Oil Painting for Beginners.

2 Day Workshop
Dates to be announced.

Oil painting beginners. If you’re thinking of experimenting with oil paint then consider this technique. It is similar to working with pencil using the white of the canvas for the lights and adding paint for the darks. The beauty of this technique is its simplicity! There is no need to mix colour and the paint can be applied directly to the canvas just like a pencil. The technique is traditionally used for an underpainting and has become appreciated as a style in its own right; in its simplest terms an underpainting is a monochrome version of the final painting. The intention is to fix the composition and the tonal range before adding colour. Teaching Style Beginners and experienced people are welcome. Understanding is key and nobody gets left behind. Each student will be helped until they grasp the principles of the lesson. Louis believes in leading from the front, demonstrating each step in front of the group and on students’ work if needed. Louis Smith studied Classical Art in Florence and has exhibited his work in the BP Portrait Award and Royal Society of Portrait Painters.This painting workshop is to be run in conjunction with the “Bistre Underpainting Technique” portrait article featured in the July edition of Artists & Illustrators magazine.

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There are a number of ways of creating an underpainting and the three most popular are known as Verdaccio, Grisaille, and Bistre or Imprimatura.

For this workshop I am going to use the Bistre/Imprematura method. Bistre is known as the “wipe-out method”. A brown glaze is painted over a white canvas or board and then ‘wiped out’ to create the highlights. The shadows are built up using opaque paint and the half-tones are applied with a little colour on the brush allowing the warmth of the brown to show through the translucent glaze. It is the most appealing of the three techniques because of its simplicity, looseness and warmth. The effect of translucent brown glaze on a white background gives a warm glowing feel as opposed to the cooler Grisaille that mixes black and white whch produces a dead looking painting.

Workshop Outline

If you are new to using oils then this is a good opportunity to learn how to control oil paint. This method is the traditional transition from charcoal to oil paints taught in Classical Realist Academies. First the student learns how to use the one pigment then progresses to using black and white, a limited palette and then a full palette. You will be shown how to use;

Medium and Paint Consistency of medium to paint for the dark and subtle light areas.
The Right Canvas How to prepare a canvas to make sure the glaze skates across the surface
Brushes Shorter stiffer brushes in the shadows and softer brushes in the lights so they don’t lift the paint off the surface.
Wiping the Paint Various methods of erasing paint, paper towel, brushes, cotton buds and a pencil eraser for the highlights.

Equipment

The studio is equipped with easels and work stations to make it more convenient for the students to organise their materials and focus on their work. The studio is also lit with balanced lighting which can save a lot of problems when dealing with a colour palette.

Image shows the workstation, the Alla Prima painting it is for display purpose only.

Materials Deal = £20

Organisation is a challenge faced by most beginners. The studio is equiped with work stations so that everything is at hand. The students will be using the same paints and canvas that the teacher uses for demonstration, eliminating a number of problems that students have when they bring their own paints and canvas. Each workstation includes;

Palette and palette knife
Medium holder
Medium and thinners
Prepared canvas
Paper towel, cotton wool buds and kneadable eraser
Paint – Burnt Sienna

(Offer does not include brushes – Information on dedicated suppliers shall be provided)

Registration

Imprimatura Portrait Workshop = £120

2 Day Imprimatura Portrait Workshop = £120. To register for the course, fill in your details and pay a 20% deposit below. Then pay the balance on the day. An email will be sent to confirm your attendance the week before the start date.