Our first life model session

We'll follow the format of last session and complete 3 quite rapid figure studies of about 30 minutes each. For those of you who were absent the sequence went like this:

Establish the centre point for the composition in relation to the figure

Identify negative and positive shapes

block in figure and background

Observe relative contrast and model figure

Don't worry if this doesn't make much sense since I will be demonstrating and explaining the process as we paint the model.

We're going to use a limited palette again which could be black, white, crimson and yellow ochre. If you use more primary colours you can introduce them sparingly so they "warm" or "cool" the colour slightly rather than changing the hue completely. Black, white and brown would be another option for a limited palette.

Working quite small worked well last time, so that we can explore the "plastic" qualities of moving paint around the surface. Also, working on a mid tone, primed surface was useful for removing oil paint with a rag as well as the efficiency of having a good reference point for our dark and light values.

Here are some nice examples of much longer figure studies by Sargent, Moreau and Degas.