Painting the Portrait with Sitter | Nicholas Robinson
Monday afternoons
1.30pm - 5pm
6 WEEK COURSE
€270
IN-STUDIO OPTION ONLY
UPCOMING DATES:
2025
January 6th - February 17th (6 Weeks)
February 24th - April 7th (Break 17th March) (6 Weeks)
April 28th - June 16th (Bank Hol. 2nd June) (6 Weeks)
If this course is fully booked you can add your name to the waiting list HERE
ABOUT THIS COURSE
Painting the portrait is one of the longest traditions in oil painting; from van Eyck, Titian and Velázquez through to Reynolds, Romney and Raeburn and up to our present day.
Painting the portrait is a time honoured practice of the oil painter.
This 6 week course is designed to break down painting the portrait from the model into easily understandable principles.
The course will focus on;
drawing and design of the head and face
working with shadow and light to describe form
colour theory and mixing to describe colour and light
use of materials and technique in oil painting
conveying mood and expression to capture the personality of the sitter.
Materials List
The basic materials list is:
• a canvas primed with jesso. Please make sure you prime your canvas in advance! Even store bought pre-primed canvases will need to be removed from packaging and another application or two of jesso. Any questions please get in touch.
(suggested size for portraiture 40x30cm up to 90x50cm, but it's up to the individual 60x40cm is what I would use)
• Brushes – recommended below.
• Palette
• Palette knife
• Black/ raw umber /red /ochre /white oils
• A preferred medium - (I would use linseed oil)
** please note, no solvent allowed in studio – sansodor ok but not necessary.
The detailed materials list is:
• brown baking paper (for storing oil paint)
• Bar of ordinary household soap (for cleaning brushes). Nick will teach students how to clean brushes with veg oil that he will provide. No solvents needed.
• small palette cup & empty jam jar.
Oil-paints.
Michael Harding/ Old Holland recommended
1. Raw Umber
2. Titanium White
3. Yellow ochre
4. Cadmium red (cad hue not an alternative)
5. 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
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. (Pictured)
• small hand mirror - not essential
Canvas prep:
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.