Join professional artist and tutor Karen Harman for a one-day workshop exploring the art of capturing real character in animals.

Animal Personality Portraits with Karen E Harman

Create Paintings with personality

Join professional artist and tutor, Karen Harman for a one-day workshop exploring the expressive potential of acrylic paints.

I will demonstrate techniques in translating the texture, form, and personality of animals onto canvas. Instead of getting bogged down in hyper-realism, the focus is on blocking in major shapes and painting with energy and spontaneity to produce a portrait full of life. With demonstrations and plenty of hands-on practice, you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve in just one day.

What You’ll Learn:

See in Simplified Shapes: Break down complex animal anatomy (ears, muzzles, eyes) into basic geometric forms

Master the "Dark-to-Light" Method: Build structural depth by blocking in deep shadow values first, preventing your painting from looking flat.

Paint with Directional Flow: Understand how to follow the natural growth patterns and contours of an animal’s coat to imply 3D volume.

Capture the "Spark of Life": Step-by-step techniques for capturing the true personality of the animal, including glassy eyes.

Mix Organic Color Palettes: Move away from "out-of-the-tube" blacks and whites to mix rich, warm structural tones, shadows, and highlights.

*Note: We will use a different reference image each time we run this workshop, so if you have been to a previous Capturing the Spirit workshop but fancy another day revcisiting the techniques and creating a new animal portrait, please come along!

Do I Need Experience?

It is suitable for any budding artist looking to level up their portrait painting technique, bring your curiosity and a willingness to experiment.

About the Tutor

Karen E Harman is a Yorkshire based artist, born and raised near Keighley. She has painted all her life and has a degree in Illustration. She also teaches BTEC Art at Shipley College. Her work spans murals (AKA Happyclanger), portraits, collage and digital illustration. However in the last two years she has concentrated on animal art, producing her trademark ‘side eye’ dog and cat portraits. She has exhibited at The Craft House, HEART cafe, Saltaire Festival, Ilkley Manor house and many other Yorkshire venues with the professional art group Aire Valley Arts.

What to Bring

All materials and tools are included in the price of the workshop. Please wear garments you don’t mind getting paint on.

Cost

£80 per person - includes materials and equipment use.

Description supplied by the event organiser.