Drawing lessons - illustrated lesson notes for teachers and students

kissing practice, a painting

KISSING PRACTICE - A DEMONSTRATION PAINTING

'REALISM DEFINED'

One of the most difficult painting tasks it that of actually painting realistic flesh. Nowhere was this
excelled but by the French Academy painters of the late nineteenth century or their counterparts
across the channel such as Leighton, Waterhouse and Alma-Tadema. Perhaps the most sublime of
all these was William Bouguereau whose paintings of people were so convincing it becomes most
difficult to distinguish them as mere images. More than anyone Bouguereau made angels as real as
the peasant girls he painted as pot-boilers for the more fashionable commercial market.
Bouguereau is the professional painter's benchmark for technical perfection in the rendering of
flesh.

So how did he do it?

In this lesson I shall demonstrate a technique and provide a brief explanation of how he achieved
such results.

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