Painting figure from sculpture

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Description:

In this video I will demonstrate how you can practice figure painting (or drawing) from a classical sculpture. Most museums allow sketching, and this is a great exercise to learn from the masters. Some museums allow painting master copies on site, although this requires reservations.

We will be working from a sculpture from the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. I will demonstrate using two colors (burnt sienna, ultramarine) + white. You can do the same painting with just burnt umber and white working on values. Using two colors, a warm and a cold will also allow to think about the temperature, even though we are working with a white object. Temperature and value are two of the most powerful tools we have for creating the illusion of 3 dimensions and space. Warm brings the object closer, cool pushes the plane back. In a figure, warms and cools alternate:

-Warm shadow, cool half-tone as it turns to light, warm area around the highlight, cool highlight. We will practice more value and temperature control when working in portraiture and figure painting.

Trailer:

Finished demo: