Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Robert Johnson Workshop Thoughts - Portraits

Robert Johnson began Day 3 of his workshop with a demonstration using a live model. He is an amazing teacher as he is able to talk and paint at the same time. Something many teachers are less able to do. During the afternoon, I did my first portrait from the same model. My difficulty was being so far away from the model. He said it is best to be four feet away from the model, but with the size of the class, that was impossible.

I have been going to figure drawing classes on Thursdays for the last while which helped. I've always been afraid of faces, but know that it's all in the mileage you put on the canvas.


On Day 4, our model was an old Hollywood cowboy who had been featured in many western films. He was quite colorful and with my Wyoming upbringing, I really felt an affinity to the composition. The highlight of the workshop was a comment Robert made to me that I have a thick painterly style with clean fresh paint and decisive brush strokes.


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