Vicki Blum, here, Ambassador to VA and DC. I took a workshop by Rob Liberace last weekend at the Art League in Alexandria VA. The subject was how to paint like Velasquez. The class was a blast and I enjoyed seeing may old acquaintances. Rob was generous in many ways, including providing a demo and allowing us to use some of his Rublev paints. Rublev paints, sold through Natural Pigments, are supposedly made the same way Velasquez would have made his paints, but we get to order them over the web and without poisoning ourselves in the process. To give you an example, the Ultramarine blue is made of Lapis (the real stone ground up). The cost is a whopping $89.00 a tube, but the tube is twice the size of a regular W&M tube. I would have ordered at least Lapis but they were out of that color and the Tin Yellow (a lead yellow), clearly two very popular colors. Honestly I couldn't tell the difference between Lapis blue and modern Ultramarine, but that may be because most of my applied paint was highly mixed. I wouldn't mind trying the colors the way I paint normally, which is extremely saturated, starting often with color straight out of the tube.
I have a notebook now full of great places to find authentic supplies, oil paints, canvas, frames, copper and zinc plates (in lieu of linen canvas). Rob even told us how he sizes a canvas (with Shellac). Creates a smooth canvas.
There were three models, John --a frequent model at Art League-- dressed as a monk; a younger guy dressed as a traditional flemish/spanish dude (swashbuckler) and a lady in a gown. All were fabulous subjects and perfectly picked. Michela provided the girl's costume which she got on ebay (Thanks Michela). Beautiful and fit the model perfectly, which is amazing given the model was at least 5'11.
We used a limited palette and the exercises resulted in very monochromatic paintings (hence the Velasquez title for the course). Not a bad way to start, but I found it hard as a result to get features to pop. On the flip side the monochromatic nature cause me to focus on other things including value, edges and thinnest/thickness of paint.
I thought today I would give you a sense of Rob's demo and progression. Tomorrow or later this week, I will show you my attempts (progression too) at the two models I painted. Followed by Rob's miniature painting demo on copper and some supply tips. Stay tuned!
There were three models, John --a frequent model at Art League-- dressed as a monk; a younger guy dressed as a traditional flemish/spanish dude (swashbuckler) and a lady in a gown. All were fabulous subjects and perfectly picked. Michela provided the girl's costume which she got on ebay (Thanks Michela). Beautiful and fit the model perfectly, which is amazing given the model was at least 5'11.
We used a limited palette and the exercises resulted in very monochromatic paintings (hence the Velasquez title for the course). Not a bad way to start, but I found it hard as a result to get features to pop. On the flip side the monochromatic nature cause me to focus on other things including value, edges and thinnest/thickness of paint.
I thought today I would give you a sense of Rob's demo and progression. Tomorrow or later this week, I will show you my attempts (progression too) at the two models I painted. Followed by Rob's miniature painting demo on copper and some supply tips. Stay tuned!
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