Long Pose Portrait Painting with Patrick Byrnes: Drawing, Form, and Color

In this five-day workshop, artists will make a portrait painting from the live model using a limited palette of oil colors following a three-step process that emphasizes accurate draftsmanship, analytical color mixing, and sensitive rendering.

Patrick will guide artists with daily demonstrations and comprehensive personalized critiques through each stage of the process— from creating a convincing likeness with structural drawing— to rational color mixing of flesh tones via analysis of the relative properties of hue, value, and chroma— to rendering the light effect with a single, form-by-form pass of oil paint to create a convincing illusion of dimensional form.

Cranial anatomy, materials, paint handling, brushwork, edges, and the physics of light will also be discussed throughout each session. While this workshop is mainly geared towards painters with some previous experience in oils, all artists from beginning to advanced are welcome; instruction will be customized to individual levels of experience.

Morning sessions begin with short group lectures to introduce key concepts as well as a comprehensive, narrated demonstration by Patrick. From 11:30 am through the rest of the day, participating artists will paint from the live model, with Patrick offering detailed, customized critiques; typically, each participant will receive 20-30 minutes of personalized instructor feedback each day.

The materials are the responsibility of the student. A detailed list of materials will be provided along with the confirmation email.