Tony Ryder portrait painting workshop
 

I just finished day two of a ten-day workshop in Seattle taught by Tony Ryder. He's a terrific teacher (thorough, gentle and very, very knowledgeable.)

I spent these first two days doing what he calls the "poster study," which is a tiny, greatly simplified five-inch color study of the model from life.

I found this exercise to be so valuable that I think I will start doing several of these studies before every new painting I create (as Tony does with his own work). Tony's eye for color is so precise that a little of his skill is starting to rub off on us students.

Tomorrow we start the drawing on the canvas that we will paint on for the rest of the two week class. We'll work from the same model for 50 painting hours.

You can see examples of Tony Ryder's paintings and very thorough step-by-step photographs of what he teaches in class on his website: http://tonyryder.com

As I have time and energy after class, I'll post updates.

Thank you Michele for taking some of your precious time to share your Ryder workshop with us. Those of us who have plans underway to study with Tony are particularly interested in what you are willing to share with us.

I hope this week and next goes well for you! Enjoy, enjoy!

One thing that's been particularly interesting to me (and maybe to others who took Bill Whitaker's workshop in May) is Tony's radically different approach to light when painting.

In Bill's workshop we used only natural north light from small high windows. In Tony's class all the window light is blocked out. The overhead room lights are off and we use only incandescent light.

We're using standard household bulbs in fixtures on flexible necks. The lights are surrounded by cylindrical hoods made of aluminum foil, used to more narrowly focus the light. These lights are attached to the top of each easel to shine directly on each student's canvas. Another incandescent light is on an 8-foot stand shining on the model. Tony feels that it is important to use the same type of light on the model as you use on the easel.

Marvin,

If and when I begin painting, I will begin with a limited palette, like the one that the WetCanvas guys are using in their Limited Palette Project (they are using a palette that they say Zorn often used). I'll move on to a broader palette after I learn with a limited one. Baby steps!

So I'm curious to know if your lighting setup would be as important when using a limited palette. When using a full palette, and attempting to match colors exactly, I can see where the color of light is critical. While drawing, light color isn't a factor (As far as I can tell), because I'm not using color. Can I assume that light color is less important when painting with few colors?

Michelle,

Keep us posted about the workshop. I'm very interested. I'm reading Tony's book for the second time, and I'm starting to think it wouldn't hurt to re-read my other art books as well.

Please tell Tony for me that I think that some of the looser drawings from his book are as masterly as his tightly rendered ones, and I feel he should add them to his website. The website has only tightly rendered works.

Good luck with the workshop.

Pat,

I'm impressed that you are getting to go to various workshops. I can't get away from work for extended periods, so I have to depend on books and videos. Be sure to share your experiences as you go.

Jeff

Perhaps Michelle could ask Mr. Ryder if he uses this lighting in the production of his own work. Perhaps he does, but I would tend to doubt it. I would surmise that he uses this type of lighting in his workshops for the sake of simplicity and convenience. If he were interested, I might be able to recommend a better type of bulb in terms of CRI.

Dear Thread participants,

I attempted to split off from the discussion about Michele's experience at the workshop the various posts relating to whether or not to use the same light on the model as on the canvas. With apologies to all, several posts were lost in the move, and I would invite those interested, especially Tim, Marvin, and Jeff, to begin a new discussion in the 'Portraits from Life' Section, "Posing and Lighting the Model".

The topic is of great interest and there are many schools of thought on it.

Okay, we

Here's Tony's set up during his demos. There are several things to notice here:

• - Over 40 colors on the palette!
  - The palette is propped up so it gets the same light as the canvas.
  - Notice the small color study (the "poster study") over to the left.
  - The canvas on the easel shows the "wash-in" in progress.

Here's my initial drawing. We draw with vine charcoal and when it's finished we "ink it in" with a thin paint line. Once that dries we wipe off all the charcoal with a chamois. That way there's no charcoal in the paint layers or any fixative.

Next comes the wash-in...

... and a detail of it so you can see the watery consistency of the paint in this layer.

For anyone considering taking a workshop, needless to say, I highly recommend signing up for one of Tony's. He teaches all over the place (including some fun destinations like France).

Hi Michele,

I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you posting your step by step progress, it is facinating to see.

Is this close to the way you have approached your portraits previously? You have already attained such a high level of success in your portraits, I'm curious to see how much of Tony's method you will apply to your own work. Thanks so much for your generosity in sharing this with us at the forum!

Mary

I have never painted a portrait in this way before, with this kind of color study or a "wash-in". I've always been of the school of "jump right in and wing it," though I did do a drawing like this on the canvas to start.

This is really neat to see. . . Just wondering what you're thinning the paint with to get that 'watery consistency' ?

Michele,

Thank you for posting - this is interesting.

Just a couple of quick questions. Are you using a dryer so you can paint right on top the next day? Or, are you painting over the wash-in while it's wet? If it's dry do you put anything on it, like linseed, before you start painting again?

I suppose if the wash is thinned with mineral spirits it would be dry by the next day.

The wash is thinned with mineral spirits and is dry the next day.

Well, the workshop is over. I started getting worn out by day 8 -- my brain was completely full. Tony must have been exhausted, too, as were the models, after 50 hours of the same pose!

I've had a request for the supplies list Tony sent us for the workshop. There were 40 colors of oil paint on the list, about half of which were the more strongly recommended ones, in case we didn't want to get all of them.

The "recommended" colors were:

• Titanium white
  W/N Jaune Brilliant (a very useful color that I had never tried before)
  Naples Yellow Light
  Cad lemon yellow
  Cad yellow medium
  Cad orange
  Cad red med
  Cobalt violet
  Ultramarine violet (another very useful color that I had not previously tried)
  Cobalt blue
  Cerulean blue
  Viridian
  Chrome oxide green
  Sap green
  Raw sienna
  Raw umber
  Burnt umber
  Ivory black
  Old Holland Brilliant Pink (yet another color that was new to my palette that I will be adding on a regular basis)
  Old Holland Deep Ochre

Also on the supplies list:

• A small stretched canvas, approx 10x12" to 14"x16", Tony uses double oil primed linen with a fairly smooth texture
  Vine charcoal, sharpened to a long fine point
  A chamois (which erased unneeded vine charcoal lines instantly from most canvas grounds)
  Sanding block for sharpening the charcoal
  A kneaded eraser for removing smaller sections during our charcoal drawing step
  A mini canvas board about 4x6" for the poster study
  A range of round, nylon brushes in sizes from 00 to 8. I wish I had brought many more of the smaller sizes.
  A wooden or glass palette
  Mahl stick

Tony provided medium which contained:

• 1 part damar varnish
  1 part venice turpentine
  5 parts light stand oil
  20 parts odorless mineral spirits

I'll post more photos of my work and Tony's demo later.

To answer an earlier question in this thread, Tony sometimes uses natural light and sometimes artificial light in his own studio.

Here's Tony's demo in progress. It shows the lines from the initial drawing (on the ear), the "wash in" layer (on the cheek and chest, etc.) and part of the "form painting", seen in the shadow areas and features of the face. This represents about 7 days of demonstrating, two hours a day, including lots of time explaining.

Normally Tony would complete the entire wash-in before beginning the form painting. He starts the form painting in the shadows, then chooses a section to paint completely. In this case he painted the chin first, from darks, to midtones and finally to lights. Once that was completely finished he moved to another area of the face.

This is the demo at the point where he stopped at the end of the ten-day class.

... and, what I always like to see, a very close closeup shot.

SOG Forum member Carl Toboika emailed me some questions about this workshop and I thought the exchange of information might be of interest to others:

Carl: Thank you for your very thorough Tony Ryder workshop thread. You did a wonderful job, the photos were great, and I like working on a wash in
myself.

Your wash in and drawing looked cool, but I didn't see the horizontal and vertical lines that I saw in Bill Whitaker's workshop from you. I assume they were in charcoal and then discarded. How did you like that method of beginning? Is the wash-in the only stage you had time to complete? I didn't see a picture of your form painting.

I have a couple of questions for you. I see when he goes over the wash-in, he gets the soft edges and subtle transitions amazingly well, in what
seems like one layer over the wash in. What is his method for blending, or getting these soft edges and subtleties?

Does he use relatively fluid paint over the wash in, or keep it thicker?

Also how does he neutralize his colors?



Michele: I did draw the model using horizontal and vertical lines (to mark important measurements) like I used in Bill's workshop, in charcoal, and I erased them once I had the overall shape done.

I finished the form painting and I should post it. I'm not 100% happy with my drawing, etc., so even though I really like the skin textures I
was able to produce, I don't think the overall piece was one of my best. Perhaps over the next couple of days I'll post what I did in the form
painting, anyway, since there are things that might be useful to see.

In future I may greatly simplify the wash-in stage, with just large masses of thinned general colors, so I can still see the drawing. I find that step very time consuming and I

Here's my form painting. It has a totally different feel than Tony's, partly because the model I was working from had a much more rugged skin texture.

I'm not totally happy with my drawing, especially with the eyes and the direction of their gaze, but this is as far as I got.

There's a lot of glare on the shadow areas to the right so you can't really see what's going on there, unfortunately.

I don't think the photo shows it, but in person this painting has a much more realistic skin texture than anything I've painted before.

Michele, I have really enjoyed watching this progress. And I must say your personal work has grown it leaps and bounds! Bravo!

When you were highlighting the chin that was Tony's demo, and explaining it to Carl, I am afraid I was having a senior moment. Are you saying he almost stipples the color onto the canvas then blends with a sable? I found when I had problems with a hand, I could do a posterized value output and stipple the mapped value and it really helped to simplify and kept the skin texture from needing dermabrasion. What size brush (European/American) is he using for this process?

I have found most people do the underpainting from life pretty much the same way, like we did with Bill. I find this the best method for me if I am working from reference, but the one Marvin teaches, is really different and just really works well when drawing from life. Your start by toning your whole canvas to the darkest tone of the skin and wipe off or add depending on value needed, it gives you a 6 hour window.

Knowing you have all the time in the world :) could you possibly post just a small sample of the actual application of color with the small brush!

Great job! You are lucky! I wish now I had paid better attention to your easel position, I hope you got a good one this time!

:thumbsup: Beth

Below is a link to one of the demo stills on Tony's website. He uses a brush that is no more than one eighth of an inch wide by a quarter of an inch long, probably smaller. Since brush sizes vary so much by manufactuer I'll tell you that it would be equivalent to using a Trekell brand Golden Taklon nylon watercolor brush in size 1.

He doesn't really stipple then blend. He paints the whole thing with this size brush.

In this shot he is shown doing the chin. First he does the darks in a particular area, and then gradually surrounds the light areas until he has built up the whole rounded form or sub-form, working from dark to light:

http://www.tonyryder.com/demo/opaque/pages/P7300083.htm

If you go to his site and go through all the demo shots (the poster study, the wash-in and the form painting, either one at a time or watch the slide show) you get a pretty good idea of his method.

http://www.tonyryder.com

Thanks Michele, I had been to his site often last year but do not remember those demos. It is amazing how much he transforms his figures in the "form" stage.

This may sound like an incredibly silly question, but did you ever ask him what brand of vine charcoal he uses? It seems so stiff not like the stuff I find. I have an incredibly hard time drawing with it because of this. It seems his is hard enough to hold a point longer than two marks.

Thanks, Beth

He recommended Grumbacher vine charcoal. Perhaps some of the issue has to do with the texture of the surface he works on. He uses quite smooth canvas, and I used it on my smooth Claessens 13 dp linen and it worked fine. We were often sharpening the charoal sticks though.

Wow, you completed a lot! Workshops are often limited in what you can finish because of the time factors. This came out very nice Michele!