It's been lovely, to get back into a bit of portraiture again and I'm glad I thought ahead and prepped a canvas in advance. Yesterday afternoon I worked on a close up shot, a little frustrating at first but I soon got in the swing of it. Considering this underpainting stage is made using just one colour, I managed to cover my whole palette with varying tones. This first stage was made using just 3 brushes and of course, I had the lovely Valerie Stewart right beside me. Well..........on screen anyway. I used Valerie's Demo DVD to guide the order of things and to remind me of the different strokes used. One thing that amazes me, Valerie is painting a classic portrait of a girl in her DVD tuition, yet from her tuition we are able to adapt the technique to any subject we choose. You'll be forgiven if you do not recognise the subject at this stage......but if you nail it straight away I know I'm onto a winner. There are still some slots left on the Valerie Stewart 4 day Portrait Seminar in June if anyone is interested in learning this technique with the lady herself....... details can be found HERE.
Art Instructor