Portrait Painting in Florence with Cesar Santos

My painting, end of day 5. 

Attending masterclasses given by great painters is a valuable experience which can shift understanding or expand on existing knowledge. For those of us who teach much of the time, it also provides the opportunity to paint without the distraction of other commitments. 

I spent a few days in Florence last week, on a workshop given by Cesar Santos, hosted in the very lovely surroundings of The Florence Studio, owned by Laura Thompson and Frank Rekrut. A spacious, bright and clean environment, I have never felt so welcomed and well cared for in any other studio. The fridge was stocked with bottled water for the students, and nibbles on the table. 

Cesar Santos giving a demonstration in The Florence Studio

Cesar is incredibly knowledgable, polite and keen to share his skills.  I was delighted, of course, that his main message was about the importance of drawing. Over the course of five days he took us through all the stages of producing a portrait in oils, from simplifying the head to getting it onto canvas, the under painting, the 1st and 2nd painting. 

My first morning's work, simplifying the form and getting to 'know' the model. 

Later the first afternoon, the drawing completed directly on the canvas.

Outside, Alex spraying fixative on our canvases to seal the pencil work. 

The under painting, very pale, looking at tonal values. 

Creeping along, day 3, '1st painting' stage. 

Cesar's palette 

more on day 3. 

Day 4, a bit more 1st stage, with some 2nd painting too. 

End of day 5. 

I met lots of lovely people, and one evening we enjoyed a tour round The Pettit Palace with Cesar as our guide. 

Class tour round The Pitti Palace 

Cheers! 

At the end of the week, time to put Cesar in the frame! 

Most of the students at the end of the workshop. 

Here are some quotes from Cesar, taken from my notes:

‘Drawing is our attempt to understand.’

‘Painting is meaningless without drawing’.

‘Drawing has nothing to do with the materials: it is the eye. Students must strive to make the drawing excellent, try to achieve perfection, in every drawing. Keep perfecting. 100 bad drawings won’t give you a good one! Just as a poet needs to learn grammar in order to express bigger things, in art, excel in drawing first.’

For info on my workshops, email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk 
Next up: Oils workshop, portrait drawing workshop, children's workshop, drawing and water colour workshops. 

Portrait drawing and painting in oil (work in progress)

A note from my drawing board, to your Inner Voice (you know the one, that keeps saying you can’t do, it blah blah…)

Did you know that artists are Human too? It appears that many students think that artists are some sort of Other Species who get things right first time, all the time. Well, if only that were the case, perhaps artists would be less frustrated.. 

Even when we have been using a particular process for a long time, we can still make mistakes. But this isn't a bad thing necessarily. It just means we have to work out a solution and try again. 

Recently I began working on a portrait - it was to be in Oils, but I always start with a drawing.

Drawing study, pencil 

After working on it for a few days,  I transferred it onto canvas to do an oil painting of it. This is a relatively simple procedure which I have done MANY times, which involves tracing over my original drawing, providing a rough line drawing on the canvas as a guide to paint from. But this time.. Well, what a palaver.

Firstly, I couldn’t believe how PALE the pencil was as it went onto canvas - I could hardly see it at all. So I tried again, using a much softer pencil, with little or no improvement. After almost an HOUR I realised that I’m not supposed to use pencil at all, but paint… What was I THINKING??! So I started again, again. And it was a gloopy, lumpy MESS. This is the point that many folks just give up. But giving up isn't part of the painting process, so I wiped the canvas and traced it yet again. Still gloopy, but slightly less so than previously. Here it is...

Gloopy mess - if you can't see much, rest assured, I couldn't either... 

It didn’t look inviting as a surface to paint on, I can assure you. But I painted on it nonetheless. it's up to me to make it work. 

slowly working on top of the underlayer

Inching along

The colour isn't great in these photos, but it gives you an idea. 

This is where it is so far, with another layer to go on everywhere. 

Why am I telling you this?

So that you understand that even when you’ve been doing this for a long time, there are always times which hurt more than others. And the only thing to do is carry on, anyway.

There are a few more hours left to go in this painting, I just wanted to share the process. 

Upcoming workshop: portrait workshop, children's classes, Location Drawing and four day drawing and oils workshop with PJ Lynch. For info please email julie@juliedouglas.co.uk

Portrait Painting in Oils in New York #1...

New York was amAZing..!! In fact, I crammed in so much that it's taking me a while to gather myself.
I was there to attend a portrait painting masterclass - I learnt so much, from the tutors as well as the other students. Everyone was friendly, open and generous and I've been practicing since I got home. Because practice makes perfect..

I met up with my friend Jode, who travelled from Niagara Falls to join me on the course.

First stop, after walking through Broadway, obviously, was the Art store to stock up on supplies. Well, I could've spent a week in there. I've never seen so many brushes in my life.

 On Monday morning we headed to the Grand Central Academy, to the black-walled studio. The atmosphere was quiet and expectant. The first day was Drawing, and after that we painted, with a new model each day.

The studio on day two, with Ted Minoff (seated) demonstrating. As you can see, we made a big mess, and even though the room was large, when we all gather around one model, there's not much elbow room! My painting is second from the left. More in the next post.

Upcoming - I resume the weekly classes soon, Drawing and Painting in Belfast. For details email

julie@juliedouglas.co.uk