Four Day Drawing and Painting Workshop in Belfast

It has been a long summer hasn’t it?
If you are itching to get stuck into some serious drawing and painting come and join Julie Douglas and me for our four day drawing and oil painting workshop in Belfast.
Friday 28th - Monday 31st August

We will be working together to provide you with a rounded learning experience, which will include using charcoal, pencil and oils. Each day is structured, with achievable goals, pushing your skills and confidence up.
The course will include colour mixing, portrait painting and life drawing, with demonstrations each day.

The cost is £425 which includes refreshments and lunch. Students will bring their own materials and a list will be provided nearer the time.
I am really looking forward to it.
Working with Julie is always great fun, and we will also get through a lot of great work!
For details and booking please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

A Great Portraiture Workshop

There was a great atmosphere at my workshop on Saturday.

Our model, Michael, has a very characterful face and very striking colouring. 

He brought out the best in all of the artists there on the day.

My next portrait workshop at Kennedy Art will be on the 4th of July, but I am doing one at the lovely Corn Loft Centre in Wexford before that on 20th June.
I look forward to painting with some of you soon.

The Lincoln Family

I was priviledged to be asked to supply illustrations for Rosemary Wells' emmensely moving story about Abraham Lincoln and his relationship with his family, “Lincoln and his Boys”. 

I did a great deal of research and background reading about Lincoln, and I travelled to Springfield, Illinois with Rosemary to visit the Lincoln home there, and to get as much authentic visual reference material as I possibly could.

I came to see Lincoln as a hugely likeable and admirable figure. In Rosemary’s story he is laid back and relaxed with his sons, Willie and Tad, a funny, indulgent father more than the granite prophet we know from the Lincoln Memorial.

Abraham and Mary Lincoln were shattered when Willie died in the White House from typhoid fever in 1862, and it is no surprise that when Tad also died young, a few years after Lincoln’s assasination, Mary Todd Lincoln was utterly unhinged by grief and depression.

Upcoming Portraiture Workshops

I'm looking forward to a great workshop at Kennedy Art this Saturday.

That one is booked out, but if you want to come along to my next workshop at the Back Loft on the 25th April, please click on this link

Emma As Olympia, In Stages

I always like to photograph my life paintings at various stages.

It is useful to chart your progress and to see where sometimes you might have gone wrong.

Very often it can also show you the point that you probably should have left off painting, which is always difficult to call.
Here's a set of Emma posed as Olympia. (please excuse the green tinge some of them have)

http://pjlynch.bigcartel.com/product/painting-the-nude-figure-from-life-with-pj-lynch

Painting The Nude Figure From Life

I'm very excited about my first workshop in the Back Loft. 
It's a lovely roomy and atmospheric venue to paint in.
Click on the link below for more info or to book a place.

I look forward to seeing some of you there on the day!
http://pjlynch.bigcartel.com/product/painting-the-nude-figure-from-life-with-pj-lynch

PJ at the University of Ulster Festival of Art and Design in Belfast

Next Wednesday the 11th of March I will be doing a talk and a demo at the University of Ulster Festival of Art and Design in Belfast.
Many thanks to my pal Julie Douglas for asking me to take part.
I hope to see some of you there.
http://www.ulsterfestival.com/pj-lynch.html

The blurb says "PJ Lynch is an award-winning illustrator. He is a passionate advocate of good drawing in all its forms, and in this session he will discuss what drawing means to him with reference to his work as an artist and illustrator. During the session he will paint a portrait in oils."

The Gord & Jay Talk Art Podcast

It's great to get really positive feedback from my workshop attendees, and here, Jay, who attended my last workshop, talks in his podcast about some very concrete benefits that he felt he gained from my class. The relevant piece begins at 42 minutes into the podcast entitled "Discipline", but the whole thing is really interesting. Many thanks Jay.
https://itunes.apple.com/…/the-gord-jay-talk-a…/id929963389…
I'm looking forward to a workshop at Kennedy Art on Saturday.

 Here's my demo of Des from a few weeks back.

A Portrait with Dramatic Lighting

I was delighted to be able to spend three hours working on this portrait of Tony. We had a nicely dramatic low light source and Tony held his pose wonderfully.

The Finished Painting

Even as I was painting, though, I knew I hadn't gone dark enough with the left side of the face. 

When this happens, I tend to paint away to a finish from the model (second last picture above) and then a couple of days later add a dark glaze over the area where the darker tone should have been. 

Here I used liquin tinted with burnt umber and alizarin crimson. The good thing about this process is that it saves all the modulation in the initial painting but just darkens the area by a few degrees giving the painting a much more palbable sense of drama.

.

At Great Workshop with Giuseppe in a Peaked Cap

It's always a fun workshop at Kennedy Art when Giuseppe is the model.

Here are a few images from the day.

A Portrait Sketch of Martin

Here's my 40 minute demo from a recent workshop at Kennedy Art.
Martin, the model, always likes a challenging pose and he held this difficult twisty one really well throughout the day.

Contact Kennedy's for more details re my workshops.

Tel: +353 1 475 1749
Fax: +353 1 478 2022
Email: info[at]kennedyart.com

New Workshop Dates

I’m looking forward to my next workshop at Kennedy Art on November 1st.

Here is the painting kit I use for my workshops.
I keep my warm, earthy colours to the left of my palette, white and titanium buff in the middle with a splodge of Liquin, and black and cerulean blue are tucked away on my right.
That’s a little cup of low odour thinner, and I always like to open a new set of bargainous synthetic brushes from “Create” using the three flats. The bigger brush is for blending.

There is one more vital part of my kit; a 16 x 12 inch canvas board prepared with a grey tone. I use a warm grey emulsion. 

It's so much better than painting on a white surface.

My workshops at KennedyArt are proving to be very popular, so as well as 6th December, we’ve added an extra date on the 13th December.
Kennedy's
12 Harcourt St, Dublin 2
Tel: +353 1 475 1749
Email: info[at]kennedyart.com

Latest Portrait Sketch Workshops

After "Draw In" I'm very much looking forward to keeping up the momentum on Saturday at my portrait workshop at Kennedy Art. 
Aíne will be the model. Here's a study I did of her a while back.
It's unfinished because of changing light but I think it's all the better for that.

Saturday's workshop, and the one in October are both booked up and with waiting lists for cancellations, but we have just set the 1st November for the next workshop after that.
I hope to see some of you then.
PJ

KennedyArt
12 Harcourt St
Dublin 2
ph 353 (1) 475 1749

Naked Portrait of Darren: Process Pix

Some process pix of a life painting I did of Darren.
The technique I use at my workshops is a simplified version of this.

 My portrait sketch workshop in September at Kennedy Art has been set for Saturday the 6th.
I look forward to seeing some of you then.
info@kennedyart.com
ph + 353 (1) 475 1749