Oil Painting! WOW!

I have just finished  a week long workshop–Classical Portraiture. I love taking workshops. They are inspiring and great to kick start the creative juices. This workshop was even more amazing than I imagined it would be. Kathy Speranza, our instructor, is an accomplished portrait painter and a wonderful teacher. After this workshop, I have to put her up there with my top three teachers from Simmons College. She has a passion for classical painting and is teaching us a highly researched palette used to create classic flesh tones and more naturalistic colors.

The palette

After what I learned about the palette, I now can say I would have taken a workshop on just this subject alone. Kathy also included lots of good information about oil painting and the properties of the different materials used. For example, I learned that raw umber is a fast drying color and that clove oil slows down the drying time. I also learned that you can put your painting in front of a hot oven to speed up the drying time. All those little tidbits of information are so valuable  because I have never been able to find an instructor to teach these kinds of things about oil painting before.

The fist day we did under paintings. 
We covered the canvas with a mixture of raw umber and linseed oil. Then we literally scratched the drawing out with a stump drawing tool and wiped the highlights out with a rag. Then we filled the dark area's back in with raw umber.

Kathy's under painting

My under painting

Day two we mixed the palette. 
Then we painted. A week is not long enough to finish a painting using this process. Below is are examples of the stage we got to in class. I will work on my painting all summer long.

Our fabulous model, Rebecca

Kathy demoing