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Expression through Line and Tone
Master draftsman, painter, and sculptor Rick Weaver will lead students through an exploration of line and tone to capture expression in drawing the figure from life. There will be brief lectures, demonstrations and individual feedback.
Working from the live figure in the academic training is considered the heart of the pupil’s daily routine. It is probably the hardest assignment in all painting curriculums and the one that the professional artist should return to from time to time. It comprises in one single exercise the whole complexity of nature’s forms.
We can approach the figure in two ways, through line or through mass. In drawing the focus is on accuracy of outline to shadow line. With painting we work in mass, focusing on design of light and shadow shapes, importance of value and understanding of subtle color variations.
The two mediums, drawing and painting, offer the opportunity to develop the student’s artistic vocabulary in both directions allowing them to approach the figure with confidence, and translate effectively the complex forms of the human figure.
The daily schedule will be to draw from the live model half of the day and paint from the live model half of the day. There will be demonstrations, brief lectures, and individual instruction.
This workshop will be dedicated to giving artists the information of anatomy, structure, gesture and organic rhythm required in order to realize one's expressive capacity through this most universal of art forms.
Sculpting and Drawing the Portrait
In this workshop, students will spend half the day drawing the portrait from life in charcoal with Gerard, and half the day sculpting the portrait from life in water-based clay with Eudald.
Eudald de Juana and Gerard Castellvi have a parallel journey in their art careers. They studied fine arts in Barcelona and moved to Florence to go deeper on the learning of the tradition of representational art.
Gerard is the director of the painting program of the Barcelona Academy of art, while Eudald have been a principle sculpture instructor in the Florence Academy of Art.
The deep understanding of the academic tradition became a tool in service of creativity open to new ways of representation and looking for a unique way of expressing themselves in constant evolution.
Eudald and Gerard influence each other from sculpture to paint and vice versa. This course will be the perfect symbiosis to understand how essential is one discipline from the other.
The main focus of this workshop will be to draw and sculpt with a human model as a reference for portrait. The student will learn the bases to create a solid piece of work from the firsts stages of the idea until the final result in both techniques. The creative process of the student will be highlighted as an essential part of being an artist. The two creators from Barcelona will also talk about their own experience as a professional artists and their vision about the contemporary art.
THE ÉCORCHÉ OF THE EMOTIONS
This workshop is a full examination of the anatomy, structure, and surface forms of the portrait head including morphology, structure and facial expressions. In addition, it includes the analysis of facial expressions, their cause and the manner in which they affect surface form.
Susan Lyon will be teaching a 4 day Portrait Drawing Workshop
The first day of class Susan will show slides, talk about materials, and do a short demonstration. In the afternoon, the class will work on a charcoal value block-in of a portrait for 3 hours.
During the 2nd, 3rd and 4th days Susan will alternate various demonstrations while the class paints a portrait from the same live model and for three days.
This class focuses on methods of achieving an accurate drawing of the face and how to simplify the light and dark values for a more powerful dramatic effect. Susan's approach emphasizes the importance of value as she draws, much like a painter starts with large shapes first, then moves into medium shapes, and leaves small details until the end. The key isn't thinking about what you are drawing, but how the light creates distinctive shapes—and drawing those with accuracy and design. Creating a beautiful drawing entails mystery, balanced by focus—of not showing the viewer everything like a overly-detailed map, but illuminating the parts that are the most interesting and dramatic, and minimizing anything that detracts from that central idea.
Students paint from the live model in this four day portrait painting workshop. Instructor Teresa Oaxaca will work in oils and demonstrate over the course of five days her direct and layered approach to painting the portrait. Each day students with receive critiques as they work on a single portrait of their own, taking instruction from directions, critiques and lectures, as well as watching the process unfold in front of them day by day.
Students learn:
-Direct painting, “Alla Prima” or painting and drawing, all at once
-Teresa’s views of art materials materials and how they relate to the techniques of direct painting, glazing and impasto.
-Ideas about color and and composition.
-Tonality or Values, and how to they relate to colour choices and drawing and “form painting”
-Edges and realism versus draftsmanship
In this 5-day Portrait Sculpture Workshop, students will be led through a step by step process of creating a life-sized portrait sculpture from a live model in water-based clay on a wooden armature. Through specific demos, brief lectures and individual feedback, in a relaxed, positive setting, each student is set up for success in creating a likeness of the model. All levels are welcome, beginner to advanced. This course is ideal for painters wishing to advance and deepen their understanding of form through the three-dimensional manipulation of clay.