LIVE ONLINE COURSE
CapTuring Character IN PORTRAIT PAINTING
with Calvin Lai, Master Artist & Mentor
Learn how to bring your subject’s character to life while honoring your unique style and artistic interpretation.
Learn How To:
Capture your subject’s essence and character regardless of your style, whether realistic, impressionistic, expressive, etc
Understand your artistic goals for each portrait and your interpretation of the subject
Go beyond rendering what you see, to capturing what you feel
Choose the best materials to bring your portrait painting to life with ease and confidence
Audience: Fine Art Painters
Mediums: Acrylic, Oil
Stage: Aspiring, Emerging
Starts: Thursday, February 6, 2025
Time: 4:00 – 7:30pm MT
Meets: Weekly for 4 sessions
Feb 6, Feb 13, Feb 20, Feb 27
$320.00
Out of stock
Price in USD
Course Description
Painting portraits can feel daunting. There are dozens of factors that come into play from your technical abilities to your materials (and knowledge in how to use them). Then there’s the question of your goals. Are you trying to achieve a classically realistic portrait or are you going for a more expressive interpretation?
When you understand the techniques, choose the right materials, and get clear on your goals, portrait painting becomes a fulfilling experience for both you and the subject you’re bringing to life on canvas.
In this course, professional artist and mentor Calvin Lai will guide you through the technical aspects of portrait painting while also empowering you to go beyond the surface—to render not just features but the soul of the person you’re painting.
Whether you’re drawn to classically realistic portraits, interpretive styles, or a mix of both, this course will help you unlock the skills and confidence to bring your vision to life.
Supply List
PAINTS
Main colors we’ll work with:
- titanium white
- yellow ochre
- cad. red light
- alizarin crimson
- tera rosa
- ultramarine blue
- cerulean blue (hue)
- burnt umber
- ivory black
Optional colors that I strongly recommend:
- cad. yellow medium
- sap green
- burnt sienna
- naples yellow light
As far as paints go, everyone has their own preferred palette. If you have colors similar to what I’ve listed it’ll work to a certain degree, but try to get the same colors I use as it will help with matching the pigments we mix.
In general I feel that if you have a darker and a lighter shade of yellow, red, and blue, a white, and a brown you can recreate a variety of colors.
The other optional colors I listed help a lot with various skin tones. The reason why those are optional is because paints can get expensive and if you’re just starting out or are on a tight budget a limited palette will at least get you going, and we may not use some of the optional colors.
BRUSHES
I mainly use flat brushes… but this is also very individual. If you already have brushes then I would say use those that you’re comfortable with, but if you want to use what I’m using, below is the bare minimum for what I suggest.
Also note that you should not use your acrylic brushes to paint with oils.
- Synthetic hair flat – size 2, 4, 6, 8
- Natural bristle flat – size 4, 6, 8, 10
- Foam brush – 2”, 3” (these foam brushes are an affordable alternative to larger brushes.
- If you can get larger size brushes I would recommend it) … and if you can just get more brushes than what I’ve listed I would also recommend that.
- The more brushes you have helps.
OTHER MATERIAL
- Palette knives: just a couple for mixing paint
- Palette
- Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits or Turpenoid
- Walnut oil or linseed oil
- Many jars
- Rags or paper towels
- Murphy’s Oil Soap (for cleaning the brushes after)
- 2 stretched canvas or wood panel 9”x12” (first two sessions)
- 1 stretched canvas or wood panel 12”x16” (third and fourth sessions)
Instructor Bio
Calvin Lai’s art is a mixture of medicine, meditation, and personal growth.
He found early on that drawing was something he loved, and to make a picture appear lifelike became his goal. Through constantly drawing, his work began to breath, and Calvin’s fascination with value and perspective led him to become a student of realism. Eventually he moved from where he grew up in Los Angeles to San Francisco. There he studied drawing and printmaking at San Francisco State University. In 2008, he enrolled in the Academy of Art for illustration, but began painting instead. He found that he preferred the fine arts over commercial illustration, and now works as a full time oil painter.
Since then, working from his studio, he has continued to develop and refine his oil painting skills. Lai’s work has been shown nationally in galleries, group exhibitions and juried shows. He has executed a large number of portrait commissions over the past several years, and his paintings have appeared in national and international publications. Throughout his career, Calvin Lai has expanded his focus from figurative and portraiture to encompass a variety of subjects such as still lifes to the San Francisco cityscape. Now he has no borders to what he chooses to paint, and he is driven to capture everything around him through his paints, brushes, and determination.
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