel. Other students used household tools like a mascara brush, garden sticks, and bamboo skewers. Hooray for adaptability! We all made a pile of portraits, and enjoyed a very fun evening while our portraits just got better and better.
For the expressive portion of our Expressive Portraits class, we drew some funny and seriously moody old fogies, including Marlon Brando and my puppy – the funniest character challenge of them all, and a playful way to end an evening.
Artworks by Mimi Torchia Boothby, Shima Bhamra, Sophie Frieda, Liz Hejlsberg, Katie Jo Keppinger, Kim Jackson, and Anne Walker.
We’ve opened this class up to newcomers! If you have some experience drawing, you are welcome to jump in for a 2 or 4 week slice of this ongoing portraits session. It will be great to see you!
Expressive Portraits
Fridays 6:00-10:00pm PST
Join us!
There’s also a digital portraits class starting on Saturday mornings. Check it out!
Portrait Painting with Procreate
4 Saturdays 10:00-1:00pm PST
Starts this Saturday!
And now… puppies!
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