A busy weekend

This weekend a distant customer took great advantage of a lift, with friends, to Ipswich. Christin has been wanting to learn portraiture for some time. This timely lift coincided perfectly with my diary and the opportunity was just too good too miss. Christin booked 2 portrait lessons, back to back, for 2 days. Because the portrait lessons are only 3 hours long, it's easy to do this from 10am to 1pm - 30 mins for lunch, then carry on from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.

Christin was lucky enough at Christmas to receive the Valerie Stewart DVD set, brushes and paints so there will be no stopping her when she gets home. Although we were unable to totally complete both portraits (as you really need 3 sessions per painting), Christin made really good headway on both pictures. She'll be back another time to complete them and is already planning to next paint our Queen and Bob Ross.

Christin is a Bob Ross instructor, so you can imagine we had lots to chat about being in the same 'industry'.

I asked Christin if the portrait lessons were how she thought they would be. 'No', she replied, 'they're even better than I imagined'. Isn't that lovely to hear?

If portraiture might be something that would interest you, do give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me a line.

Didn't she do well ?

Today we painted a seascape, Joyce Ortner style. Using a small selection of soft brushes, we mixed our paint, loosened them with linseed oil and worked really hard at all the blending and softening to get realistic effects. It's much more fiddly than your average landscape, but worth learning Joyce's style as the results really are super.

My student, Sue, brought along to class a painting she made at home. Not only that, she is allowing me to show you all. Sue took 2 portrait seminars with me.......but this one she painted all by herself at home. I think it's absolutely brilliant. As I said to Sue........if this is painting number 3, think what painting number 10 will be like! She's already planning portrait number 4. I knew she would be hooked.

If you'd like to try portraiture do give me a call on 01473 311938 or drop me a line. At only £45 per lesson (all inclusive of equipment and materials) it's a special skill to learn that's worth every penny. Plus, my classes are aimed at beginners. Thanks to Valerie Stewart and her marvellous portrait technique, there's a growing demand for this.

Have a look

I've also sized, croped and edited quite a few more photos taken at the Valerie Stewart Portrait Seminar. You can now view quite a large selection of works in progress, finished paintings and some extreme close up shots. I think you'll agree - there's some brilliant work there. CLICK HERE to be taken to the portrait class gallery page.

Day 2 and all is well

Day 2 of the portrait seminar is now over and the phenominal standard of all the work really has to be seen to be believed. This time I had a fully charged camera battery and Edward, our lovely helper, has been snapping away. For now, I'm showing some class shots. I've a number of photos of the actual portraits but I'm not going to put them on the web without getting permission from the student's just yet. I've started a new web page so you can get an idea of what's been going on. In just 2 days Valerie has won the hearts of every student in the hall. Her energy levels would put a teenager to shame and her customer service is second to none. Do have a look at how we're all doing HERE

The sun has got his hat on....

Taking maximum advantage of the recent sunny weather, I decided to prep 3 boxes of canvases. All have been given 2 coats of flesh toned gesso and are ready for any of the June students who wish me to supply their portrait canvas for them. My patio had every sunny inch taken up with lines of canvas drying out. I'll be sending out an announcement to the Valerie Stewart students later this week incase you'd like to order your canvases in advance. Valerie also wants to extend an invitation to anyone who is interested in dropping by when we have the portrait seminar. Drop-ins will be on the 5th & 6th June, afternoons only. It'll give you an idea of what we've been doing and how we are getting along. It might even tempt you to sign up for a 2011 portrait seminar. I still have availablity for this 4 day oil painting portraiture workshop, details can be found HERE.If you are unable to attend the seminar but wish to learn Valerie's technique you might be interested in her DVD's. A single portrait demo DVD is a bargain at just £16; the intensive 6 DVD set is just £145. Details of the DVDs can be found HERE. As I was in a portrait frame of mind I decided to finish off this fella (yes, it IS a fella). I might just keep this guy for myself....... Regular readers will know I've learned to create these portraits simply by following Valerie's DVD tuition. This is my 7th ever oil portrait and the second portrait that I have completed without having to refer to the DVD's. You can find a larger version of this painting by clicking HERE.

Fancy learning this technique

Here we have the completed underpainting stage. It's a commission painting and the customer is more than happy with things so far. Portraiture is very different indeed from the normal wet on wet oil painting technique which I teach in my regular classes. If you'd like to learn this portrait technique, I have availability on the Valerie Stewart 4 day portrait seminar which will take place in June. Full details can be found HERE. With less than 6 weeks to go before Valerie flys in to the UK to teach us Europeans her marvelous method, there's still time to take part.

Something else to keep my fingers busy

I was recently given the most fabulous acoustic guitar. Now I don't know one guitar from the next, but friends who know about these things tell me my new toy is a proper gem. One of my birthday surprises was a guitar lesson (following an impromptu and delicious tapas lunch). I received a guitar chord and scale book and an essential tuner. All I'll say for now is...........I look at guitar players totally different and with even more admiration than ever before. I don't think I've ever tried to learn something that seems so fiddly and complicated in my life. If I can one day play a tune I'll be very surprised. But, I'll not let it beat me and it's early days. So, if any fellow guitar players out there have any words of encouragement to offer, I'll really love to hear from you. Was it the same for you too at the beginning? Were you also overwhelmed by the many chords, notes and finger positions? Boy does it hurt your finger tips too.

Not long now - ----

It's exciting times for me as communications with Valerie Stewart, our renowned guest tutor from the States, increases. The Valerie Stewart Portrait seminar, which will be taking place in Capel St Mary early June this year will soon be underway. Details can be found HERE. Valerie wishes to make you all fully aware the seminar carries a 100% satisfaction guarantee - or your money back. For those of you who have expressed an interest in this exciting 4 day workshop but not yet paid your deposits, please make sure these are sent off in the next few days to guarantee your place. Just a quick re-cap - over the course of the 4 days you will paint 2 portraits (or 2 heads on one portrait). The subject is your choice and can be a family/friend or a celebrity. For those of you who have booked and paid, you'll probably want to be thinking about who you'd like to paint and making sure you have crisp and clear photographs of your chosen subjects. It's not long now, is it?

Eye Eye !!!!

This week I hope to refine quite a few more of Harry's details. His skin tones were laid in a while back and his lights and darks were softly added. I find I'm watching Valerie's DVD's less and less as I'm getting quite familiar with the technique now. As I paint I know she'd accuse me of fiddling - which I do a lot. In fact, before I started work on Harry's face I decided to give him a complete glaze of soft colour to tone down some of the flesh tints, making for a lighter and brighter skin tone. I worked on the teeth and mouth area. I've been sculpting the nose shape and adding the apples to Harry's cheeks. I'm just taking a break and thought it might be a nice stage to share with you. Here you can see one eye done and the other eye is yet to be refined. Just a few shadows and softening really makes all the difference, don't you think?

Portrait Commission - oils

Work continues on my oil painting commission - no - not the nude couple !! I was asked to paint this portrait last year, but didn't feel quite ready.Now, with a few more portraits under my belt I feel more than ready to take on such work. I'd like you to meet Harry. Some of my students, who have been taking classes at Apollo House, have been witnessing the progress first hand. (And they all think Harry is an absolute angel.) Interestingly, when I showed students 'Stage 1' of the painting beside the photo, many would say 'leave it right there'. Stage one of Valerie's Portrait Painting technique is the underpainting. Just a few details and shadows in a single tone. Simple, yet really effective. My customer was over the moon when she received this progress photo, several weeks ago.

Learn to paint Portraits in Oils - With Valerie Stewart

I've just uploaded a larger version of my recent Jimmy Carr portrait to my gallery page - which can be seen HERE. I emailed the finished piece to Portrait expert Valerie Stewart, along with the photo I was working from.

I'm thrilled to have received this message back: I am VERY IMPRESSED with your painting. I'm going to look it over with a magnifying glass and see if I find anything but at first glance I see no problems!!!

After close scrutiny, Valerie writes: I honestly don't see anything .... (sorry) :) It is VERY GOOD. Maybe a small shadow on the top of his fingernail???? Maybe a pinch of pink in the lips??? I LOVE it. YOU'RE AWESOME!!!!

So, that's pretty much made my day :)

If you'd like to come along to Valerie's 4 day Portrait workshop here in June, (full details can be found HERE) do drop me a line or give me a call to register your interest. For those of you who haven't yet sent your deposits, please be aware time is getting on if you want to be 100% certain of your booking. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy one of Valerie's more recent celebrity portraits.