Forthcoming Portrait and Life workshops

Over the next few months I will be running the following workshops in Barrow near Bury St. Edmunds.

Saturday, 9th October Portrait Workshop
Sunday, 7th November Life Drawing and Painting Workshop
Sunday, 5th December Portrait Workshop

All workshops will run from 10am-4pm


The charge for each of these workshops will be £35 or £30 per session if two or more are booked. This includes model fees , tea , coffee, biscuits. Bring your own packed lunch.

It is an ideal opportunity to meet and work alongside different artists and to experience the benefits of having a more extended period of time in which to develop your drawing or painting.

Anyone wishing more information on any of these day schools should either e-mail me or call on 01284 810 460

Acrylic/oil portrait painting 5

The finished portrait of "Val and Betty". It was published in Artists' & Illustrators' Magazine and was judged the "most popular painting " by the public at the Autumn Exhibition of the Cambridge Drawing Society in 2007.

Acrylic/oil portrait painting 4

Now I have started working in oils. In places, the pigment is solid and opaque. In other parts, I use scumbling or glazing techniques, allowing the original acrylic painting to show through and act as a foil.

acrylic/oil portrait painting 3

Out of the chaos, order gradually emerges. Details of clothing, the table and objects on it, and the window gradually appear. I am still working in acrylics and the process so far has taken around two hours.

Acrylic/oil portrait painting 2

Here, I am still working in acrylics. I now begin to feel my way into the composition. The figures are roughly drawn in, as is the basic perspective of the background setting. I establish a cool green underpainting for future warm flesh tones.

Using acrylics as an underpainting for oils

The previous oil portrait was done in a traditional manner. This time I am using acrylics as the underpainting. The reason? It dries extremely rapidly so layer upon layer can be built up quickly prior to adding the oils on top. It is spontaneous and can be great fun, as can be seen from the somewhat colourful and apparently chaotic illustration on the right. But the colours I am using are chosen very deliberately to pick up those in the subject.