Bath College Portrait Course - Week 7

I have attended two more sessions at the above with mixed results. This week we had a fabulous black model Linda, a very tall statuesque lady, who towered above me. This isn't obvious from the photo but believe me she is tall!  Linda has a company called Kipenzi that sells Afrikan oriented products she designs www.kipenzi.co.uk

Linda 

Linda - Schut Noblesse 40cm x 50cm not

As you can see the sheet of Noblesse, much larger than my normal 16" x 12", is dwarfed by the size of the boards. Most students used sheets of cartridge or similar paper supplied by the college that were board-sized or close to it. I was the only one who painted in watercolour, with charcoal and pastel predominant.

It was suggested by our tutor Jackie that we might like to include her hands, although this wasn't mandatory. She also discussed the use of colour and suggested we emphasize it. As we have Linda for two more weeks I may do a fuller length study. I did a preliminary sketch including the hands but felt I needed a larger sheet of paper. I probably will use a cut down full sheet next week. I'll need to think about it.

After the preliminary drawing, not the easiest as I would have liked to have been closer to the model, which isn't practical given it might block others vision. I then began to paint starting as usual with the eyes, then the nose and mouth.. Colours used  were a mixture of Ultramarine Blue (PB29), Burnt Umber (Pbr7) and Schminke Translucent Brown (Pbr41). I like the Schminke but a bright Burnt Sienna would do equally as well. The hatband includes Cobalt Teal Blue (Daniel Smith PG50). My guru Charles Reid has done many studies of black models, both male and female, and I've gone back to his books, mainly 'Watercolour Solutions', to refresh my knowledge of what colours he uses and how he approaches the subjects. With two more sessions there is room for experimentation. 

I mentioned the previous week. I was still feeling out of sorts and the resulting portrait with the same model as my first two weeks, painted on Schut, was a poor representation. The eyes in particular are incorrect and it is inferior to the one I did on cartridge paper, which is a good resemblance. 

Schut Noblesse 40cm x 50cm not

This was a great session with a fantastic model and lovely lady. She did vary her position a little but this is something that is inevitable with her sitting for the best part of two hours, with only a major half hour break in between. Charles Reid always gives his models a break every twenty minutes. I was pleased with my resulting painting - I'm aware as always that it isn't anywhere near perfect - and look forward to next week.

Portrait Painting at Bath College

Since moving, a year past September, my painting activities have reduced and  I've been somewhat lacking in motivation. Hopefully this is improving and so I decided to take another Portrait course at the College of Bath Further Education in order to move the process along. This is the same course I took a while back with the same tutor Jackie Harding. It combines both drawing and painting and both head shots and full figure drawings/paintings using different drawing mediums, although when we come to paint I'll stick to watercolour.  Jackie has a low key approach and we are into drawing immediately after a short introductory talk. The sessions are 10am until 12.30  and it is a ten week course. I obtained permission to take the following photographs.

This lady is one of the models we had last time. I've forgotten her name but she is coming again next week so I'll remedy that. 

This is the approximate view I had with my easel on the left of the photo. She wasn't quite as far away as she appears, camera distortion, but sufficiently so that her features weren't easy to identify.

This is my finished drawing. I've cropped it a little as the original is on A2 sketching paper. The college has a shop with a limited range of art materials, such as sketch pads, paper etc, on sale at very cheap prices. The cafe is similarly good value!

I used Faber Castell graphite pencils 2B, that I made sure were very sharp. After sketching the general outline I then drew the features checking distances, spacing etc constantly. In her short initial talk, complete with a sheet she gave us that had illustrations and an excerpt from Betty Edwards 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain', she. emphasized the principals to follow regarding the correct proportions of the head and not drawing what you thought was there be but by careful observation what they actually are. Rather than use a pencil for measuring I have some spacing sticks I've made from thin garden stakes, marked  in inches. Possibly I should go back to using pencils, but normally I use mechanical pencils which aren't so useful for measuring. Jackies method is to go quietly round the class then suddenly she is  by your shoulder suggesting this or pointing out errors. I might add I was constantly erasing and re-drawing throughout the session. For example she pointed out on one occasion that the height of the top half of her head, basically the hair, was too short in relation to the face, on another certain angles were not quite right.

I think there were seven students in total but another two were possibly missing on the day. The first three sessions are drawing then we move on to painting. We have the same model next week but the drawing session will be varied, not sure exactly how but possibly using charcoal.

Pat from my AVA group is also a student and thoroughly enjoyed it as I did. The only problem we had was finding a parking space in the Park and Ride. For a first session, warts and all, it went quite well and I was pleased with the result.