Painting-classes-London – Page 2

Peace on Earth: Goodwill to all & arts

It’s Christmas time 🎄. I hope you had a good one. A few pics from ours are below. And some of my reflections are detailed and in longer form than usual.

With it being Christmas, I’ve been reflecting on how similar tools are used between artists and those performing in other fields.

I started noticing the supply links between various trades when I did the 14 day CSM course. At CSM, we used paraffin wax as a medium to create a ghostly effect on the painting. I told the CSM teacher that we used the same paraffin wax as a moisturiser for hands and feet in my early beauty training (I used it when I taught at LCF). I mentioned how interesting it was that the university might be ordering paraffin wax for many different uses.

Jo Malone perfume is symbolic of the multiple cosmetics uses in artistic works and expressions of the self.

Another common tool I noticed that artists and hairdressers use this time is hairspray. Hairdressers use hairspray to fix the clients’ waves and curls. Similarly, in the courses I’ve been on for painting, we finish the painting if it’s done in charcoal with hairspray; if we use pastels, chalk or charcoal. It stops the marks from spreading so that it doesn’t get smashed when we roll up our work.

I mentioned in an earlier blog an insight about choosing your flesh colour and the right kind of mixing paint to get the right skin tones. I noticed how the class agonised about mixing reds and yellows to get the right kind of blue to get the right skin tone for painting a portrait. Then I realised I could be more effective if we did a shortcut by going straight to an industry that already had the skin colours right. My makeup artist instinct/ training is linked to these common artists’ dilemmas. The difficulty I faced in painting a life model’s portrait with acrylics is what I recall from trying to find the right colour for the model’s skin for a magazine’s front cover (BTW, I only did a couple of MUI gigs, for now, obsolete magazines, so don’t bother riffling through vogue to find me listed as the makeup artist). I asked the art teacher if she recalled any big cosmetic brands working with artists. Or if artists are working with cosmetic brands.
The discussion generated our ponderings over projects like how reusing old foundations is useful because we’re trying to find the right skin tone to match this person’s skin. It’s a universal question between these artistic spheres.

My art teacher said she was unaware anyone was doing it and agreed this was a missed opportunity for some big brands to showcase and do some interesting work with the wonderful big range of colours they now use. She said she thought the problem would be getting the darker tones, and I said that now, big brands like L’Oreal are doing darker tones these days. , it will be a much easier thing. It was weird for me to struggle to find the right blue to turn yellow and red into skin tone colour varieties. The conclusion was that it could be more of an oil painting if I tried it.

So all this made me realise that the next course I need to take would be an oil painting class. So watch this space.

In addition, all these musings gave me this idea about collaborating with other trades doing paintings, doing both of them figuratively. I’m not a fan of figurative paintings (not yet sure why- it might be about labour intensity), but I’d like to experiment and see where I go with doing some portrait paintings using foundation instead of its traditional watercolour and your traditional acrylic. How ironic that it might be the very traditional oil painting class I might need to go on to bring forth a painting that is more meaningful and interesting for me.

It is Christmas time and I’m wishing you and your family every good wish for the season, no matter what kind of artist or creative person you are.

Inspired by exaggerating skin features

Behind the Scenes

My art classes for drawing and painting ended last week and inspired a new focus in my portrait paintings.

I noticed the extent to which I’m interested in the deeper anatomical elements of the skin. For instance, I noticed I spent a lot more time than others in the class on the intricate details of features such as thread veins and fine lines.

While mixing the different colour skin tones, I got the idea of potentially using my cosmetic chemistry insights and knowledge to develop a series of figurative paintings in future. I will link back to this post when I have done the paintings influenced by insights I gained this week.

Character as the X factor in portrait paintings

Personal Reflections

Less beautiful people make the best models. This week I discovered how people with more character in their faces contribute to making the most interesting paintings.

This picture is about a life model who had a very amazing head shape. In this painting, I am halfway through and hope to have finished it next Sunday.

I still have fine hair details to include and I must get the interesting skin tones and textures sorted.

Only time will tell whether I manage to do justice to this man’s interesting face. Whatever the outcome I shall post my result in a future post.

Well-manicured: Perfecting my brush strokes

Behind the Scenes

In an earlier blog, I complained about how I wasn’t happy with the brush strokes on the green sauce boat. https://wordpress.com/post/homeofficecharm.com/2811

Since then I spent some time practising what I said I would do and remembered that inner manicurist in me. Thus I imagined that I was painting a very fussy client’s fingernails. That seems to do the trick because keeping the medium and paints nice and light and thin and applying several thin layers help me to create a lovely glossy transparent look. It appeared to be like the glossy effect of the original sauceboat

Getting gloss medium layers right

Top tip: I might inspect more paintings for the brushstroke work. It never occurred to me how much time and effort should go into getting the painted effect I want right. And thanks to my old career in beauty therapy and those manicures, french polishes I did I can gain confidence in my painting brush stroke techniques.