Intro to Figure Painting October/November
Adult Course | Registration closed 11/5/2024
In this course, beginner students will be guided through a comprehensive introduction to painting the human figure from life. In the first session, students will go through a bootcamp style approach, doing rapid gestural sketches from the figure, with poses increasing in length each week as they become fluent in the dynamic start of capturing the figure as a whole via gesture, shape, light and shadow. In the following sessions, the pace slows down as students will investigate color and form through longer poses and studies of the figure, exploring how to create a believable sculptural interpretation of form, while capturing the effect of light.
Week 1: Gesture - The Dynamic Start: Short pose
Week 2: Gesture - Light and Shadow, Short to Long
Week 3: Open Grisaille
Week 4: Introduction to Flesh-Tones
Week 5: Duotone: transparency and opacity
Week 6: Duotone Long Pose
Week 7: Intro to Color
Week 8: Form Modeling in Color 1 of 2
Week 9: Form Modeling in Color 2 of 2
Week 10: Long pose day 1 of 3: Grisaille underpainting
Week 11: Long pose day 2 of 3: Duotone into Color
Week 12: Long pose day 3 of 3: Form Pass in Color
- -Palette - wooden rectangular palette - 11x14 or larger. Must be stained a dark neutral brown and SEALED. NO palette paper. Glass is acceptable.
-Brushes - 2 of each of the following: Bristle Filberts sizes #4,#3,#2,#1. Blick's Masterstroke and Silver Grand Prix are recommended brands
-Palette Knife
-Rags - Viva paper towels recommended
-Solvent - Odorless Mineral Spirits in a SEALED jar
-Medium - 1 part stand oil to 2 parts solvent
-Canvas: you will need a 16x20 canvas or canvas panel each class, toned a neutral gray. For canvas toning procedure, see below. This will also be demonstrated the first day: Take Meininger’s neutral gray acrylic paint and squeeze about a tablespoon of paint into a mixing bowl. Stir in a little water and thin until you get the consistency of melted ice cream. Take a wide chip brush to scrub this mixture onto your canvas. Once covered, carefully drag the brush from one end of the canvas to another to make even, parallel strokes. Let dry.
-Oil Paints: Professional Grade paint required. I recommend Winsor Newton, Utrecht, and Rembrandt brands. You'll need the following colors: Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Ivory Black
Alexander Soukas
Alexander Soukas' serious training in the fine arts began upon attending the Walnut Hill School for the arts, one of five high schools in the United States dedicated to rigorous training in music, ballet, theatre, writing, and visual arts. Unsatisfied with his studies, and desiring to pursue a career as an artist, he began homeschooling as a way of earning his diploma while undertaking an apprenticeship with realist figure painter Jason Polins. Soukas studied traditional painting and drawing in Boston with Polins for 4 years, where he now visits as a guest instructor at Polins' atelier, The Boston School of Painting. Years later, Soukas studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in a coordinated program with the University of Pennsylvania for a year before leaving to seek a more rigorous classical training at Studio Incamminati. While there, he worked for and studied under Nelson Shanks as one of his last apprentices. https://www.alexandersoukas.com/