The Lester Prize: Workshops

Sat 12 Oct | 11am - 1pm 
Value Study with Kristina Lynch

Learn how to create a value study from a reference image, organizing composition and value efficiently for seamless future work. Kristina Lynch will guide you through image transfer to canvas paper, mixing a 5-value scale, and matching shapes within the reference image to your value scale.

Thu 17 Oct | 5pm - 7pm
Portrait in Charcoal with Stephanie Sheppard

Stephanie Sheppard will lead participants through drawing a portrait in charcoal from a photograph. The workshop includes a full demonstration, helping you produce an accurate likeness of the subject.

Sat 19 Oct | 1pm - 3pm
Painting Eyes with Cassie Rowe

During this session, participants will have a brief reminder of the foundations around colour theory and how to create realistic skin tones and colours for facial features, such as the human eye. Using a photo reference provided, students will then be guided through painting the eye. This will involve an explanation and demonstration of how to identify the shapes seen in the photo reference and how to recreate this on the canvas, initially via a sketch, before using a limited palette to paint in the skin tones

Thu 24 Oct | 5pm - 7pm 
Painting People with Tattoos with Ruby Smedley

This workshop will explore techniques for painting tattooed skin. Working on a small-scale study from an image provided (or one you bring), Ruby Smedley will demonstrate quick image transfer techniques, mixing skin tone and tattoo colour palettes, and applying them to your artwork.

Sat 2 Nov | 11am -1pm
Drawing Portraits with Pen and Paint Sticks with Sue Strizek

Portraiture is often associated with painting with acrylic and oils, using brushes and palette knives. Sue Strizek will show you how to use the easily transportable mediums of pen and paint sticks on A4 paper. Participants will develop the confidence to incorporate drawing into their daily practice and to experiment with a limited colour palette. Sue’s practice embraces mistakes and errors in her drawings, there is no erasure. She will encourage you to draw portraits that look to find expression beyond the face, show a person’s character and energy and that sit within your own personal style.

For Beginners to Advanced
All materials supplied

Sat 9 Nov | 11am - 1pm 
Join Lester Prize Alumni and 2024 Archibald Finalist Jill Ansell with starting a portrait, proportions and getting a likeness. 

Participants will focus on a portrait in profile. Information will be provided on mixing flesh tones and stages of the portrait. No one is expected to complete a portrait in the session, but guidance will be given on different stages and how to proceed.

1. Discuss portraits – proportions of the face and different processes.
2. Draw face– check proportions and likeness
3. Tonal underpainting
4. Demonstrate colour mixing for skin and the next steps

Sat 16 Nov | 11am -1pm
Exploring Facial Form and Expression through Graphite with 2024 Minderoo Spirit Prize Winner Lucinda Tassone

This beginner-friendly workshop is open to all interested in portraiture and in documenting the human form. In the session, there will be a discussion and a breakdown of the core techniques of portraiture through analysing a variety of key artworks from the Renaissance to the present.

Participants will follow a guided demonstration from Lucinda and then are encouraged to create multiple drawings experimenting with style and technique. The workshop is interested not only in examining formal techniques but also in convention breaking and abstraction.