Well, it's a long time to wait between now and next May for Valerie Stewart's portrait workshops..........so, with some time on my hands today I decided to have a little go, following her DVD instruction. Firstly, I selected a couple of photos - a celebrity and a family member. Next I prepped 2 canvas, mixing the base colour and giving a good coat on both canvas. As I settled at the table with my brushes, medium, palette, base colour, easel and kitchen towel, I was ready for stage one. I guess, the thing with portraits is........they are supposed to look like someone specific. With landscapes, we can be a lot more forgiving and add extra bushes, trees, fences - anything really..... The first few strokes were applied, following Valerie's guidance. I was a bit wary about making a mistake as I haven't ever made a detailed 'person' portrait in oils before. I'm happy to work with graphite and build up the shading, knowing an eraser will always take out bits I'm not happy with. Not quite sure how that will work with oils though. So, I'm almost at the end of stage one on the celebrity portrait and taking a break before switching to smaller brushes. All that you see so far has been created with a 1 inch brush. If you can guess who it is from this very basic layer, considering there's no eyes yet, I'd be really suprised.
Art Instructor