Painting portraits in oils workshop - Day 1

Excited to learn some new stuff over the next two weeks.

Now that I am off a cleanse I could also enjoy some of the morning snacks with my coffee. We started the workshop taught by Martinho Corriea by going over the handouts and a brief demonstration. Since we were expected to have a canvas already prepped with a level 3 tonal wash of burnt umber, so that it would be dry, we jumped right in.

The first thing to do was to get set up. Then I took an enlarged photocopy from a photo and draw in the outline of the figure in pencil. On the back of the paper I put down a layer of soft charcoal. I then placed the image where I wanted it and drew on top of it to transfer the image to the canvas below.

When the paper was removed the basic outline and the shadow line was transferred to the canvas below. My canvas was just big enough to fit the figure, I lucked out. I still think in inches and now its time to go metric, it may take me a bit! This is a quick and easy way to get the figure down but may not always be the way to work, its quick though for a workshop that isn't about drawing at all and all about applying paint.

The first color I applied was the dark skin tone. I used Burnt Umber and white to a value of about 6. I also put solvent and a few drops of cobalt drier into one of my palette cups to paint with so that it would be dry tomorrow. Fat over lean, this is the leanest part.  The shadows were painted in solid. The shadow on the wall was made with black and yellow ochre while the background mid tone color was made with the same mixture and a touch of emerald green.

Here is the piece with my set up. It was recommended that I paint the background more solid so I made up a new variation of the color with the addition of come cobalt blue added. I gave it a bit of life with my strokes, instead of filling the entire canvas with a solid hue. I created a color for the ground and blurred where the two colors that make the horizon line cut the canvas.

I then painted in the mid-tone of the flesh. This was made by blending red umber and white. It to was filled in solid then I went back and blended it a bit more so the line wasn't so harsh. I painted in a mid-tone for the hair and one for the stand as well.

To get a better understanding of what we are hoping to accomplish we made a FLESH BALL! We were given a brief demonstration of how to lay out this particular palette and were given the task to create 5 variants of color to use from light to dark.

The colors for this flesh tone palette are:
Flake(lead White), Yellow Ochre, Cadmium red light, Indian/venetian red, red umber, burnt umber, raw umber and black.

To mix colors:
We used the yellow ochre and a touch of red to create an orange then stretched it out with white until the light skin tone was achieved.  The second was made by adding red umber to the previous mix. he third was made from red umber and white. Following that the red umber and white mix blended with some burnt umber and finally a mix of burnt umber and white. It was necessary to make in between blends of each as well.

I am really looking forward to continuing the process tomorrow morning, keep checking in on my progress =;)