Soulful Portraits – drawing inspiration from Bourguereau

Join me on a short excursion into the life of a French academic painter William-Adolpe Bourguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) to be inspired by his painting to create our own.

The ways Bourguereau inspires me in numerable ways –   making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body, his use of mythological themes, and in the way he creates skin tones that seam to gleam like delicate silk.

I have made an attempt through my own study to loosely reinvent one of his portrait paintings to create my own. Even though it might seam that I have used many colors in this painting, I have only really used three, plus gesso. After signing up, you receive full supply list. Class starts May 20th.

In this class I will take you through the process of sketching a portrait to create a pleasing composition on the canvas. Choosing and mixing the right colors for this particular skin tone. Blending and applying colors an tones in such a way that they create the appropriate contrast, smoothness and texture in a face.

We will then complete the background, hands and an object to complete the story of our painting.

Regular Price $45

Soulful Portraits 2

In this workshop I would like to take you on a journey of creative exploration with crafts acrylics. The difference between Premium acrylics and craft’s acrylics is not only the quality and difference in price, but also the availability of color. Just look at the array of colors available to you in Americana, Craft Smart or Folk Art paints. And you can have them all, because they are only about $2 each. For most part, crafts paints are very opaque, and because they are already very specifically mixed, I would not recommend blending them together, because they will very quickly become “muddy”. So the beautiful pink, green or the lovely shade of blue looses it’s vibrancy very quickly. The other obstacle is that, they don’t get very dark, so instead of putting a dark to create a shade, we will try to learn how to use contrasting colors to create a “shade”, and I will explain that in the class. The nice thing about the wide range of colors is that you can easily create some very interesting combinations of colors, instead of trying to figure out how to match the color you like. Find out more in here.

Buy now –  $45 , purchase here.

 

Expressions

online workshop

Expressions Class from Renata Loree on Vimeo.

I have been dreaming a long time about designing this course, it’s all about how I like to paint and create. It always starts with an idea that wants to come to life on a canvas. It can be a certain look on a face, a hand might be positioned just this way, the hair that drapes the face and spills into the background.

Part one – Expressive faces

we will start with sketches to play with a proportion of a face in different positions, different looks and eye expressions. Then we will paint a face in with a simple palate choosing only three colors, which include black and white, to learn how the tone creates shape and correct proportions of a face. Next we will choose another face to learn how to create an extensive pallet of choosing only 5 or 6 colors. We will also learn how to use color theory to create vibrant lifelike composition of a face that has depth.

Part two – Expressive hands

– In a similar fashion with which we created faces, we will learn how to build a lifelike hand with sketches and paint. First we start with making an extensive vocabulary of hand positions to become familiar with a movement of a hand. Then we will choose couple different hand positions. Painting a hand is much like painting a face, you will learn how to build layers of color to create depth and vibrancy of a hand.

Part three – Express everything

In this part we will put it all together, first start will a playful background and create some layers to see if it will spark an idea or a story we want to tell, we can also use journalling and certain prompts, or look at pictures for inspiration. We will use the idea or a story to build a composition of a face with a hand or what ever else might need to be included. We will learn how to create a whole painting using color, composition and background together to tell our story.

Purchase Expressions $95 buy here

 

Soulful Whimsy Workshop

 

This workshop is designed for anyone who loves to journal or anyone that is thinking about journalling, but feels a little inhibited by the process. I personally love journals and I am quite addicted to buying them. I have so many of them, I am starting to run out of space to store them. I have actually journaled for as long as I can remember. My mom told me she found some of my journals stashed in the closet when she was cleaning up, and did not now what to think of them. I actually never knew what prompted me to journal when I was little, but I think that recording my life or expressing through a thought written on a page, or cutting out clippings from a magazine was a good idea. I never thought of smearing a paint over the page at the time, but that came later.

I know how hard it can be to start in your journal when you are looking at the first white page, or how much we do not have the time for binding our pages together into a book. So creating a one page journal is a great idea. You could literally finish a journal in one day. I think it could also be a great way to start a new year.

So we are going to learn the process how to create a one page journal

1. Learning how to open a shopping paper back and correct any torn parts that resulted in the process

2.   Preparing our pages, we will have two pages to start with, and we will finish both of them       differently

3. Using stencils, paints, sponges, sprays, inks ephemera, pencils and what ever else you might have on hand to add to our pages

4. Then we will cut our page in a way that we can fold our journal, this could be done in few different ways

5. I will give you prompts on how to fill our journal with images that will evolve into our won personal story. We will complete 3 different pages

6. We will create a cover for a journal.

7. Bonus lesson – painting into a mini journal.

Purchase for $55

 

What can you expect.

When you sign up you will be directed into a page with your supplies, but most of the things that we will be using, you will probably already have on hand. Most importantly, you will need any size paper bag from shopping. I have plenty of them from Whole Foods, but I have used the smallest bags as well.

Unfortunately here is no refund for the class, so please make sure you read everything carefully to find out if this class is right for you. This class is suitable for anyone, because it is designed a a class for self expression and finding your own story through visual art.

When you sign up and receive your password, the class is yours and available to take indefinitely. You might also choose to participate in a Facebook group, if you are looking for more guidance or to connect with other classmates.