'Portrait Artist of the Week' returns every Sunday

A reminder that Portrait Artist of the Week returns tomorrow - and every Sunday until 13th December 2020 - basically for the duration of Series 7 of Portrait Artist of the Week.

If it's anything like it was in May this year - when it became extremely popular - the show will work as follows

10 Key Facts

1. This live streaming event is accessible by EVERYBODY! 
• It doesn't matter where you live and/or whether you are in lockdown 
• because it's accessible via Facebook Live Streaming 
• which means you can watch and join in no matter which country you live in.
2. Find the Live Stream on Sunday on this link https://www.facebook.com/skytv/live
3. The painter will vary every week but is generally somebody who has done well in the Portrait Artist of the Year series
4. The Live Stream starts at 10am and finishes at 2pm (UK time) every Sunday - between 18th October – 13th December 2020. In theory 4 hours but less in reality. 
• If you want to check what time it is for you elsewhere in the world use the website below to check what time this is in another time zone. 
• https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
• You can however watch the live stream as a video after the event as well - it's just not interactive.
5. To join the conversation, ask the judges questions or give feedback 
• comment on the facebook live feed 
• or use #PAOTW
6. To show Sky Arts and the Judges your work use #myPAOTW
7. If you want to join in post your artwork on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #myPAOTW.
8. The deadline for entries is 2pm on the following Friday
9. Check the terms and conditions before posting. You may be fine with them - or you may not like them - but you won't know if you don't read them!
10. The Judges will then choose which artists work they like the best in the show in the following week.

Always wanted to paint a live celebrity sitter like our participants on Portrait Artist of the Year? This is your chance! Every Sunday join thousands of fellow artists around the world for a day of creating. Each week a different celebrity sitter will be beamed live straight into your home along with one of our amazing PAOTY artists who will be painting along.

Below is a repeat of the tips I suggested after watching the very first live stream. 

Compilation of viewer images of Bernardine Evaristo
author of Girl, Woman, Other which won the Booker Prize in 2019

Tips for Portrait Artist of the Week

Here are my TIPS

• Have all your kit set up and ready to go before 10am.  That way you can actually listen to Joan explaining how it's all going to work rather than scurrying round finding what you need! ;)
• Take a screendump - or several - of the sitter near the beginning. If you lose the view of the sitter you can then keep going from your screendump.  What I did was:
• have the Live Stream running full screen on my 27" iMac screen
• photographed the screen with my iPhone and then had the screen dump pic sitting in front of me on my iPhone. Or you could use a tablet to do the same thing. Basically two screens work better than one.
• the reason for this is that the programme makers, sitter or artist may encounter technical difficulties or the programme will divert to showing us other things while both artist and sitter enjoy a break.
• You DO NOT have to 
• paint - you can also draw in any media - and lots of people did. Take a cue from the Artist of the Year programmes - if it's a medium which can produce a 2D artwork then you can use it. 
• keep going for the whole four hours. If you finish sooner then call it done. I finished at 1pm last week after finishing earlier and then walking away to make a cup of tea before coming back and doing some final tweaks. 
• submit your artwork if you don't want to - either on the day or later in the week. It's entirely up to you what you do in terms of submitting your work

• To take a photo to post: Make sure you get your artwork in good natural light and parallel to your lens before you take a photograph
• You MUST use the hashtag and submit as stipulated in the programme and on the Facebook Page if you want your artwork to be viewed by the Judges

You might also want to have a read of the blog posts I wrote arising out of Portrait Artist of the Week earlier this year.

• Portrait Artist of the Week - starts today 10am
• Sunday morning is portrait painting time!
• What makes a good portrait and the importance of the artist-sitter relationship