Portraiture Curriculum

Tuesdays from 6:30 pm to 9 pm 

Learn the portrait and create like the masters! In this Portrait Painting & Drawing Class, you will learn skills for the portraiture in soft pastel, grisaille, oil painting, and more.

Instructor: Gary Smith

Register with Gary at 416 910 5535 or click here
-Deposit of 100$ per course (level) is required in advance
-Level 1 course is a prerequisite of Level 2. Level 3, 4 and 5 are open to all
Level 1: Anatomy and Rendering Form
Facial features, accuracy, shapes, shadows, edges, and rendering. Lots of homework plus practice from DRAWINGS. 
Materials required: Pencils GB, 2b 4b eraser and sketchbook
September 18 to October 23
Fee: $285 for 6 weeks + $20 for supplies

Level 2: Draw Like the Masters
Many Masters did 3 colour Drawings. This practice will introduce minimal colour plus awareness of the use of temperature. Some homework plus lots of practice from drawings and PHOTOS.
October 30 to December 4
Fee: $285 for 6 weeks + $35 for supplies

Level 3 : Soft Pastel: creatively catching the feeling of the model
Creativity in Portraiture using soft pastels. Practice from a live model ar every class. 
January 22 to March 5
Fee: $330 for 7 weeks + $70 for models fees 
Materials required: pastel paper (not white) plus a number of pastels. Paper will be available for purchase If needed.

 Level 4 :  Sensitivity to VALUE ~ GRISAILLE in Oils
In this intro to the classical approach to oil painting each student will work on one grisaille portrait, rendering the value one for the entire session from a photo.
March 19 to April 30
Fee: $330 for 7 weeks + $ 60 supplies 
Materials required: B&W oil paint, brushes, pallet knife, cups for oil and turpentine or odorless solvent and rags PLUS a black and white photo you wish to recreate in oils, sized for a 16″x20″ canvas. Please email your photo to Gary one week in advance he will get them printed for you at no extra cost.

Level 5 :  Colouring Your Portraits
Question #1 in every beginner’s painting class is, “How do you colour flesh?” Well you will learn in this class
Learn and practice the colouring of portraits using different oil painting techniques such as glazing and stumbling and wet-in-wet. We will use oils again but this time in full colour.  There will be videos shown plus demos.
May 7 to June 18
Fee: $330 for 7 weeks, + $30 supplies (to print your grisaille or other V&W photo to two 10×12″ canvases.)
Students must prove their own oil paints and supplies.

Your preparation: At least one week before the first class send to Gary a B&W photograph of a portrait or of your grisaille by email. Gary will get them printed on two canvases. This is called a Giclée. Bring your own supplies (except easels) plus the reproduced B&W images on canvases.  The size is up to you. It could be 12” x 16” or larger.

In both levels 4 and 5 there will be long videos by different portrait artists.. Gary will put them on a DVD and you can watch most of them on your own time.