Painting the Figure in Oil: Intermediate

Service Description

This course will offer students an introduction to painting the human figure in oils using a direct, alla prima approach. Beginning with mass drawing in charcoal, followed by monochrome painting and finally full colour painting using a limited palette, the course aims to ease the difficult transition from drawing to painting in a progressive manner. Emphasis will be given to direct observation from nature and to the apprehension of lighting effects as a means to reveal form. Students will begin to build a technical understanding of the process of painting as well as improving their drawing and observational skills. Week 1 - introduction and charcoal mass drawing Week 2 - charcoal mass drawing continued Weeks 3 - 5 - monochrome painting in oils Week - 6 colour painting demo Weeks - 7 - 10 - colour painting Essential • Heavyweight smooth white paper, around A2 size • Charcoal ◦ standard willow charcoal or Nitram graded charcoal - compressed charcoal sticks or pencils • Eraser • Kneaded eraser • Knitting needle Recommended • Chamois (shammy cloth) • Plumb line and bob • Small mirror • Black mirror (a smartphone screen is perfect) • An old fan brush or (clean) makeup brush Painting (weeks 3 – 10) Equipment (essential) • Brushes - Good quality natural hog hair brushes in a variety of shapes and sizes, for example – ▪ long flats sizes 0, 4, 6, and 10 ▪ filberts sizes 0, 4, 6 and 10 ▪ pointed rounds sizes 1, 4 and 8 Ideally, you would have 3 of each brush. • Palette for mixing colour • Palette knife • Jars for solvent and medium • Paper towel or rags Oil paints (essential) • Lead or titanium white (or both) • Yellow ochre • Vermillion, or an equivalent such as anthraquinone scarlet (I use Old Holland Bright Red) or cadmium red light • Ivory black • Transparent oxide red OR burnt umber Oil paints (recommended) • Cadmium yellow lemon • Alizarin crimson • Cobalt blue Solvents and medium • Gamsol (Gamblin) or Sansodor (Winsor & Newton) ◦ regular white spirit or turpentine substitute are not suitable for oil painting • Artist grade cold pressed or refined linseed oil Painting Support • 2 x fine- to medium-grained stretched canvases, approximately 60 x 40 cm in size ◦ Ideally, these should be oil primed but universal primed is fine. You can also use un-stretched canvas and tape or clip it to a board - just make sure that it's properly sized and primed. Image Credits: 1) Joseph Rodefer DeCamp - Woman Drying Her Hair 1898 2) Edmund Charles Tarbell A Nude Woman

Cancellation Policy

We will provide a 50% refund if you give written advance notice up to 30 days before the course start date. 0% refund 30 days before a course starts. Please note there is an administration fee of £5 payable in respect of such refunds to cover payment processing fees. You will need to inform a member of administration staff in writing by emailing EDS at info@edinburghdrawingschool.co.uk. Additionally, if you withdraw for any reason after the course has started you will not be entitled to a refund. We are a small business and we depend on every booking to ensure that classes can go ahead. If a student is unable to attend a class due to illness, then EDS must be informed immediately so that the tutor can be notified. If you are missing a class because you suspect that you have developed Covid-19, please let us know immediately so that we can alert fellow student and tutors. Non-attendance of classes/workshops does not automatically mean a refund, however EDS will assess the circumstance

Contact Details

• 13A Great King Street, Edinburgh, UK

  + 0131 556 0971

  info@edinburghdrawingschool.co.uk