ABOUT THIS COURSE

"There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body." - Robert Henri

Painting the nude has been a staple exercise in learning the language of oil painting for 100's of years. This workshop will break down the process of describing the form and effect of light on the figure into simple step-by-step principles. We will paint from the model in one pose during the day, taking shorter breaks allowing for more painting time. Additionally, the workshop instruction will include use of materials, simple colour theory, mixing and handling of oil paint and basic anatomy. 

Nicholas Robinson is an NCAD & Florence Academy of Art graduate.  

Materials

Basic Materials:

• a canvas
(suggested size 40x30cm up to 90x50cm, but it's up to the individual 60x40cm is what I would use)
• Brushes
• Palette
• Palette knife
• Black/ raw umber /red /ochre /white oils
• Sansodor
• A preferred medium (Linseed oil for example)

Further Materials (useful but non-essential):

• brown baking paper (for storing oil paint)
• Vanish soap (for cleaning brushes)
• Medium cup
• Wooden palette

Oil-paints

(Michael Harding/ Old Holland recommended)

1. Raw Umber
2. Ultramarine Blue
3. Titanium White
4. Yellow ochre or Old Holland Yellow Ochre Light
5. Cadmium red
6. Transparent Red Oxide
7. Alizarin Crimson
8. Ivory black

Brushes:

A range of about 10+ flat and filbert brushes in different sizes. From Evans art shop I suggest:
• Winton Flats 1 to 4
• Winton Filberts 1 to 8
• Winton Short Flat Brights 2 to 8
• Richard Oliver Flat Hogs 0 to 4
• Richard Oliver Hog Filberts 1 to 6 Also the Mr. Price Royal & Langnickel brushes are fine.
Get 2 packets of those and you’re away in a hack.
Plumb line (a 60-70cm piece of thin string or thread with a small fishing weight attached to one end but I will bring these)
• hand mirror
• black mirror (a piece of Lacobel black glass available from the glazier)

Meet nicholas

Florence Academy of Art prize winner and graduate.

Nicholas finished his post-graduate studies at Ireland’s National College of Art & Design (NCAD) in 2009, having previously graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork. Thoroughly disillusioned by art education in Ireland, Nicholas searched elsewhere and was introduced to the American ateliers in Florence, in which students study exclusively from life, by the Irish painter Gearoid Hayes.

Subsequently Nicholas quit his teaching career and attended the Florence Academy of Art, Sweden under the tutelage of the Swedish painter Joakim Ericsson. Nicholas received a pair of drawing awards during his time at the school in Sweden and returned to Ireland in 2013. He is now exhibiting nationally, and works and teaches out of in his studio in Wicklow.

nicholasbenedictrobinson.com