Modern Figures: Painting Big, Fresh and Loose
Along the way, Tim will guide you through:
- Creating a shadow map to set placement
- Resolving shapes
- Differentiating between lights and darks
- The details — from the face to the figure and then to the background
- Simplifying your color mixing
- Creating depth by using paint application
- Making a variety of edges
- All the techniques of working on a canvas that is as big as (or bigger than) you are!
Then, it’s your turn — taking everything you’ll learn from this energetic and in-demand instructor as you create your next (or first!) large painting.
But don’t worry if you’re just not into big paintings because you will benefit from Tim’s expertise for all of your figure paintings, regardless of size. His knowledge and skill are sure to help every figure painter to get better and better.
Take a look and see a bit more of what’s in store for you:
There is absolute power associated with large paintings that you just can’t get with smaller ones. And to be able to paint large, you really have to want to — that’s a whole lot of canvas to cover! You have to know how to handle the mechanics of working big, and you either have to have a place to hang that much of a painting or find someone who does.
For all of these reasons, grand-scale painting isn’t taught or shown nearly as much as its smaller counterpart … but that doesn’t mean your heart doesn’t ache to really cut loose and let your creativity show in a monumental creation.
Like a giant billboard along a well-traveled road, nothing communicates a message better than making it big! A large painting is eye-catching. Done well, it becomes a bold statement in its own space.
While there are complexities to painting big, this video shows you how much fun it will be to paint big and with brilliant color! The possibilities are endless!
Here’s just a glimpse of what Tim has in store for you in this video:
- What you MUST do to avoid distortion (the root cause of failure in big paintings!)
- The EASY way to outfit your model using the methods of John Singer Sargent — you’ll never stress over this again
- The ONE trick to making your color study invaluable (simple and oh-so-necessary!)
- Think like THIS and color will come easily to you (for every painting, not just big ones!)
- The best way to apply paint? LOGICAL and EFFECTIVE (it’s all in the video!)
- Trouble with measurements? Use this technique to get it RIGHT!
- Do this every day and completely CHANGE YOUR LIFE as an artist (it’s never too late to start!)
- Big paintings still need harmony … and here’s how to get it!
- Help your audience feel like they’re part of the painting, and they’ll love you for it!
- Do this and you will LOSE the juicy, delicious quality of your paint! (And you don’t want that!)
- The 100% BEST way to paint BIG!
- Why Tim’s “Robot Face” technique will help you beyond belief!
- Create NATURAL beauty — so important when working in large proportions
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The sure-fire way to create a painting that looks NOTHING like your model (and you really don’t want that!)
- The one DANGEROUS move to avoid (save yourself a ton of headaches by following Tim’s advice on this!)
- And SO much more!
The Portrait Sketch
InThe Portrait Sketch, you’ll see it all:
- Why Tim is passionate about the initial sketch and how that will set the tone for your entire experience with a painting
- Tim’s proven method for breaking down a project into sections, allowing you to laser focus your learning and practice so you (and others) will see steady progress in your work
- How to capture your initial excitement about the subject so your paintings have a more fluid and spontaneous feel — vibrant and lifelike!
“A portrait sketch is almost like a sport — your one shot at getting your heart really pounding so you can go for it!”
— Tim Rees
Real Style That’s All Your Own
If you enjoy the looser portrait styles of John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, and Joaquin Sorolla, you’ll love what Tim shows you here.
If you’re an artist who desires to create realistic portraits, and you also want to develop and showcase your own personal style, you won’t want to miss a moment of this!
You’ll find Tim’s teaching style to be casual, very informative, and easy to follow as he instructs and demonstrates each step of his painting process, breaking it all down into logical steps.
You’ll quickly see that consistent progress is not about how much time you paint, it’s about defining reasonable goals, laying out the plan, and sticking with it!
Even if life doesn’t allow you to paint regularly, having a plan will help you pick right up where you left off — no more trying to figure out where you were the last time you painted!
Paint Better … Paint Faster … Have More Fun!
Study with Tim and you’ll find yourself painting more portraits and getting them done much more quickly than you might be now — a true benefit of working alla prima (wet-on-wet).
Even though you’ll be painting faster, you’ll be painting with more accuracy — thanks to following along with Tim’s tried-and-true techniques.
You’ll be capturing a fresh, honest portrayal of your model by painting what is there and by clearly copying nature.
Best of all … you’ll have more fun and find deeper satisfaction in your own portraits because your personal voice and style will begin to emerge with each new painting — what every artist is looking for!
With these new skills and faster processes, you’ll be:
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Posing your model quickly to best achieve an immediate dynamic likeness — this is where the excitement really begins!
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Applying paint to allow layers and a variety of features to show throughout the portrait … capturing important details (but without sweating the small stuff!)
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Mixing colors for flesh tones… Learn from Tim and you’ll overcome this troublesome hurdle that many artists struggle with for years!
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Using traditional measuring techniques to improve accuracy — this alone will reduce your stress and frustration by a ton!
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Integrating the subject into a loose or abstract background to make more than a study — you’ll actually be creating a work of art!
Here are just some of the techniques Tim will teach in this video:
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An Ebuache block-in — push color around to create a blurry version of your model
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Wet-into-wet paint layering — the alla prima techniques that allow you to create layers and paint more quickly
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Transparent painting — watch Tim add blobs of transparent color, and, just when you think there’s no way this is going to work, the form magically begins to appear!
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Measuring with sight-size (if possible), triangulation, comparative, and plumbs/levels — don’t let any of this scare you because Tim shows you everything you need!
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Loose painting with visible brushwork — you won’t believe the easy detail you can add by using a brush with staggered hairs!
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How to paint color between colors instead of blending —never fear muddy colors again because you’ll actually move or replace color rather than blend!
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The key to juicy paintings —you must know this if you want to get the model’s features correct!
All of these techniques will help improve your portrait work, and everything else you love to paint!
