Whitaker head painting demonstration

[William Whitaker]

During my recent workshop at the Scottsdale Artists

[William Whitaker]

The support is an 18x14

[William Whitaker]

I pulled my strokes with a light touch, usually turning the filbert on its side to get a thin line. Using more pressure, I scrubbed in some shadow masses. The paint load on the brush is still fairly dry, the brush pressure and scrubbing doing the work of making an even tone. The fun part is painting. The hard part is looking. The idea is to get the angles correct and the line segments the right length. It

[William Whitaker]

Figuring that the class might need an extra day correcting their basic drawing and knowing that their paint would be too dry to wipe off at the beginning of their second day, I ended the session by showing them how to correct form over their drybrush drawing using darks, a mid-tone color (in this case a near-flesh) and a light. Paint is user friendly. We can always cover and thereby correct our mistakes.

[William Whitaker]

Tuesday morning I began using color. I always try and get a feel of how a color segment leans

[William Whitaker]

The painting was dry Wednesday morning, thanks to the use of Raw Umber paint (a quick dryer) and the quick drying Graham walnut/alkyd medium. I continued to add patches of color, building shape and correcting form. My paint application is rich, but relatively thin. It is easier to blend if your wet paint isn

[William Whitaker]

Thursday I stopped to look at the model. I was chagrinned to see that the ear was in the wrong place, too big too high and the wrong shape. If I listened to my own advice, I

[William Whitaker]

Friday was my last day. I worked a bit longer than usual while some folks watched and some worked on their own paintings. This is the way the canvas looked when I took it home. The head is somewhat over 75% life size

[William Whitaker]

This is how it remains. The face is about 50% finished, the ear and hair about 20% along. It takes me around 16-24 hours to paint a head like this and bring it up to my current standard. I used to be a loose painter and got a lot more work done. I don

[William Whitaker]

Those of us who paint look at pictures differently than ordinary viewers. We like to get our noses up close to see brushwork and textures. That