The Figure in Color

Description

Color is a vast and challenging topic for art students. Without instruction, novice artists can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer variety of color in the world, both in nature and in our materials. This class seeks to demystify color development for flesh tones. Building upon our past drawing classes, The Figure in Color will guide students through simple strategies for achieving convincing, natural skin tones on a well-constructed figure, presented via two long-pose demonstrations in 6 class sessions.

As with most of our Live Streaming Classes, this class will feature two instructors. Melinda Whitmore will demonstrate a figure painting in oil, while David Jamieson will draw a figure in pastel. 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 single figure with a convincing sense of light, 3-dimensionality, and natural-looking flesh tones. Discussion of color development will happen at the materials level (colorant selection and mixing strategies), supported by theoretical concepts including 3-dimensional “color space” and the Munsell system.

This class will be streamed live via Zoom on six 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 live on Sundays, recordings of each class session will be available for the entire 6 week duration of the class, PLUS one week afterward.

A high-quality photo reference of the model will be made available to all students at the beginning of the class. This will be the same reference the instructors will be using, and as such, we’ll all be able to work with the same model, from the same point of view – something not possible with traditional on-ground classes with a live model. Another advantage of this format, is students will be able to work on their figures between classes, although we recommend not getting too far ahead of the demo each week.