Portrait painting with Eliza Bertwistle

Archibald Prize Finalist and Visual Art teacher - Eliza Bertwistle is presenting a portrait painting workshop for QATA

This workshop is designed to help educators enhance their drawing and painting skills through targeted observational exercises. Participants will learn to bypass the brain’s automatic reliance on symbolic shortcuts, allowing for more accurate and naturalistic portrait construction.

The session begins with guiding participants to sketch their portrait lines, angles, and proportions as they truly are. Educators will then practice precise colour matching by mixing skin and hair tones directly from reference images, strengthening their understanding of light, tone, and colour perception. By the end of the workshop, participants will have complete portraits of their chosen sitter. 

This workshop is ideal for art teachers seeking to refine their technical practice and gain practical, classroom-ready strategies for teaching observational portraiture. The workshop will be conducted in acrylic paint.

Eliza Bertwistle is a local Brisbane artist. She completed a BA in Fine Art, majoring in Painting at QCA in 2018 and is now a Visual Art teacher. She works predominantly as a muralist and oil painter. Eliza was a 2024 Archibald Prize finalist with her work Chanel Contos (smiling feminist) and in 2022 was also a finalist in the Brisbane Portrait Prize with her painting Alice. 

See more work by Eliza on Instagram @eliza.bertwistle.art

Provided within the fee:
Morning tea and lunch will be catered for. Please advise of any dietary requirements at checkout.
Paint and Easels will be provided.

Materials to bring:

• An A4-A3 sized primed canvas, 
• A range of brush sizes  
• An A3 laminated quality coloured reference photo of your intended portrait (chest/shoulders up) will be required. Consider contrast, colour, definition and proportion when selecting your photo. It is important to avoid camera distortion.
• Your apron