Joshua LaRock

The Layers of Portrait Painting

Look over Joshua’s shoulder as he guides you through the many levels of considerations and layers of paint in the making of this award winning portrait. Painting a likeness can often be a daunting task but Joshua holds nothing back as he presents his clear and logical approach, providing crucial ideas and problem-solving tools that all skill levels will find helpful.

This video will center around the elements of form and how to achieve the illusion of three-dimensions. By better understanding the importance of form you will gain new insight into value, color, drawing and expression.

Joshua demonstrates his indirect oil painting technique, which is distinct from the alla-prima, or wet-in-wet, method in that it is done in layers and can therefore achieve wonderful and subtle effects by the use of semi-transparent veils of paint.

The 3 hours and 15 minutes of content will include:

-The preparatory drawing in graphite
-Transfer of the drawing to canvas
-Layer One: Initial underpainting considering color theory
-Layer Two: Building up the form in the second day of painting - lighter lights and darker darks.
-Layer Three: Finishing and polishing using glazes and scumbling.