2-Day Realistic
Portrait Drawing Workshop
in Pastel
with
Cuong Nguyen
Saturday & Sunday
February 7th & 8th
10am-4pm
Cost $175
Join award-winning artist Cuong Nguyen for a 2-day portrait workshop covering pastel drawing techniques. This workshop is designed to create a relaxed, informative, yet focused working environment for all skill levels. The core of the lesson will be based on drawing, values, edges, composition and creating life-like skin tone color. Students will focus on the fundamentals of drawing the human head while developing new skills in soft pastel. The workshop will feature a live model, and Cuong will demonstrate his own techniques to draw from life. Students will learn to use an approach that helps them see the big shapes first, and then go into details towards the end of the session. This is a great opportunity for you to discover your own passion for drawing, or just take your existing skills to the next level.
About the Artist:
Trained to be a traditional portraitist at the age of 10 in his native Vietnam,Cuong has always had a passion for drawing human faces. His paintings depend on the dramatic portrayal of light, shadow and environment to create their mood and sense of realism. He believes that a successful painting requires that he establish an emotional connection with his subject, so that the viewer in turn connects at an emotional level with his work. Cuong has won many awards for his paintings, including Prix de Pastel at the IAPS's 2011 Master Circle Exhibition, Grand Prize Award 2010 Pastel Journal Magazine. Cuong is a Signature Member of the PSA, and Distinguished Pastelist of PSWC.
Cuong's paintings depend on the dramatic portrayal of light, shadow and environment to create their mood and sense of realism. He often supplements the emotions visible in his subjects' faces with symbolic imagery that adds a sense of mystery. He believes that a successful painting requires that he establish an emotional connection with his subject, so that the viewer in turn connects at an emotional level with his work.
Cuong is a member of the Oil Painters of America and the International Guild of Realism, as well as having been awarded the distinction of Distinguished Pastellist with the Pastel Society of the West Coast. His work has appeared at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara, California, and the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California, as well as in both national and international competitions exhibiting from coast to coast.
Today, Cuong works in both oil paints and pastels, though casual viewers may at first have trouble distinguishing the two media in Cuong's hands. Though he almost never blends his strokes, Cuong achieves a level of detail and smoothness of gradations that is unusual in pastel paintings. In oils, he aims for a realism that never crosses the line to photographic, so that the viewer always has a sense for how the image was formed from its raw materials . Regardless of media, however, Cuong Nguyen's paintings always reveal a fundamentally optimistic view of the world and a sense of wonder towards the beauty that surrounds us.
To reserve a spot for this workshop please call our San Jose store
space is limited
Brought to you by,
University Art San Jose
If it's Creative...It's Here!
