Rembrandt Painting Online Workshop with Michael Britton

Painting Dynamic Flesh Tones

Wednesdays (4 session) 

Starting August 7th - 28th, 2024

6.30 PM - 9.00 PM (PST) Via Zoom

Suitable For Beginner to Intermediate

All Sessions Recorded! Recording links will be made available to registrants.

The syllabus:

Session 1: The Ebauche—Serving it up in the abstract

Employing only four colors—titanium/zinc white, yellow ochre, Indian red and black— learn how to strike the arabesque (the overall shape and gesture) and block-in the major elements of the head looking deep into the structure and establishing the initial half-tones with a sculptural sensibility.

Sessions 2 & 3: The Pentimento

Pentimento is derived from the Italian ‘pentirsi’, meaning to repent. The initial drawing is corrected as needed and the forms are developed vis-a-vis spotting color/value notes. Our palette is expanded to nine colors wherein the practice of mixing a range of flesh hues from dark to light/warm to cool are taught using the elements of tint/tone and shade.

Unlike the academic approach of coloring-in a preliminary drawing (the cartoon) this is a plastic process of building facial form. This is the method of Sargent and Velazquez.

You’ll be introduced to employing calcium carbonate and egg yolk to your oil paint giving it a much greater stability and lustre.

Session 4: Finire

The finire is rendering the full stretch of light/dark and cool/warm to render a fully three-dimensional, unified portrait.

About the Instructor - Michael Britton

Michael Britton is a New York City trained artist (New York Academy of Art) who has taught several thousand artists (some of whom have gone on to full-time art careers as painters and teachers) in his several decades long career. He was the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Academy of Art, Canada for six years and has also taught drawing for Walt Disney Studios, amongst numerous other appointments throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He is also the author of several art-training videos including Mastering Portrait Drawing. He teaches internationally including London, Paris, Singapore, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Manila.⁠ 

Student Testimonials:

• "I absolutely enjoyed Michael's class. The instructor enlightened me and motivated me for my future painting possibilities! I can't thank Mr. Michael Britton enough!!!" ⁠ 

• "I've been receiving your newsletters for a couple of years now and always learn something, but I still felt I needed to start right at the beginning again, being so out of practice ... it is exactly what I'd hoped it would be: good solid explanation and demonstration of the skills and techniques, with progressive exercises to build them. I'm so pleased!" 

• "I've learnt more from your online workshops than I have from my previous face to face courses combined (...). Your teaching is comprehensive, yet clear and engaging."