Day 2 - Male Figure

   I am currently taking a class with Robert Liberace at the Scottsdale Artists School in Scottsdale, AZ. Robert is an incredibly talented artist and teacher and I just can't say enough good things about him.  He has a wonderful way of simplifying his techniques.  He assesses each students work, kindly, but also thoughtfully so that you are pushed in the direction you need to work on.  He is passionate about learning the figure and you can see it resonating throughout his works.

     This is the second day's lesson.  I am not sure about my first day attempt since I put it away at the end of class yesterday and haven't got it out since.  I will have to decide whether it is worthy of sharing when I take a look at it tomorrow.   We had started Monday with a simple burnt umber and burnt sienna grisaille painting then mixing burnt sienna with white making a middle flesh tone, blocking that in then working in highlights and gradation into the shadow.
     Tuesday, todays lesson, we added some color, mixing flesh from white with red, alizarine, yellow and blue, pushing the colors, red, yellow, blue or whiter as needed and also doing the same with the shadows.   This was really tricky for me because color is one of my bigger challenges but I got through it with Roberts help and I think it worked out okay.  This is a rough shot from my cell phone.

     This pic shows, left to right, my buddy Carol's painting, Robert Liberace (in the middle) and mine on the right.  It almost feels like you are learning from Michelangelo or DaVinci!