I was delighted to be asked to present two episodes of Sky Artist of the Year Masterclass which are available to view on Sky Arts and Freeview on Now TV.

The first episode is on self portraits, where I discuss the genre and what my thought process is as I demonstrate how to describe myself physically and emotionally in a painting.

I produce a brief oil sketch explaining my thoughts on the psychology behind an image and what it might say about the subject. I simplify my marks and exaggerate colour to make my points.

My portraits usually take weeks or even months to produce, but producing colour sketches is a useful way to edit my thoughts and choices when deciding on compositions, lighting, mood and colour. You can immediately see what works and what doesn’t before beginning a final painting.

 

 

The second episode is on colour and my use of exaggerated tones and how I like to amp up the saturation to bring my portraits to life.

I demonstrate my techniques while painting my nephew Sebastian Croft.

There are different colour palettes artists can employ to describe a sitter in a portrait. From muted work with desaturated colours, to reduced palettes like the one used by Anders Zorn which uses just 4 colours, all the way to a full chroma colour palette which I employ. I want my portraits to feel like I’m describing the modern neon coloured world we live in today and using a bright chromatic range of hues gives this effect. I also like to loosely mix my tones with just a brief swirl of the brush through my mixes, so that each pigment sings in the marks I make. It brings the subjects to life and I demonstrate and describe this technique in my second Masterclass.

 

 

If you are interested in private classes or group workshops then email me and I can let you know of upcoming sessions and we can make a plan.