October 4 - Parker Dean Portrait Painting Demonstration
by Angela Alvarenga
|
Lucky draws gave three people at our meeting the opportunity to have their portrait painted by Parker Dean. Dean has been drawing since he was 15 years old and when he paints, he strives to capture more than what the eye can see. He gave a beautiful demonstration of this as he completed the three paintings.
Dean started his portraits with a basic black, Paper Mate Profile pen. He started drawing from the top of the head or hair and worked his way down. He prefers to draw small to big and will use points on the face as reference points to correctly place other facial features. Once he completed his sketch, he moved to painting the portrait, also starting from top to bottom. He quickly blocked in the shadows to bring in the highlights. He mixed colors minimally to keep them rich and vibrant. He gracefully added shadows for depth and used a very small brush to add in delicate details and features. He finished his portraits by moving down to the neck and body, painting these parts very loosely. Although he was working with watercolors, he used Canson Mixed Media Paper. He finds the paints do not get absorbed into the paper too quickly and the paper can hold the richness in color. |
Dean’s talents left the audience speechless. He was able to beautifully draw, paint and catch the likeness of his models within 20 minutes. It was a pleasure to watch Dean draw and paint and watch him bring the richness of his painting to life.