Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018:

Demo by Richard Kochenash

Rich Kochenash began his demo by explaining that he picked his subject, Nels Femrite, because “he is not angelic! Baby faces are angelic but difficult to paint. No character.”

Starting with a wet wash and no drawing, Kochenash simply painted the shape of the head at a three quarter view. His palette includes cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, quinacridone gold, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, quinacridone rose, raw umber, and white gouache.

He uses primarily sable brushes on Arches 140 pound cold press paper. After the first wash he dried the paper and started the second wash using slightly thicker paint of the same colors and “letting them melt together.”

He is more concerned with value than with color and doesn’t think about creating a likeness, concentrating instead on edges and shapes. Trained classically in the Atelier method Kochenash believes in painting from life which helps him to “capture the emotion.”

Some art schools put too much emphasis on drawing. After drying the paper a second time, Kochenash put in the darkest values using dry brush. “This is where you can ruin the painting,” he warned.

Although many artists say that you can’t fix a watercolor, Kochenash maintains that you can make changes if you start light. The finished portrait proved to be a true likeness of Nels Femrite, a face with character!