Portrait and Self-portrait Workshop

FUNDAMENTALS and IMPROVEMENTS

Unlock the Secrets of Portraiture
This intensive Portrait Workshop is designed for every level of aspiring and accomplished artist. Whether you’re a beginner looking to grasp the fundamentals or an experienced student seeking to refine your unique style and spark your creativity, this program is for you.

Personalized Instruction for Focused Growth
Forget one-size-fits-all lessons. Every student receives individualized tutoring throughout the workshop, ensuring a curriculum that perfectly aligns with your current skills, artistic goals, and interests. You’ll work on a program that truly meets your artistic needs.

Mastering Form, Feature, and Likeness
Participants will begin by mastering foundational skills in black and white:

• Initial Sketching: You’ll start by quickly sketching faces with pencil or charcoal, focusing on the essentials of human anatomy and proportion.
• The Power of Values: We will then concentrate on the critical role of values and mass—the light and dark shapes—in achieving a powerful and accurate likeness.
• Rapid Study: Learn to capture the essential features of a face with rapid, expressive strokes.
• Detailed Rendering: Through more elaborate drawings, you’ll delve into fine details, the dramatic effect of light and shade (chiaroscuro), and the psychological allure of portraiture—how to capture a subject’s unique expression and personality.

Bringing Your Portraits to Life with Color
Once the foundational drawing skills are established, we move into the vibrant world of color techniques using pastels, oils, or acrylics.
You will acquire practical skills and abilities in:

• Complexion: Expertly painting the subtle shades and tones of skin.
• Hands: Mastering the often-challenging position and expressiveness of the hands.
• The Eyes: Learning to portray the glittering of the eyes—what many great masters considered the “soul’s mirror”—to give your portrait true depth and life.

Students can also approach the pen and ink technique.

Classes are held either in Italian or English.

Life models and copies of classical portraits will be available throughout the workshop.

OPTIONAL Module Focus: The Self-Portrait

This focused segment is an optional addition to the core portrait workshop. It is ideal for students seeking a deeper challenge but is not mandatory for course completion.

Building on the techniques taught in the primary workshop, this module uses the self-portrait as the ultimate exercise in psychological observation and technical execution. You are challenged to be both the artist and the model.

1. Mastering the Drawing and Gaze
We apply foundational skills (pencil and charcoal) to capture your own likeness, then quickly move toward psychological truth.

• Likeness to Presence: Learn to establish an accurate image while exploring how your facial expression and head angle create narrative and emotional impact.
• Intense Chiaroscuro: Control the lighting on your own face to push the dramatic effects of light and shade, conveying mood and volume.
• The Soul’s Mirror: We’ll intensively study the eyes—the “soul’s mirror”—learning to direct the intensity and focus of your gaze to create connection or introspection.

2. Composition and Identity
The self-portrait is a visual autobiography. This section focuses on using the composition to tell a deeper story.

• Hands as Storytellers: Learn to use the position of your hands and their gestures to convey context, state of mind, or your profession.
• Symbolic Context: Explore incorporating personal objects, clothing, or background elements as subtle symbols that reveal aspects of your identity.

3. Color and Interpretation
Using oils, acrylics, or pastels, we move to the final color stage, encouraging personal expression.

• Complexion and Emotion: Apply skills for painting shades and tones of complexion, learning how subtle color shifts communicate underlying emotion.
• Pushing Style: You are encouraged to push your personal style and interpretation to express a felt truth rather than just a seen one, leading to powerful, deeply personal results.

Classes are held either in Italian or English.

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