November 15 - December 20, 2025 (5 weeks)
NO CLASS NOV. 29
Saturdays, 10:00am-1:00pm Eastern Standard Time (New York time)
The Zoom link will be provided. Recordings are available to registrants, so attending the live sessions is not required. Participants are invited to email progress each week by 12:00pm EST on Tuesdays for feedback, which is sent to the class as a mid-week video.
This 5-week course is a dive deep into the art of portrait painting, where the human face becomes an icon for storytelling. Through the deliberate use of color, light, and composition, we will explore how to move beyond likeness to capture emotion, personality, and narrative within a portrait. Students will study color theory, mood-setting through lighting, and expressive brushwork to develop portraits that not only resemble their subjects but also tell a story—one that invites the viewer into a deeper emotional connection.
Throughout the course, each student will work on a larger, ambitious painting that centers on a portrait story. You'll choose from several compositional frameworks— and pick the one that suits your taste, as well as vote on the one that we all paint from. The painting will be done with an all prima technique that focuses on Sargent’s way of blocking in the portrait and then deal with each separate section as an exploration into different parts that make the story.