“It’s hard to believe it’s our final day…It’s been an amazing week,” said Eric Rhoads on Day 3 of Realism Live 2024. “I want it to last forever. I could do this every day!” We’ve been hearing from many of you joining us during the event, and it sounds like you feel the same. Here are some of our friends (old and new!) from this week:
Thanks to everyone for posting (using @ericrhoads and #realismlive) – we love seeing your pictures. And, thank you to Sarah Sedwick for guest hosting our evening Paint Along.
On our last day of the event, we saw incredible painting and drawing demonstrations from none other than Zhaoming Wu, Anthony Waichulis, Zane York, Thomas Jefferson Kitts, Mary Pettis, and Daniel Sprick. Here are some of our favorite moments.
Highlights from Day 3 of Realism Live:
Using a reference photo, Zhaoming Wu demonstrated how to paint a model draped in fabric, focusing on the color, edges, and other important aspects. To begin, he says to do a thumbnail sketch in pencil, focusing the placement of the figure on the composition and value structure of the painting without the details.
Anthony Waichulis gave a robust presentation involving the drawing tools and fundamental material dynamics that he says practitioners should be aware of to maximize control in their efforts to create representational drawings. “If you’re a seasoned professional, it is my hope that this will be a welcome refresher for you,” Anthony said. “If you are a novice, I’m hoping this information will help you get off on the right foot so that your delve into representational drawing is as successful as it could possibly be.”
Artist and educator Zane York taught a lesson on how to “build a painting” with a sophisticated level of texture using layering techniques. He began with a helpful graph explaining six art principles and how they relate to each other: drawing, local color, temperature structure, edge hierarchy, light value structure, and local value.
Thomas Jefferson Kitts began his demo on a canvas with a thin layer of tinted linseed oil, to facilitate a “quick start” without solvents. Thomas prefers to work directly from life for its honesty and immediacy, incorporating many alla prima techniques developed by 19th- and 20th-century master artists.
Mary Pettis demonstrated how she works with light effects that are momentary by returning to the same location at the same time of day. She created a large-scale (26 x 32-inch) painting made over the progression of several mornings so she could focus on painting from life instead of photo reference.
And in the last Realism Live faculty session, Daniel Sprick demonstrated how he paints a skeleton working back to front while also addressing perspective and vanishing points, background, and so much more. He says, “I have been painting all of my life and am still going at it.”
“I want you to paint as if this is new to you,” Eric said in closing. “Try what you’ve learned. You CAN do this. Manage your self-talk. Practice, return to view the replays from this week, practice. I’m honored you gave us your time.
“I hope we over-delivered for you… Now it’s up to you to over-deliver for yourself. Practice. Rewatch as much as possible. Practice more. This will serve you if you do the homework.”
We’ll see you soon at Watercolor Live coming in January 2025!
