Oil Still Life Painting Workshop July 18th to 22nd, 2016

I'm getting excited about my upcoming summer still life painting workshop! The workshop is July 18th to 22nd. 5 days of painting.
There are still a couple of spaces in the workshop open, check out my site for all the info

5 Day Still Life Oil Painting Workshop

I'm teaching a Still Life Oil Painting workshop this July at my school. July 20th to 24th. I'll be showing my process for painting a still life, lots of demos and individual instruction. More info here.

Dragon Fruit Oil on linen 12"x 24"

Still Life Oil Painting Workshop

I have a weekend Still Life painting workshop coming up December 13rd and 14th 11-5:30pm each day.

The focus will be on technique and not a finished painting. Both days I will demo from 11-1. There will be a break for lunch and then the students will work from 1:45-5:30pm with breaks as needed.
More info here

Painting in NYC this summer

 

 

Working on a still life in the studio

Painting in progress

Landsacpe workshops!

I'm teaching a couple landscape workshops in June.

Landscape Drawing
June 14th and 15th

Landscape Painting
June 28th and 29th

Check out the all the info on my website here!

Oil Portrait Painting Class

My next oil portrait painting class starts April 6th and runs weekly until May 25th 7 classes, no class Easter Sunday April 20th. All the info is here on my classes webpage. http://noahlayne.com/OilPortraitPaintingClass.html

Right now there is one maybe two spaces still left in the class. Drop me an email if you are interested in this class or have any questions.

Class poster

My demo painting from my last oil portrait painting class

My last 7 week portrait painting wrapped up last week. My next one starts April 6th, there is still some space in the class. All the info for the next class is here.  

I paint alongside my students in these classes. I start each class with a short 30 minute demo and then help students and paint on my demo painting time allowing. By working alongside my students they get to see how my painting develops and how I solve different things in my painting.

Here are photos of my demo at the end of each week.

  

Week One. We worked on drawing, getting the contour and major form and cast shadows

Week Two. After transferring the drawing to a toned canvas we started to block in the local color using a full palette of colors

Week Three. Here we started to finish small areas by carefully observing the way light falls and wraps around forms. I managed to get the nose to eye to cheek painted.

Week Four. Conditioning to model the form

Week Five. Finished the ear and blocked in the color of the hair.

Week Six. Finished the hair.

Week Seven. Finished the sweater and finished the painting! 

New Workshop!

I'm excited to offer a week long Oil Portrait Painting Workshop in Victoria BC this August!
Here are the details.

Oil Portrait Painting Workshop
August 19th to 23rd!
Please register by August 10th.
5 Days, 10:00am to 4:30pm each day.

In this week long workshop Noah will show you how he goes about painting a portrait in oil. 
Working from a live clothed model, he will discuss and show his approach to colour while working with a layered method of painting.

He will talk and demonstrate how to see and record shapes clearly and simply, and model form by carefully observing the properties of light. 

Noah will teach the use of plumb lines, comparative measurement, and tilt angle to find correct proportions.

Each morning Noah will demonstrate from 10-12.
There will be a 30 minute break for lunch and then the students will paint on their work until 4:30pm 


Lots of demos and individual instruction!
Some drawing experience recommended.

Cost $525 includes model fees and GST
Materials not included.
Small class size 7 max students, register now!
To register visit http://www.noahlayne.com/Classes.html#PortriatPainting

Lemon painting step-by-step

I started this painting by doing a quick drawing of the outlines of the lemons and box. I drew the box with a 2h pencil. I used a ruler to measure 3 inches in in from the edges so I would be sure to have the same size box all around the painting. I then used the ruler to draw straight lines and find the vanishing point of the places the box joins at the edges. 

After drawing the box I found the placement of the lemons by looking at my setup and comparing the size and shapes of the lemons. I checked the horizontal lines to compare the top or bottom of different lemons with other lemons, tying all the relationships of the lemons together. 

As I say in the classes I teach "It's like a puzzle. The more parts we get in the right place, the easier it is to put the other parts in their right places."

 I used a stick of charcoal to draw in the big shapes of the lemons. I deliberately left the drawing of the lemons a little loose and unfinished so that I could make changes as I started to paint. I like to work on a drawing that is not too tight so I can feel excitement as I start to paint and not feel like I'm just filling in the drawing. 

Start of the first coat:

Here I'm using a limited palette of earth colors. By using a limited palette I can focus on getting the big flow of light and value and not worry too much about color. 

I use mineral spirits to thin the paint a little in the first coat. I started by blocking in the lemons. At this stage it can be hard to judge the value of the paint compared to the white of the linen. As I go over the all of the linen with paint, it becomes easier to see the values. Reminds me of those optical illusions where the value of a square is only relevant as compared to the value of the squares around them. http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html 

Here is how the painting looks when I 'm finished with the first coat of paint. I try to keep this coat loose and exciting so that I feel like coming back and painting more! If you squint your eyes down the value relationships are starting to work. 

Start of second coat:

Here I start using a full palette of colors. I go over the whole painting bringing the color closer to what I'm seeing. I deliberately do not try to finish or model anything in the second coat. I find if I do finish things too much in the second coat it makes it harder to want to come back and paint over the finished parts. I like the look of having a least 3 coats of paint. So the second coat is just to bring the color closer to the real thing I'm painting and build the paint up. I paint very thinly so it helps to have at least 3 layers of paint. I use linseed oil as my medium for the second coat. I started working from the left to right and from dark to light. Slowly going over the linen.

Start of the third coat:

I used a full palette of colors again. This time I used a medium of linseed oil and stand oil mixed on my pallet. It's an oil rich medium but the Artfix linen I use is very thirsty so it works well. The stand oil adds a buttery quality to the paint and helps level the brush strokes.  I start by working from dark to light so I start on the lemon in the back left. I paint over it trying to finish it as I go. Then, I move down to the left bottom lemon and, starting from the shadow side blocking in the big light and dark. Much like in the second coat but this time I start to model and finish the lemon by painting all the little changes as the light flows across it's form. I do this by painting both the shadow and light side of the lemon with their local color and then working in to the wet paint to adjust and model things.

Working my way along the lemons.

Finished painting "Lemons in Box" Oil on Linen 11"x 16"

 

Recent Demo

Here are a few photos from a demo I did for the Federation of Canadian Artists, Victoria Chapter last week.  It was a short 2 hour meeting so around 1:35 minutes of painting time.  When I'm talking and painting the time seems to fly by even faster then normal.

Finished study 9x12 Oil on canvas panel

Portrait painting demo

Here are a few photos of the portrait painting I'm doing as a demo for my current oil portrait painting class.  I start each class demoing for around 30 minutes, talking about different things and showing things as I paint.  I think it's so important to demonstrate things when teaching art.  I think it's good for my students to see me work my way through a painting, see how I deal with different things that come up, small changes in the drawing,modeling form, etc. Then the students start to work on their paintings.  I come and help them as needed and work on my painting in between.  I try my best to give each student directions and ideas to help them get better with their drawing/painting.

Session One.  We started painting with no drawing, getting the big shapes, values down in paint.

Session Two.  Started to work with a full palette of colors.  I try to go over things with the general or local colors in this layer of paint but I do not try to finish anything here.

Session Three.  Now I start to finish things as I go over them.  I start by once again going over the area that I'm working on with a general color working dark to light.  Then I start to model the light as it plays across the form.  Working over wet paint makes it easier to model subtle transitions. 

I managed to paint the third paint layer over the part that is inside the blue line.  In the next class I'll work on his forehead, neck and shadow of his face.

Portrait painting demo

Here are a few photos from my recent 1 1/2 hour oil portrait painting demo I did to promote my art classes at the art store, Opus.

It's always fun to challenge myself to go out and paint a decent demo in a situation where the lighting and setup are somewhat uncontrolled.  Trying to set a pose that reads clearly with the uncontrolled light and I explain everything that I'm doing while I'm painting is fun and challenging.  Keeps me on my toes ;)

Photos courtesy of Simon DesRochers  

A little talk about light and form