Portrait Class Online with the City Literary Institute (5 Weeks )
I enjoyed the watercolour class with Paul Dixon very much, so have now enrolled for his Portrait class.
Week 1 – looking at tone in portraiture , using willow and compressed charcoal and pencil. The longest pose was only one hour, so the pencil drawing I made although quite a reasonable likeness was a bit crude. I would have liked to have had more time, but not displeased with the result. These classes are fully interactive with the tutor on hand throughout for help and advice. I would certainly recommend Paul’s classes, even to a complete beginner. A great improvement on the majority of online courses where one is just an anonymous participant.
Week 2 – Using soft pastels and trying to use unusual colours rather than try for realistic skin tones. I enjoyed doing this and will continue to experiment, though to what extent it would be posible to do this in a portrait situation I’m not sure. (Bearing in mind that I am not Lucien Freud or David Hockney, my scope might be a bit limited, but good to try.)
Not such a good likeness as the pencil drawing of week 1, but fun! Sennelier and Schminke pastels, greys, light and dark blues, skin tones, scarlet, small amount of yellow ochre and orange too. Photo is a bit light, actual picture is more colourful
Week 3 – This week the aim was to use oil paints with the very limited Zorn palette.
Titanium White
Ivory Black
Cadmium Red Light
Yellow Ochre
From thes four colours one is supposed to be able to mix everything else. I found that hard to believe but had a go! I had to use acrylic paint, as working on Zoom I like to use the large TV screen, and can’t use oil paints in the living room – just too messy and smelly.
As suggested by Paul I put on a background in a thin mix of the Yellow Red and White with a trace of Black. This made a good background. Kit was an excellent model sporting a very striking red scarf. I was able to mix the colours quite successfully from the palette of four, though I did cheat and add a little blue for Kit’ s shirt. Mixing the White, Ochre and a varying touch of red for the lighter areas of the face, and Black and Red mix for very dark areas such as the eye sockets. I then lightened that mix with Ochre and a little White to give variety in the shaded areas. I have never really tried using acrylics for portrait before, and am quite pleased with the result. This limited palettte certainly makes colour mixing easier.
I realise from other class members comments, that it is not generally known how to make a DIY stay wet palette for acrylics. With a plain dish style palette, (a plate or a cake tin would do even) line with kitchen roll and wet it, then place a sheet of tracing paper on top. The tracing paper just become slightly damp and prolongs the drying time of the paint.
You can use retarders of course. I have tried a Golden retarder, which works, but is a bit gloopy.
Week 4 Using Zorn Palette again but with addition of Cadmium Yellow, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine, i.e. Lucien Freud’s basic palette. Gave a much cooler effect, which I would be reluctant to use on a sitter. Might lose friends that way!
Ian – pencil on cartridge paper 
Ian – soft pastel on Pastelmat paper 
Kit Zorn plus Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow Ultramarine 
Kit -Acrylic on SAA practice paper Zorn Palette