Portrait Painting: Anatomy and Form
Adult Course | Registration opens 8/5/2025 10:00 AM MDT
This class is an in depth introduction to painting the portrait in oils, via understanding the structures of the human head.
By practicing several allá primas (meaning a painting done all in one sitting) you will become familiar with the shapes of the human head and its features. As the weeks progress, you will be given an introduction to a limited palette to mix the flesh tones of the model as a preview to the concepts we will cover in the next 6 week course - full color!
The instructor will give demonstrations explaining materials, techniques, and the anatomical forms of the human head.
Some experience drawing or painting from life is encouraged but not required.
- Materials:
16x20 cotton duck canvas
Bristle Filbert brush 2 each size 4, and 2
2 inch chip brush or house painting brush
Professional Grade Artist’s Oil Paint 37ml tube of the following colors
Burnt Umber
Burnt sienna
Cadmium red
Cadmium yellow
Ivory black
Titanium white
Meininger's neutral gray acrylic gesso squeeze tube
A brush washing jar with sealable lid
Odorless mineral spirits
Paper towels
Palette - a neutral brown sealed wooden palette or glass palette
Palette knife
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/