Watching the development of a portrait by Genevieve Robey

Yesterday I went to a great demo at the Art Shed in Brisbane on painting a portrait in oil colour. They kindly provided it for no cost and it attracted a big and enthusiastic crowd. I’ve been there several times for art products but this was my first live demo.

The artist Dr Manuel Petavrakis (Manny) said: “We are all born creative but it gets subdued when we focus on making money. It’s ([art] like meditating without even realising it.”

Manny is a GP and he and his wife Meg McGregor run the Art Shed and the Circle Gallery

It was a real privilege to see a painting evolve and come alive. I think the process of watching art being created while the artist shares their thoughts is also very therapeutic.

I jotted some notes down and took some photos (not very good quality pics on my mobile sorry) while trying to also concentrate on soaking in some of the techniques.

Manny said George, his subject for the painting, was “quite a character” and an obvious choice for a portrait. George sat very patiently (except for when he had to go move his car for someone he parked in!) I liked his distinguished sharp looking beard – quite a presence about him.

Some notes and pics

- start with rough proportions, trying not to put in too much detail.
- bottom of the nose to the lips defines the face, if this is wrong it will throw the whole face out.
- ‘scumbled’ over the top lightly (such as his beard).
- highlighting the cheek.
- using turps to remove, finger in the cloth to draw features.
- lots of colours in the white of an eye, many people don’t realise this and make it too white.

- Manny said “everything in a drawing relates to everything else” – this is a far better thing to keep in mind than trying to measure everything which Manny says is “boring and puts you off drawing” and also makes the portrait look as if it’s been “stopped and started”.

- red-ish brown / terracotta as gets closer to the shadows on his face
- starts defining lines and colours
- dark crevasses for the ear – don’t get fiddly with the ears as people don’t focus on them and you don’t want to take away focus from the rest of the face

- remember to stand back from the painting often – Manny walked to the back of the room a few times, said he often puts an obstacle in front of the easel to stop himself from getting too close to the picture.
- “most of us draw what we think we see, not what’s there” (he gave an example of why some people draw from an upside down picture to try and focus on exactly what is there rather than seeing it as a human face)
- each time you put in a shadow it’s good to put a highlight next to it to really finish it off.
- look for hardlines and for softer lines.

Manny said (to my surprise) this was only about his 20th portrait.

Well done Art Shed, thoroughly inspiring and a great way to spend a Saturday arvo. Many of the participants (including myself) were stocking up on more supplies afterwards. I got chatting with Manny about their Tuesday evening life drawing classes which I’m going to go to (another first for me!).

I recommend going along to of these demos, there is so much that you pick up (these notes are just a very small segment of pointers provided).