It was a fabulous workshop at the Leighton Centre last weekend.  This particular  group of people was excellent – enthusiastic, friendly, great sense of humour (meaning they laughed at all my jokes) and very interested in learning.  For me it was also a very special workshop because this was the first time I’ve offered it.  I did a lot of getting ready for the workshop and I was very happy with the results.

My process for doing these  transparent portraits is: 1) do the skin tone underpainting, 2) add the features and 3) model the form.  The beauty of this process is that it’s very simple and clear cut.  Of course once you get the basics of the portrait you still have to use your artistic skill to make it into a good picture.

Anyway, I did 2 demos both of which I finished off at home. Here is Saturday’s . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . and Sunday’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also did one practice before the workshop to just illustrate the first 2 steps of my process i.e. the underpainting and adding the features.  It’s interesting to see it at this stage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time in the class and it’s always a neat experience to spend the weekend at the Leighton Centre.  It was sunny on and off but either way the surroundings and the view are really quite spectacular.  It was so easy to forget about the city and just enjoy being in the country for a day.

Here are some class photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife, Susan, also took the workshop because she has some art obligations coming up and she wanted to get a kick start for her own painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a former public school teacher I have learned that the success of a workshop is not how good my paintings are but what the students are able to do with what they learn. And there was a lot of learning.

I want to share the student samples.  It’s a big job to do a full portrait and no one completely finished so I’ve cropped each example just to show some parts that had been done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the weekend I was exhausted but in a very satisfying way.  It really was a pleasure to be there.

Next Workshop At The Leighton Centre

Just for those who may be interested.  My next workshop at the Leighton Centre is in October.  It’s an Experimental Watercolour Workshop (aka Playing with water).  Details will be available shortly on the Leighton Centre Website.