2012 The Art of The Portrait , Saturday Afternoon Sessions

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David Kassan demoing for his and Ryan Brown’s workshop

In the afternoon, the conference offered several sessions, or really classes, for the attendees. The registration process including signing up for classes of your chosing.  Classes fill up fast so if there is someone in particular that you want to see, sign up ASAP for the next conference.  I first went to a drawing workshop led by Ryan Brown and David Kassan, and ended the day watching Casey Baugh demonstrate his painting process in “The Edges of Reality.” These three artists were great and they were all in the Face-Off competition I saw on the opening the day.

David Kassan started the workshop with a demonstration, drawing a live model. He used binoculars to inspect minuscule details.  His partner for the day was Ryan Brown. I had not heard about Ryan Brown before, and so I was not as interested in seeing him.  Unfortunately for me, I later saw some of his figure work; I was blown away by how good it was.  I have since become a huge Ryan Brown fan.  The workshop was small and I was happy to get a spot. The participants got to follow David’s lead after he completed his quick and skillful drawing. Ryan and David gave great supervision comments throughout the workshop.

Casey Baugh Demo

Close up of Casey Baugh painting

Watching Casey Baugh paint was fantastic as well. He was testing out a new easel that looked sort of like a laptop. The canvas and the paintbox are held together by magnets, pretty cool. He started by using a medium recommended by the remarkable Richard Schmidt. He slowly built up layers on the painting, saying that we should always look at the subject from the periphery, not directly.  He took breaks once in a while, and reminded us how important it was to take a rest from the work so we can look at it more critically and objectively when we go back to it again. Casey is known for his soft edges but in this demonstration, he combined soft and hard edges and the painting turned out great!

Shelli Alford is an artist and author, who enjoys learning from master oil painters from around the world and reviewing their classes, workshops and demonstrations.

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