Painting the Human Form

With the first painting, a skeleton still life, we focused on understanding human anatomy and rendering draped cloth with paint. We paid attention to how to use value to articulate the lighting in the scene. We explored a range of other formal elements including the role of colour while embracing our differing painting styles.

Our second work was a figure painting, we worked from a life model and started with a number of sketches to discover relationships within the body, objects surrounding it and the general negative space. We learned to paint skin tones in various temperatures and values, and to articulate abstract planes of carefully calibrated colour and value to create form and represent fabricated by each student, and the resulting range of approaches is diverse and rich. Some students worked with a range of references, including abstraction, realism, whimsy, strategies of narrative and accessed expressionistic styles through experimentation.

Our third and final work was a portrait painting, and we choose our concepts, subjects and backgrounds. Some students elected to paint a self-portrait while others chose a family member or close friend. All of the resulting portraits were intimate and personal, and accessed these qualities through a tender painterly touch. When we looked at each of the final portrait works, we noticed commonalities. Some of these were a repeating color schemes, or a style of paint application. Inspiration for each of our paintings began with quoting from other artists, then we developed a meaningful concept, before some risk taking, and experimentation to capture our sitters. The formal techniques ranged from wet-on-wet, gestural brush work, with some used blending to create soft and seamless transitions. We are excited by the opportunity to move our in-class dialogue about human form, as well as our resulting artwork from the classroom to the wider visual arts and university community.