On 30 November 2007, professional artist and art tutor, Charlotte Stewart gave a live demonstration of her portrait painting techniques. The session ran for just over an hour so her aim was not to produce a finished picture but to illustrate her methods and personal approach to painting portraits.

The artist and volunteer model for the afternoon, Charles Pollock, agree on a pose.

Charlotte has prepared her canvas with a light turps-based wash of a cool hue to help set off the warm tones of the subject.

She has premixed her basic colours and tones from a limited palette of:
WHITE, NAPLES YELLOW, YELLOW LAKE, SCARLET LAKE, CARMINE, VIRIDIAN and ULTRAMARINE. She always works with colours mixed on the palette - never on the canvas.
Her brushes (rounds and filberts) will be each reserved for specific colours to minimise the need for cleaning during painting.
She will be using 'raw' paint with just a little turps for this exercise.

Charlotte likes to start at a point between the eyes where she can immediately juxtapose the areas of darkest and lightest tones. This will provide a tonal reference for the rest of the painting. The relative positions of key points and tonal areas are then established using a neutral 'drawing mix'. Charlotte is painting 'sight-size' to simplify the process in view of the limited time available.

Shapes are sketched in and a visual contextual reference established with the perpendicular line where the wall colour changes.

Some areas of warm colour are added.

Charlotte's brushes dart all over the painting, 'placing' rather than 'brushing'.

Now, some larger tonal areas
can be brushed in.

With time running out, it's down to some more detailed observation of features.

Time up! Our flash photography of the sketch was, frustratingly, either too cold...


...or too warm! Imagine something in between.

Charles allows himself a faint smile of relief that his ordeal is over!

Below, some other examples of Charlotte Stewart's portrait work.