As with the Boot Camp, the Portrait Course is a high-intensity course unlike anything you have experienced. The purpose is to get you painting portraits with assurance and in less time than you thought possible. It’s easy once you know how.

Throughout this course, there are no more than four artists per model. We are interested in teaching, not the economics of how many easels we can pack into a room. The first thing that you will learn is how to light the subject for form and for drama. You will learn different lighting schemes, when to use them and how to create them. You’ll learn that daylight is dull light without drama, when compared to what you can create with a few simple lights.

Day 1

Most students get caught up in the details before mastering the basic form. This course avoids that by concentrating on form through teaching aids. The first aid we use is a series of increasingly complex three-dimensional heads and figures. The first head is composed of simple, geometric forms. You will paint this in monochrome.

You will then learn a bit of the underlying anatomy of the face with a demonstration in which clay is applied to a skull to indicate the underlying musculature. Again, this is another potentially complex issue made simple and understandable.

Day 2

The second day is devoted to learning the basic seven folds of all drapery. This is important because, in a portrait, most of what we paint is cloth, not flesh. We then move on to the crux of this course – idealizing the sitter. Your sitter will want to be depicted on “a good hair day.” This is not falsity. It is simply portraying the sitter in the best possible way. To do that, you will need to learn the ideals of beauty.

The ideals of beauty shift with each generation, so working from casts of ancient Greek sculpture does not relate to today’s concept of the ideal beauty. The current ideals are best exemplified by top quality fashion mannequins. Those are what we use for the next two days -- idealized beauties and (in the case of men) rugged good looks. Once you learn what to look for -- what to accentuate and what to minimize, approaching your sitter will no longer be a mystery. In my years of painting portraits, I have never had one sitter complain that I made them too attractive.

The figures and your canvas are painted the same buff color. This makes it easy to reference your values and tones. The figure will be draped with a shiny satin. With just a little guidance, you will master this once-difficult fabric with ease. The results are always impressive.

Day 3

On day three, you will learn how to mix a useful palette of fleshtones and how they relate to the various parts of the face – how male tones are depicted darker than female. How to make a convincing hairline with just a few strokes, where to place the catchlights…and when to place them. On a pale blue canvas, you will then paint a mannequin using properly placed colors, even though none exist in the mannequins. You will also develop a “color memory” through a technique we have developed to impart that skill.

By now, you are on your way to mastering solid form, idealizing the face without sacrificing the individual character and likeness of your sitter, painting fabric folds (including damask backgrounds and patterned head-scarves) and finally learning how to choose the correct colors for a convincing look. By this point, you are raring to get to a live model.

Day 4

On the fourth day you work from a live model, applying all that you have learned – making a figure solid, with weight and form, choosing the right lighting scheme to accentuate your sitter’s features, pointing out the sitter’s best features and applying color in a convincing manner. You will be working on a soft green canvas and will be surprised at how useful this color is to painting fleshtones.

Although you’ll feel as though your head has been stuffed with information (we spend the time instructing you, not throwing you into a classroom to “be creative” while we do other things), this is information that will keep coming up as you paint. Most students say that it’s after one or two months that the knowledge begins to become part of the way they approach every painting.

We expect that you are somewhat familiar with oil paints and brushes and have a passing familiarity with drawing. You needn’t be an accomplished draughtsman or painter because these methods are so clear-cut and the course is so concentrated that you will return home with skills you thought would take years to develop.

As with everything, it’s easy once you know how.

Portrait Course Details

Tuition for the four-day course is $600. We supply easels, tabourets and hand palettes. There are a few brushes that we will want you to purchase previous to the course, Jerry’s, Daniel Smith and Utrecht will all have them. A lab fee of $62 covers canvases, paints, mediums, solvents and studio necessities. We will supply maps and a list of lodgings.

Boston’s Logan airport connects to all corners of the globe. However, we urge you to consider the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, just over the border and very convenient to Haverhill.

We routinely open a private section of the Cennini Forum for bootcampers to introduce themselves and often make arrangements for sharing rides and rooms. All Boot Camp-specific questions are answered in that section.

For more information, contact Rob at mentor@artbootcamp.com.