Painting Portraits in Oils with Sara Reeve

Across two days, Sara will guide you through the essentials of portrait painting using oils, starting with how to see and mix the subtle range of skintones that give a portrait depth and vitality. You’ll explore techniques for painting the key features of a portrait, and will pull this all together creating an alla prima portrait from a live model, with plenty of demonstrations and individual support along the way. 

Whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced painter looking to add more colour and energy to your work, this course offers a friendly, supportive environment to grow your confidence and creativity. By the end of the weekend, you’ll have both a finished portrait and a toolkit of techniques to keep developing your skills in oils. 

What to expect 

Day 1:  Day One will be our features & colour mixing bootcamp, as we explore techniques for painting the key features of a portrait: expressive eyes, characterful noses, and lifelike mouths.  We will do a series of oil studies from photographs of features to understand how we can best simplify these important parts of a face.  Sara will show how to simplify colour mixing from a reduced palette of paints to help build your confidence and avoid muddiness. 

Day 2: We will be working with a professional portrait model on Day Two and will be put into practise everything that we’ve learnt so far.  We will use our observational skills to look closely at how to successfully capture features and colour in a real life setting.  Using oil paint, we will work through the stages of an alla prima painting.  

Sara will provide individual guidance, feedback and demonstrations throughout the weekend. There will be a 1-hour lunch break and tea breaks throughout both days; if you have any questions just get in touch on [email protected]. 

What to bring 

You will need to bring the following materials with you:

• A palette (Sara recommends an old glass fridge shelf as a palette, or a simple wooden one)  

• Palette knife (Sara uses a Seawhites T18 diamond palette knife) 

• A white, pre-primed wooden panel or canvas board, around A3 in size 

• Brushes suitable for oil painting (we recommend a large, medium and small brush as a minimum). Sara uses Rosemary & Co Ivory Short Flats (long handle) in sizes 12, 8 & 4. 
• Rags or kitchen roll for brush cleaning 
• Apron & suitable painting clothes 

The following oil paint in these colours – Sara recommends Winton or Jackson’s Artists Oil Paint range:

• Titanium White 

• Yellow Ochre 

• Cadmium Red Hue  

• French Ultramarine 

• Burnt Sienna 

• Raw Umber 

Optional additional colours:  

• Cadmium Lemon Hue 

• Cerulean Blue 

• Magenta 

We will supply oil painting paper and low-odour solvents for brush cleaning. Everybody attending will have a drawing board, a chair and an easel.  If you have any questions about this material list, please email [email protected] 

Getting to the studio

West Hove Art studio is located at 16 Kingsthorpe Road, Hove, BN3 5HR. The studio has paid, on-road parking spaces outside the building. It is a 15-minute walk from Aldrington Station and is near to a variety of bus routes.

Discounts

The discounted rate is available for anybody on low income, full-time students or Draw Patreon supporters. You can become a Draw Patreon supporter () for just a few pounds per month, giving you access to the discounted rate, tiered access to our extensive artist’s photo reference library, live online life drawing & portrait drawing classes, online recorded courses and much more.

Safety & accessibility

West Hove Studio is on the ground floor with step-free access and has two standard (non-accessible) toilets. If you have any accessibility needs, please do let us know beforehand on [email protected] and we will do everything we can to make sure you can enjoy the classes here. If you have covid, flu or bad cold symptoms we ask you not to attend - you will receive a refund as well as our appreciation!

Cancellations

Bookings are non-refundable and cannot be transferred to another course. If you are unwell with a contagious illness please get in touch by email and we’ll issue a refund, minus Eventbrite’s fees. If you are unable to attend, please do get in touch with us on [email protected] to discuss the options for transferring your place to another attendee.

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