Animal Instincts

Description

“You cannot share your life with a dog and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities, minds and feelings.” — Jane Goodall

Animals have a profound impact on our lives in numerous ways. They provide companionship, emotional support, and enrich our daily experiences.

They have also been a favorite subject of artists for centuries. Animals contribute rich symbolic and allegorical meaning to imagery, playing vital supporting roles in countless narrative, historical and religious pictures throughout history.

But animals can also be engaging subjects for portraiture in their own right. Much as the thoughts and emotions of human beings are conveyed through compelling portraiture, so too can artists explore the inner life of an animals through drawing and painting.

Animal Instincts is a BRAND NEW class at Vitruvian Studio that explores the rich topic of creating a successful animal portrait from start to finish.

Topics covered will include:

• Photographing and selecting appropriate references. While photo references will be provided for this class, we will discuss the most common mistakes artists and pet owners make when choosing reference material for animal portraits.
• Comparative Anatomy. We share common anatomical structures with many species, including dogs and cats. We’ll investigate different canine and feline anatomical structures, comparing and contrasting them with each other, and with the corresponding anatomical structures in humans. This discussion will provide a point of entry for capturing both an animal’s likeness, and their unique expressions and personality.
• Technique. Strategies for capturing a sense of form and light are an ongoing focus of all our classes at Vitruvian Studio. This class will further investigate the unique challenges of drawing and painting the fur, whiskers, and eyes of animal subjects.

We will work on two distinct portraits in this class, spending three weeks on a dog portrait, and three weeks on a cat portrait.

As with most of our Sunday classes, Animal Instincts will feature two instructors. Working from the same reference images, instructor Melinda Whitmore will demonstrate portraits in oil paint, while David Jamieson will draw the same images in pencil. Students are free to choose which medium they’d prefer to work with, and follow along with that instructor, while still gaining insight from the other demo.

This “two pronged” approach to teaching is a hallmark of Live Streaming Classes at Vitruvian Studio. Two instructors, working simultaneously, allows for cross-pollination of ideas, techniques and concepts that enriches the learning experience for everyone. In each demo, the focus will be on developing a beautiful portrait with a convincing sense of light, 3-dimensionality and natural-looking color where applicable.

This class will be streamed live on Zoom for 6 Sundays. The primary class session will meet between 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday afternoons (Central Time), when the instructors will teach and demonstrate on-camera. Each class session will focus on a particular stage of the process, and students are encouraged to work along with the instructors and ask questions in real time.

For students unable to attend the live on Sundays, a recording of each class session will be available for 7 days until it is replaced with the subsequent week’s video. That way, there’s a full week available to get caught up if you miss anything, or to review any concepts presented.

“You cannot share your life with a dog and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities, minds and feelings.” — Jane Goodall

Animals have a profound impact on our lives in numerous ways. They provide companionship, emotional support, and enrich our daily experiences.

They have also been a favorite subject of artists for centuries. Animals contribute rich symbolic and allegorical meaning to imagery, playing vital supporting roles in countless narrative, historical and religious pictures throughout history.

But animals can also be engaging subjects for portraiture in their own right. Much as the thoughts and emotions of human beings are conveyed through compelling portraiture, so too can artists explore the inner life of an animals through drawing and painting.

Animal Instincts is a BRAND NEW class at Vitruvian Studio that explores the rich topic of creating a successful animal portrait from start to finish.

Topics covered will include:

• Photographing and selecting appropriate references. While photo references will be provided for this class, we will discuss the most common mistakes artists and pet owners make when choosing reference material for animal portraits.
• Comparative Anatomy. We share common anatomical structures with many species, including dogs and cats. We’ll investigate different canine and feline anatomical structures, comparing and contrasting them with each other, and with the corresponding anatomical structures in humans. This discussion will provide a point of entry for capturing both an animal’s likeness, and their unique expressions and personality.
• Technique. Strategies for capturing a sense of form and light are an ongoing focus of all our classes at Vitruvian Studio. This class will further investigate the unique challenges of drawing and painting the fur, whiskers, and eyes of animal subjects.

We will work on two distinct portraits in this class, spending three weeks on a dog portrait, and three weeks on a cat portrait.

As with most of our Sunday classes, Animal Instincts will feature two instructors. Working from the same reference images, instructor Melinda Whitmore will demonstrate portraits in oil paint, while David Jamieson will draw the same images in pencil. Students are free to choose which medium they’d prefer to work with, and follow along with that instructor, while still gaining insight from the other demo.

This “two pronged” approach to teaching is a hallmark of Live Streaming Classes at Vitruvian Studio. Two instructors, working simultaneously, allows for cross-pollination of ideas, techniques and concepts that enriches the learning experience for everyone. In each demo, the focus will be on developing a beautiful portrait with a convincing sense of light, 3-dimensionality and natural-looking color where applicable.

This class will be streamed live on Zoom for 6 Sundays. The primary class session will meet between 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday afternoons (Central Time), when the instructors will teach and demonstrate on-camera. Each class session will focus on a particular stage of the process, and students are encouraged to work along with the instructors and ask questions in real time.

For students unable to attend the live on Sundays, a recording of each class session will be available for 7 days until it is replaced with the subsequent week’s video. That way, there’s a full week available to get caught up if you miss anything, or to review any concepts presented.