Warm/Cool Palette

Description

Flesh tones have long challenged art students. Without guidance, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the wide range of colors observed on the figure—and on the palette. This 4-week class is designed to demystify the process of developing flesh tones using a very limited Flemish palette: just two colors plus white. By working within this narrow range, students can simplify their approach and focus on the essentials of creating convincing form—value, chroma, and temperature.

As with most of our Live Streaming Classes, this course features two instructors: Melinda Whitmore and David Jamieson. Both will paint the same subject on-screen simultaneously, giving students the choice to follow either instructor while still benefiting from both perspectives. This dual-instructor format—a hallmark of Live Streaming Classes at Vitruvian Studio—offers a dynamic, layered learning experience where techniques and ideas intersect in real time. Each demo will focus on developing a single figure with a strong sense of light, three-dimensionality, and naturalistic flesh tones using the limited palette.

Color development will be explored from the ground up—starting with paint selection and mixing strategies, and supported by key theoretical concepts such as the Munsell system and three-dimensional “color space.”

The class will be streamed live via Zoom over four Sundays, from 1:00 to 4:00pm Central Time. Each session will focus on a specific stage of the painting process. Students are encouraged to paint along with the instructors and participate by asking questions in real time. For those unable to attend live, recordings of each session will be available for the full duration of the course, plus one additional week afterward.

A high-quality photo reference of the model will be provided at the start of the course. This ensures that everyone—including both instructors and students—is working from the same model, from the same point of view. Unlike traditional in-person classes, this format allows students to continue developing their paintings between sessions, though we recommend not getting too far ahead of the weekly demos.