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Loading ...Gregg Kreutz: A Demonstration In Painting From Life
This art video tutorial shows artist/teacher Gregg Kreutz demonstrating to his class how to paint the figure from a live model. The demonstration was filmed over the course of 3 hours during his morning class using oil paints.
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He begins with the idea of laying down expressive strokes with his paint brush in the early stages to emphasise movement within his subject, which on this occasion is a young white female. Although her pose is static it is up to you as an artist to portray movement in your paintings with your brush actions and personal perception of the model or subject. It’s also another good way to test how the canvas reacts with your brand of paints and brushes setting the fluidity and ease of use for the remainder of your painting up to it’s final stages.
He also moves into color theory and how to mix up complimentary colors to promote the skins tonal values but also retain and evoke expression. It really is a brilliant video which encompasses all the values still present in traditional and even contemporary styles of oil painting surrounding portraiture.
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Who Uploaded This Tutorial?
ian
I have studied art for most of my life and would easily say that it was my number one passion. I appreciate everything surrounding art but I gear most of my efforts towards anatomy and the human form. I believe there is nothing more beautiful and rewarding than being creative to produce art which does the human figure justice. I hope you enjoy my portfolio and if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me. I also travel the world whilst maintaining this website in the hope to broaden my horizons and discover all the different types of art around the globe.
This Video is Tagged With:
artist, brush, demonstration, expressive, how to, how to mix, model, movement, oil, paint, painting, paints, traditional, values
1/Listen..I’m not a Gregg fun, but what I say is, you should see his drawings..I’ve seen some in a book from the school he is and believe me he has done good drawings. (I don’t know if they are from life though) I still believe you are wrong about Picasso. Two dimensionally? search at google for a still life named ”pitcher and apples” if that’s not 3d then what is?
Gregg is the one showing people how good he is here in the video, not me!Unfortunely he is not a good portraiture artist, although he had learned a trick or two in painting, but he has no talent to do portrait, he did not learn how to see and how to draw yet ! Since the invention of camera, people tracced & copied from photos,before that artists used optical vision to get the images. Humans are not perfect, that is why when we see the work by Michelangelo or Da Vinci, We admired ! George Wu, AIA
3/ I give Gregg the credit for showing his weakness in front of the public. He did not have an eye in art, although he did not think so. I pointed out that he did the following: a/ Thick lips for a thin lipped model. b/ Longer neck & face for a LADY ( he heard that longer neck is a sign of good looking women,so he used his doctrine instead of drawing from life, to do his portraiture. Why did he need a model then? why didn’t he do what Picasso did : To use no model ! c/ too small the eyes! …
2/ Any good artist would tell you that drawing likeness is most important in portraiture. If you are an artist, which I believe you are not, then you would agree why life drawing class in the elementary course in any art school. Most portrait artists today, their portraiture is usually a product of TRACING or COPY from the photographs,even they claimed that they drew from life. Now to me that is CHEATING ! If likeness is not important, why the h*** did they cheat?! George Wu, AIA 2012-7-10
1/ That is the reason why I said what I did here that Gregg should go back to school to learn how to draw first. I said he put the cart before the horse and demonstrated in front of people shamelessly of his weakness- the inability to draw likness, just like Picasso knew that he could NEITHER draw like Michelangelo nor Da Vinci, so he resorted himself to do the cartoon like drawing and painted the color two dimensionally!
Firstly your way of talking(writing) shows a deeply inhibited person. If you could paint/draw like picasso did when he was 15, you would have keeped your mouth shut. Take a look? I have studied those 2. Firstly, Michelangelo said himself ” I wish I was a painter” .He was no good. (He was a master at drawing of course) Da Vinci has written how likeness is not the most important. Composition, colour and drawing (I’m not talking about likeness) are the most important.
2/ Elongated neck and the face here of the young woman model by this artist is exactly what my instructor from the Cooper Union did not want to see. Therefore, someone would have said that likeness is not important in portraiture. Then what the h*** is more important in portraiture ? George Wu, AIA 2012-7-10
1/ When I went to the Cooper Union life drawing class, the instructor used to spend time correcting a young woman classmate who drew the figures from the model as if she was drawing an elongated fashion model line drawing. He always passed me by as if he was satisfied with my honest drawing from life. At the end of the semester,he gave me the highest grade in the class, but not to the young woman classmate.I supposed he was looking for the ability to draw from life with likeness.George Wu, AIA
I have seen most of Picasso’s early work, even the one that he used to apply for the art school when he was a boy which is out of proportion ! His childhood work including the patient in bed one was assisted by his father who was an art teacher. May I suggest that you take a look of the work by Michelangelo or Da Vinci when you argued about the likeness of portraiture. I have no patience to talk with you when you claimed that likeness is not important ! George Wu, AIA 2012-7-10
Likeness is actually the less important in portraiture. But even if it is important, I’m sorry to tell you that Picasso was incredible in drawing and painting since he was 14.Have you seen the studies from life he made when he was accepted at 13 in Barcelona’s art school? He stopped using models (truth is, he used many times later) because he did not need them and not because he could not draw likeness from life… go at wikipaintings. o r g , find the profile of picasso, and see his works..
Picasso never used a life model again after the blue period, because he found out he was only a mediocre artist to draw likeness from life ! Picasso also said art is a lie. Well, I would say: Using camera is a lie ! Because a camera can help the artist to cheat by tracing or copying the photographs without much thought given ! Then how about caricature? Why there is no esteem for the cartoon artist like Hirshfeld who has a lot more talent than Gregg Kreutz or Picasso? George Wu, AIA 2012-6-29
Life drawing ? The lips are too thick; the eyes are too small; the face is too narrow. I think he will have a better luck to do what the most portrait artists would do ever since the invention of the photography! Take many photographs of her, then go home and tracing the photograph and use that tracing to use as if the artist did it from sketching from life, and paint it in front of people, as if he drew from life ! In a way it is CHEATING ! But for the money? What the h*** ! George Wu, AIA 2012
If I were the instructor of Gregg Kreutz at the Art Student League of which I am not, I only went to the Cooper Union for my life drawing class in 1957, I would instruct him to make the thin lips of the young woman to be as thin as her lips really are, not thickening them to make them to look better. George Wu, AIA 2012-6-22
I don’t think that some of your viewers understand the point of painting a portrait: If you want an exact duplicate, then take a photograph. The painting is a “likeness”…and it captures the personality and background of the subject as well as the features. I think you did a very nice job on this. And I love the “painterly” feel that you have….loving the brush strokes and layers of paint.
Look at Frank Frazetta’s painting “the silver warrior”. The blue is everywhere, on the skin, the white of the fur, etc. Now think if the painting was done in the morning dawn in a clearing with brown bears, Does an red-orange come to mind? The base colour sums up all the painting’s colour in one colour. (the mood, the main colour, the action)The backdrop behind the model is his base and you see that colour on the model. It’s just Oil paint mixed with mineral spirits/turpentine most the time.
As a beginning artist, I’m wondering what your philosophy is regarding deviating from more “photographic” accuracy in portraiture toward a more interpretive approach. How far from accuracy is acceptable? Your portrait is lovely and I notice a few features that are somewhat different than the model’s actual appearance. When painting, what features are you trying to capture over others? I know…a difficult question…to ask and perhaps…to answer.
Hey, sorry I’m completely new at this.. but what have you used to make that background (beforehand) and why did you do that? I’ve seen many others do the same but I don’t quite see why. Is it dry when you start working on the portrait or..? And do you use any medium while making the “outline” or is that later on (since you’re supposed to do fat over lean)? Thanks for a great video! Really enjoyed it
Hey there jetsonjoe, Just wanted to let you know that this video is a demonstration from a daily class “Painting from Life, Portraiture.” This class runs Monday through Friday, 8:45 to 12:30 for $215 a month, or about $2.65 an hour. The League has always been committed to affordable tuition =]
never ever be a slave to a technique or a methodology of a particular artist. Never ever voice or triumph a particular pedagogical method…study learn understand…but you must take it towards what you see….the best learning tool is a thousand paintings method…smaller of course…but the time spent doing and learning is the best teacher…looking at real painting…good and bad…eventually you will see why bad painting is bad and good painting is good…you train your eye, hand and heart.
Disagree completely with Missartist…painting is NOT A SCIENCE at all…it is an art..as each individual artist creates a vision using similar tools …but there own methodology and process. Science is a didactic process of repeat and recreate…art is not that at all…Unless you want to create dead art…as many of the so called return to the classical style artists are doing…and boring art as well…Most of what is done is nothing more than glorified studies..not complete paintings.
hmm…why is it only the older folks who seem to be present…when maybe some of the younger folks would benefit most for the beginning careers. ….and it all comes down to the often exhorbiant prices charged for these sessions…I have participated in several..and no more…as they rarely deliver what is promised…and often dumb down the session to the lowest level. Meaning it is often those of least talent who garner all the instructors attention.
It’s hard to explain while you are painting but it really is a science. If you are painting from life, or even from photograph, you constantly are observing and experimenting to create an illusion. After all the experimentation you see patterns and find ways to great your own method of working.
Frustrating as h*** but hey, you got to be persistent. 
Oil painting demonstrations are funny. They should start with a display of the teacher’s finished paintings. If they are not really good, what you are about to be taught will do more harm than good. If you are better than the teacher, you will be squirming in your seat. Time is much better spent going to a good museum. Or just for fun, try copying from a REAL master and seeking to understand the Why, the How, and the sheer genius of artistic personality.
This guy is BLIND! It’s so funny when the whole place erupts in applause at the end! It’s because they are all older than he is and they can’t see the painting either! It looks appears *nothing* like the model. Now I know there’s nothing special about the art students league of new york!!
I’m disappointed. No mention of the colors at all until the forehead skin tone went in, which was too raw and too light. This probably sounds too critical but all of the beginning talk of ‘movement’ did not show in the final work which was completely frozen.