Digital Portrait Painting with Jens Claessens

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Learn the fundamentals of digital portrait painting! Join Jens in this 8-week class and learn the the core painting concepts necessary for stunning portraits. Jens doesn’t just teach copying the reference, but how to analyze and internalize the concepts so that you have full control to work from imagination as well. There will be a combination of demos, lectures and homework assignments that we’ll review in class.

We’ll cover:
• Painting fundamentals, from reference and imagination
• Color, texture & value
• Going from black & white to color and keeping a natural look
• How to analyze and study reference
• Facial features breakdown

Duration: 8 weeks
Date & Time: Starts Saturday March 2nd, every Saturday at 8:00 AM Eastern
Skill level: All skill levels welcome
Tiers: Receive feedback or spectate without homework feedback. Critiques may be given asynchronously if live class can’t be attended.
Format: 4-5 hour live class with combination of lectures, demos, and feedback. Recordings will usually be provided within 24 hours of each class.
Materials: Any digital or traditional tools. Paintovers will be done digitally

All weeks will be a combination of lecture, demos and feedback.

Week 1: How to observe: Before we even start drawing we have to analyse our subject matter and develop a strategy on how to tackle our painting. I’ll be going over all the fundamental concepts I use to create my portraits.
Week 2: Demo: Full color portrait from reference. I’ll show you how apply previous concepts to create a finished portrait.
Week 3: Digital Pencil: I’ll demo how to draw a portrait from reference with a simple digital pencil. We’ll look at how to layer values, crosshatching & much more.
Week 4: Texture: Using textures in Photoshop. I’ll discuss ways to improve your portraits by using texture!
Week 5: Color: I’ll show you MY way to go from B&W to color and how to create harmonious skin colors.
Week 6: Heads from imagination: Learn techniques how to come up with more interesting characters, how to improve your visual library, how to construct and shade from imagination.
Week 7:
Facial Features: I’ll go over the facial features individually, so you’ll have a better idea on how to draw them from reference or imagination.
Week 8: Demo: Creating characters from imagination.