Painted Camellia

Immediate Access

Regular Price $68.00

My spark for this course was a simple flower, the camellia. This beautiful flower will take the lead as we fill our art journasl, create a charcoal portrait, a mixed media portrait, and an expressive figure on paper.

I will share my philosophy about when the smallest glimmer of an idea tugs at your brain take notice, write it down, nurture it, devote yourself to it and allow it to become your North Star.
This beautiful process will open you to inspiration and ultimately become the creative bridge that will give form and meaning to your art.

Lesson 1 | Art Journal

Inspired by the beautiful botanical illustrations by court artist, Pierre-Joseph Redoute, I wanted to begin the class by creating an art journal filled with inspiration, color, mark-making, ideas, and a vocabulary of forms to build art around. We will follow the thread of ideas and let it guide us along our creative journey.

Lesson 2 | Charcoal Portrait

In this next lesson, we will draw a realistic portrait using a photo reference on gray toned paper with a variety of charcoals pencils, powdered charcoal, white charcoal, and white pastels. I will share with you how I layout the portrait by first creating a block in the drawing.

We will keep the portrait “open” as we continue to map out the placement of the features, establish scale and proportion, look for the shadow and light, negative space, identify the planes of the face and create smooth transitions and finally adding expressive details to make your portrait unique to you.

Lesson 3 | Lady of the Camellias

Combining techniques and ideas from our earlier projects we will create a more expressive portrait by layering black and white charcoal and finishing with pastels. I will share with you how I practice the portrait using two different reference photos to create a luminous portrait.

Supply List

Please feel free to substitute any supplies on the list for what you have on hand.

• Vintage Book

• Vintage Ephemera

• Copies of your favorite sketches

• Liquitex Matte Medium

• Clear Gesso

• Gesso

• Substrate - Any of the following will work for the lessons: Watercolor paper, Art Journal, Mixed Media Paper

• Strathmore Drawing Paper

• Acrylic Paints - Color you love. I have highlighted many of the brands I love under the Resource Tab | Art Supplies

• Soft Pastels - to match your paint colors

• Hard Pastels - Optional

• Charcoal: Soft Charcoal, White Charcoal, Powdered Charcoal, Charcoal Pencils

• Acetone - Optional (Acetone may be purchased at the hardware store. You will need a spray bottle to hold the solvent)

• Spray Fixative

• Light Molding Paste - Optional

• An assortment of Paint Brushes

• Palette Knife

• Schminke Fine Gold Dry Gouache - Optional Gold Marker

• Wood panels or Canvas.

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