Daniel Sprick Painting Portrait Workshop
I attended Weekend with the Masters in Monterey, California. This is an art workshop and conference hosted by American Artist Magazine, with a handful of art supply vendors selling their wares. See the Daniel Sprick workshop details below.
Finding Your Art Tribe
Hundreds of artists from all over the U.S. were under the same roof for four days; the all-art-all-the-time energy was palpable and fascinating.
Imagine talking about various watercolor papers for an hour over lunch with no one getting bored! Or just by chance, meeting a group of attendees who have admired the same artist – online, and in publications – and for the first time, will watch him/her during a painting demo – together.
Conferences like this are the antidote for any artist who spends days and weeks working alone in the studio.
Daniel Sprick Workshop
There were almost 30 instructors on site. Attendees had a chance to take multiple classes and attend various demos from 5-8 outstanding artists in just a few days.
Instructors also got a chance to meet each other – some for the first time. I saw many teachers wandering in and out of the classes of their peers to listen in, or paint/draw for awhile.
Evenings were dotted with clusters of kindred spirit attendees and instructors – huddled over dinner and drinks. There was lots of talking about exhibits, museums, galleries, process, marketing and supplies.
I registered for an all day session with Daniel Sprick – one of my favorite contemporary painters.
He did a demo for us in the first half (photos below) and we did drawings or paintings of the same model in the second half of the day. My unfinished study is at the top of this post.
Dan also let each student flip through his work on his ipad. We saw his archive of drawings, studies and paintings, and some work in process images from his studio, next to the reference photos he was painting from. It was phenomenal.
Daniel Sprick – Trust Yourself
Daniel’s portrait (above) started with a line drawing of the model’s head and features. He laid the structure in very light with vine charcoal, and followed by a broad fill-in with thinned pigment. The paint brush obliterated what he laid in with the charcoal.
When asked why he brushed his charcoal drawing away with the paint, he smiled and said:
You should trust that if you can lay features in once with charcoal, you’ll be able to place them again with paint. And it’s a second chance to get it right.
Daniel Sprick
In the shot above, he went back into the shape of the model’s head and started blocking in shadow patterns with a flat brush. He made adjustments to the curves of the model’s face and cheekbones as flat masses.
The Argument for Practice
The workshop with Dan was one day. The first half was a demo, followed by workshop attendees painting the same model under his tutelage. This (above) was as far as he got in the time allotted with the oil portrait of Lury. But it was a spectacular view into the process of a master. And you can see her lovely face – and the likeness he achieved – in the photo below.
What We Learn From the Masters
The workshop was a day full of lessons. The ease of his mark making, and his reflexive muscle memory while color mixing all coalesced into the same message: the trick to get good at painting is doing the work. Hours and weeks and months and years of practice is the holy grail of painting well.
Links from the Archives – Previous Workshops and Current Resources
Here are some other posts related to workshops, figure drawing and painting, for your perusal:
- Read this about a workshop in Provence with Carol Marine. It inspired an observation of the challenges one faces alone in the studio after an amazing experience with instructors. Especially when there’s a gulf between what you wish you could paint, and what you’re really capable of painting.
- Visit this post about a two day workshop with artist David Kassan. He revealed the importance – and necessity – of errors, adjustments and re-takes in art-making, no matter how long you’ve already worked on a piece.
- Here is a post about getting the face and figure right in drawing and painting. There are different rules in figurative work, compared to landscape and still life. I’ve assembled some tips and links to help us out.
Getting Better at Art
If you’ve attended an amazing workshop, leave us a link in the comments to your post about it. And if there’s a book you love about drawing and painting the human form, leave the title for us too. We get better at art when we work together.
Thanks for stopping by, and I’ll see you in the next post!
Belinda
P.S. You can subscribe to get each new post via email right here.
P.P.S. Would you like a little primer all about watercolor paper? I couldn’t find one anywhere when I first started painting watercolors, so I wrote an intro to watercolor paper for you.
Art Quote
I’m 77 this year, and I’m seeing more and more color with a better-trained eye. I think I need two more lifetimes to get painting down. But I don’t have that “artistic angst”. Painting is a joy, and I’m grateful every time I pick up a brush that this is my vocation. We should all paint like a pig eats.
Richard Shmid at 2011 Weekend with the Masters
Wow, thank you for sharing this experience!
Hello K,
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Happy painting to you this winter! B.
Looked a great workshop. I like your portrait from the day, very strong.
Fascinating. I think you have achieved great depth and feeling in your “unfinished study”. Thank you for your posting of the demo steps. Wow.
Wow, what a great place to get to go to! This series of photos is great; I’m surprised he could do so much in such a short time. Your study is a great start too!
Looks like you had a fabulous time, Belinda!! You certainly came home with a great piece of art… but then you always do…