Advanced Tonal Studies in Grey

First in the Series of Monthly Workshops with David Chen

Landscapes Using Tonal Methods

For the next five workshops with David I will be talking about how I am learning to apply tonal methods when painting landscapes.

Life Painting-1

Advanced Life Painting Workshop with Artist David Chen

Painting from Live Model Alla Prima Today’s model a young female sitter whose portrait we painted last semester. She has brown hair with medium complexion. We were therefore, called on our recipes for lighter toned skin and brown to blonde hair, although some of the colours for Mediterranean skin tones would have worked as well. We painted all of her in a reclining pose, with strong directional light, pushing into more advanced painting techniques for the human body.

The focus for this series of workshops is directional lighting, creating drama by changing the direction and quantity of lights. Where the light is coming from, whether it is a cool or warm light and how strong it is, are all important. If you mix these by having a warm light from one direction and another from a different one, you can change the mood of the painting as well as bringing out various features in your model.