Illuminating Portraits: 5-Part Series Pajama Class with Amy Lindenberger

ONLINE WORKSHOP: January 14, 28, February 11, 25, and March 11, 2025

Time: 8 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time  (3 hours each day)
Limited to 35 students 
Can't attend? The video recording will be posted on Padlet within 2 days after EACH class.

Please read our Workshop Cancellation Agreement

Get Glowing with Green! Discover how to master the Verdaccio technique: The use of a green underpainting to make colors really glow and radiate with vibrancy! 

How do you effectively use a green underpainting? Which color of green should you choose? Where do you apply the green tones? 

Over a period of twenty-five years, Amy made a substantial portion of her income from creating commissioned, colored pencil portraits—over 600 of them! In that time, Amy’s tried many different approaches to colored pencil portraiture...Once Amy became aware of the Verdaccio technique, she just had to give it a try. Verdaccio is a Renaissance painting technique that begins by establishing a value study to build form, but what is unique about it is that the halftones and highlights are all underpainted with GREEN! The green base for these portions of the skin tones provides a complementary-colored foundation that really makes the warm skin tones glow in a way that Amy has not quite experienced in any other method of color-building.

You'll Learn:

• How to build form by beginning with a value study
• Where and how to utilize green underpainting
• Why understanding pencil opacity is key to making the most of this technique
• How to choose the appropriate shade of green for your underpainting
• Techniques for achieving smooth, gradual transitions that result in beautifully lifelike skin tones
• Master the final steps to boost highlights, ensuring they stand out vibrantly

Amy recommends using a medium value paper - Canson Mi-Teintes Felt Grey - and use Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils (a more transparent brand of colored pencils) for the base layers. As values and colors are built up, switch to more opaque brands of pencils such as Prismacolor Premiers, Caran d'Ache Pablo and Caran d'Ache Luminance to make the colors really glow and radiate with warmth. A link to the supply list available below (also emailed to you after registration.)

What you need to know:

• Immediately after registering, you'll receive an email with a link to download the "How to Prepare" PDF of instructions to prepare you for class. SAVE this PDF.
  
• On the day of the workshop, just before class begins, click on the link to enter the classroom.
• As Amy demos in class, you'll follow along with the drawing.
• During the live workshop, feel free to ask Amy questions.
• A video recording of each session will be posted on Padlet within a few days after EACH class.

Requirements:

• Laptop, PC, Mac, tablet or iPad with speakers
• Printer (for printing line drawings and reference photos)
• Supplies (list also emailed after registration)

Pajama classes are better than books, better than tutorials and tons better than endlessly watching youtube videos. Pajama Classes are live. You can ask questions. You get answers! And feedback! Wow! It’s almost like a real live workshop, only without having to pack and unpack all your supplies.

About Amy: Amy Lindenberger is the author of several colored pencil instruction books, including several of our CP Surfaces books, and the best-selling Colors: A Workbook. She has taught colored pencil widely for decades, in the Midwest and on Ann Kullberg sponsored Colored Pencil Workshop Cruises. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Akron (OH) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing.