Portrait and Figure Painting Class

Currently im taking my second painting class in my history of life, Portrait and Figure painting. Its a great class and im learning a lot about mixing paint and being more confident in my mark making, but it has sure been a struggle for me.

At the beginning of the semester we painted in black and white to practice value. My first painting without a model, we painted the face from our heads.

Each model session is 3 hours.

After working with black and white, we added color to our palette. We added burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. In my first oil painting class we worked a lot in the grisaille method like the old masters, which means they did their under painting in thin oil so they could get shape, value and proportions quickly, then they added glazes on top of their under painting to add color. I was use to this method of painting and not so confident in direct painting where you mix the color you see on your palette then put it on your canvas.

I tended to hold back with thick brush strokes because i feared wasting paint. I would get a good amount of paint on my brush then spread it around my canvas till the color was thin and pastel-looking. My teacher would often walk around and tell me "more paint! we are in a painting class, you need to paint!"

Very slowly did i begin to add more paint to my canvas. Mostly out of annoyance from constantly being reminded by my teacher to paint.

Then one day my teacher tells us that we are going to paint the figure. In my career as a prospective artist and full time art student, i have taken many drawing classes and have worked hard to draw as accurately as i can, but i discovered drawing first with a paint brush is much different then drawing with a pencil/charcoal. I have yet to be pleased with any of my paints thus far, I think for that reason. I haven't been able to get an accurate drawing so all of my paintings look, in my opinion, amiture and inaccurate.

Then we began our 2 day poses. 6 hours with the model instead of 3. This is when i began to see some improvement in my painting; all i need is practice and A LOT of time. I have a new appreciation for painters though. What they do is not easy and not everyone can do it well. I am the case in point.

After working with our limited palette for a few weeks (burnt sienna and ultramarine blue) we switched to a new color palette. I believe it was called the Zorn palette. If that means anything to anyone. We added the colors yellow ochre, cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, and black. This gave us a whole slew of new colors we couldn't really get before. This was a 6 hour pose.

We then switched gears again and began working on the grisaille method like i had mentioned earlier. So this is just a thin painting of burnt sienna and ultramarine blue to get value and proportions down. This was just a 3 hour pose.

And this began as a under painting like the one above, but then we continued this painting till the end. This was a 6 hour pose. Again i feel like i struggled with the initial drawing because drawing with a paint brush is still foreign to me, but i definitely felt i improved on getting more paint down on the canvas! I have a long ways to go but im now starting to paint!

The semester is still in session and we are currently working on the full figure.