Torrit Grey 2008 Workshop

[Chris Saper]

Step 6

Working in smaller spaces, locating features.

[Chris Saper]

Step 9

Adding some lights.

[Chris Saper]

Step 10

At the last sitting of the session, I go for a little judicious TG, using it in the earring, part of the mouth, a bit in the shadow of the nose. When all is said and done, I've decided that the violet of TG should probably be referred to as "violent".

[Chris Saper]

We were extremely fortunate to have the artist Lisa Schubach as our model. As an accomplished painter, Lisa's input into the clothing and set up were instrumental in creating a set-up that had clean value separation and which lent itself to solid design opportunities from all angles.

Students made up several thumbnail sketches from their easel positions, spending a lot of time on composition.

Here is one view of Lisa in her pose. You can see how simple the value patterns are.

[Chris Saper]

Here's a pic of the class.

[Chris Saper]

Overall the class was great fun,and much more difficult than I would have expected. Much of the difficulty revolved around the handling of the paint.

Here's what I've learned so far:

Your process and outcome will depend, to some extent on whether you find a tube of the purple Torrit Grey or the warm Torrit Grey. They all look the same on the outside.

Regardless of the tube color, the biggest constraint is the ground you use. One of my students, Kay brought some New Traditions art panels to use in class. For those of you have used any of the the NT oil-primed panels, you know that the surface is more tightly woven and much slicker than an acrylic canvas. It makes all the difference in the world.

Below, I used a scrap of NT oil-primed linen and brushed a little of each of the Torrit Grey colors on it, then went in to wipe out the color. Both lifted beautifully. Had I know this in advance I would have been more specific about the type of support in my materials list. When I am in open studio, or doing a demo, I typically use whatever cheap canvas I pick up,since I am pretty sure I will throw out the canvas after the studio, and the NT panels are a lot more expensive (a note here: I have used NT panels exclusively on my commission for a number of years). Live and learn. I plan to work up a Torrit Grey painting on the NT panels,with the warm color, and I'll add to this thread when I learn something more. I expect that any slick surface will enable color-lifting, but if I were you, I'd check it out first