portrait in oil — Blog — Julie Douglas

Attending masterclasses is a valuable experience which can shift understanding or expand on existing knowledge. For those of us who teach much of the time, it also provides the opportunity to paint without the distraction of other commitments.

I spent a few days in Florence last week, on a workshop given by Cesar Santos, hosted in the very lovely surroundings of The Florence Studio, owned by Laura Thompson and Frank Rekrut. A spacious, bright and clean environment, I have never felt so welcomed and well cared for in any other studio. The fridge was stocked with bottled water for the students, and nibbles on the table.

Most of the students, with Cesar, at the end of the week.

Cesar is incredibly knowledgable, polite and keen to share his skills. I was delighted, of course, that his main message was about drawing, and he took us through all the stages, from simplifying the head, to getting it onto canvas, under painting, 1st and 2nd painting.

First morning, my drawing, simplifying the form and getting to 'know' the model.

Later day 1, the drawing completed directly on the canvas.

Day 2, the under painting - this layer is to establich tones, not colours.

The '1st painting, day 3, to opaquely apply colour using broad strokes and the biggest brush we could bear...

I met lots of lovely people, and one evening we enjoyed a tour round The Pettit Palace with Cesar as our guide.

Cesar guiding us through the Pitti Palce examining old master paintings.

Day 4, more of the 1st Painting, with some 2nd Painting (a thinly applied layer) as well.

Here are some quotes from Cesar, taken from my notes:

‘Drawing is our attempt to understand.’

‘Painting is meaningless without drawing’.

‘Drawing has nothing to do with the materials: it is the eye. Students must strive to make the drawing excellent, try to achieve perfection, in every drawing. Keep perfecting. 100 bad drawings won’t give you a good one! Just as a poet needs to learn grammar in order to express bigger things, in art, excel in drawing first.’

A bit of fun at the end of the week - Cesar Santos, framed!

For information on my workshops in Belfast, email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

next up: Workshops in Oils, portrait, water colour and a drawing and painting session for children.

‘Process’ is the path from the humble beginnings (possibly an idea or a thought) to a more finished end. If I had my way, art exhibitions would include not only a display of the ‘finished’ works but also much of the preparation work it took to get to there. I think this would not only enlighten people to the effort involved, but it would help them appreciate the steps required and stall the race-to-the-end which seems to be urgently demanded. There are well-trodden stages to finished artworks, and much joy to be had in lingering there. It’s not ALL about the end.

I am currently working on a small painting of my son. I love sharing the whole process involved in producing artwork, so here is the initial drawing in stages, and the colour study which I did before starting the more careful final painting.

I don’t absolutely always do a preliminary drawing - but I am always sorry if I haven’t. The drawing study is a valuable way to investigate shapes and tones and placement of the elements to be painted, as well as the place to make decisions about the atmosphere we want to achieve in the final work . Spending time preparing to paint repays tenfold, or more!

The next stage is the colour study. I LOVE this part! In fact, my study has more detail in than is necessary, but I was enjoying it and indulged myself. Working straight to paint, I blocked in a face-shape, without worrying at all about a likeness. The point here is working out what colours, and paying attention to tonal balance too. In this painting, there is a lot of striped light on the forehead from lighting directly above. That is the challenge.