Warren Chang
Bio
Warren Chang (born 1957) is a native Californian. Chang graduated from the Art Center College of Design with honors in 1981. He furthered his studies under Fred Fixler in Los Angeles and later Max Ginsberg in New York City. He worked as an illustrator for 20 years in Los Angeles and New York and has had more than 200 of his paintings published as book covers. His work has won awards from the Society of Illustrators in New York and Communication Arts Magazine.
Since 2001, he has devoted himself to the fine arts and currently teaches drawing and painting at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He has been profiled on the cover of the American Artist Magazine and featured in American Art Collector, Artworks and Southwest Art magazines. Among his awards are “Best of Show” at the Salon International 2003 held in Texas, where noted artist and teacher David Leffel was the juror of awards. In 2004 he received Second Prize in the 2004 International Artist magazine competition. He is a member of the California Art Club and has exhibited every year since 2002 in their annual Gold Medal exhibition.
Primarily a figurative artist, Chang paints the human figure in contemporary environments, including the interiors of his studio and classroom, as well as outdoor subjects, such as the fieldworkers of Monterey County where he grew up.
He is represented by Hauk Fine Arts in Pacific Grove, California. Artworks and information can be viewed at www.warrenchang.com
Classes taught by Warren Chang
Portraiture Using Underpainting and a Limited Palette
This one-week course will cover figure and portrait painting, starting with working in a monochrome oil wash moving on to working in a limited oil palette and extended limited palette.
The first two days will concentrate on working with an oil wash technique to create a full tonal painting of the figure or portrait. This technique is a great transition from drawing to painting. An artist can become familiar with drawing with the brush and accompanying oil materials, mastering brush strokes and the handling of detail without the burden of worrying about the mixing of color. It essentially is a variation of the traditional “grisaille” or underpainting used since before the 17th century, however the aim will be to create a finished figure study using this technique.
On our third day, utilizing a direct method of painting, we will be working with a limited palette of 4 colors of white, black, yellow ocre and cadmium red. This palette is associated with 19th century Swedish painter Anders Zorn. Zorn discovered that black contains a strong element of blue, so essentially the cooler colors can be achieved mixing black with other colors. The basic premise in using this palette is that one should use only as many colors as one needs. You’ll be surprised at the range of color that can be created using just these four colors and you’ll gain a better understanding and control over the mixing of color and creating color harmony within your painting. Although associated with learning to paint, utilizing a limited palette can also be viewed as a more advanced and sophisticated approach to painting.
There will be two one-day poses and one three day pose.