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