Daniel Sprick Workshop

This past weekend I took a two day workshop with Daniel Sprick over at Studio Incamminati here in Philadelphia. I had been looking forward to it since I signed up last winter. I meet Daniel two years ago when he came to PAFA and gave a demo and crits in the MFA program and was impressed with not only how talented he is, but how much of a nice guy he is. Honest, warm, sharing. I also attended the workshop with my buddy Will Sentman and you can visit his blog to see and get his account of the workshop. It was also great to have Rachel Constantine and Susan Lyon in the workshop as well. Leona Shanks was also taking the workshop and gave us a really nice tour of her private studio at the atelier. They do have a great program at Incamminati and I highly recommend taking classes or workshops there.

The workshop took place over two days, and each day started with a demo by Sprick followed by the attendees either drawing or painting in the afternoon after the lunch break. Saturday, the first of the workshop days Sprick did a drawing demo using Pitt compressed charcoal on Canson Mi Teintes paper. The first drawing was of a skeleton, chest up but mostly focusing on the skull. he spent some time coming to common terms and terminology with concepts like form shadow, vs terminator or "the Hump' as he called it so everyone would be on the same page. One man's hump is another man's terminator! It was great enjoyment to watch him draw. I love to watch people draw or paint, especially great artists like Sprick, who was very relaxed, almost zen-like in his way of working, never seeming to rush. He talked and answered questions as he went on, everyone watching the magic show. I know, its not magic, but intense concentration, very much like entering a trance, but watching someone like Sprick with such high level skill is a great jot to watch, like a great singer musician or athlete.

The second drawing was of the model. And such a great model she was taking such perfect pose and seeming to never lose the pose. Again Sprick started just as with the skull, a contour, then the terminator and then worked out from that. I was really disappointed with my drawing in the afternoon, I had a really hard week, I taught a workshop at PAFA in the Art camp they have and teaching 9-13 years-olds 10-3 wiped me out on top of my regular work schedule---so I had only about 2-3 hours sleep several days in a row, so my drawing was crap, plain and simple, I just wasn't focusing. I was learning tough!

Spricks set-up

The studio and workshop was full!


The second day Sprick again did a demo, this time in oil, working the same way, a sight sized drawing or rough outline of the model on a panel primed with sand-able gesso. Then he drew the quick placement and then washed in a tone using Van Dyke Brown. He them added in the shadows and worked from the core shadow out. He never seemed to rush or make a mistake. He joked and we all laughed because he used the used a fan brush, flesh colored paint as a base and talked about working from photos--all big No-No's in certain camps. Again I wasn't happy with what I did in the demo, we had only about 90 minutes to really try and paint after Dan was finished with his demo, but i think no matter what the fact of trying to work with his ideas fresh in the brain was good. his way of working in not that dissimilar to many of my teachers at PAFA, there are different ways to skin an apple and I think as painters we take what we want and discard what we don't find useful.
Sprick's finished demo.


Daniel Sprick

My sleepy, rushed painting...


Will, Dan, Myself and Rachel

Daniel and Susan chat during a break.

All in all it was a great weekend with old friends and I made some new friends as well like Susan Lyon. I have admired her and her husband Scott Burdicks work for several years and it was great to meet, talk and paint along with her and everyone else in the group.