Image: Art Renewal Center, Port Reading
Art Renewal Center has highlighted a new interview on Skill-Based Art with Emilio Longo, founder and director of the learning resource for art students and artist-teachers. The conversation, titled 'The Training of Representational Visual Artists Today: Focus on Portraiture,' was conducted by Melbourne painter Irene Crusca and is presented as part of research for her Sir James Gobbo Italian Australian Foundation Fellowship project, 'Viva L'Atelier: Reviving the Classic Tradition of Portraiture.' According to the interview text, the fellowship program is delivered in partnership with the International Specialised Skills Institute to support traditional Italian artisan and restoration skills.
The interview focuses on Longo’s views on what representational artists need in order to develop portraiture skills. He stresses patience, humility and sustained practice, and describes the pursuit of craft as a necessary foundation before the creation of finished art. In his account, training begins with drawing from flat sources such as engravings and master drawings, moves to drawing from the round through plaster cast study, and then progresses to working from the live model in long-pose sessions. The piece also notes his emphasis on live observation, controlled lighting and repeated studies as part of the process.
Longo also discusses the role of anatomy, morphology and art history in building a portrait painter’s skill set. He says that studying the skull, cartilage and muscles helps artists understand how the face is structured beneath the skin, while attention to the history of portraiture broadens technical understanding. The interview text describes his view that students should learn from a range of historical portrait methods, including direct 'wet-in-wet' painting and indirect methods, and that master copies can help artists examine technique.
A recurring theme is the place of skill-based education outside mainstream tertiary art programs. Longo argues that ateliers, studios and private colleges often provide the kind of training he considers essential, while universities and TAFEs may emphasize conceptual approaches instead. In the interview, he says that skill-based work is labour intensive and difficult to fit into accredited programs, but maintains that students should at least have access to elective courses introducing traditional studio practice. He characterizes the absence of such training from tertiary curricula as a disadvantage for students who want access to representational techniques without having to travel internationally.
The interview also addresses the practical challenge of portrait commissions when sitters have limited time. Longo recommends focusing first on linear and tonal drawing and on key light effects such as core shadow, reflected light and highlight, then using written notes, supplementary studies and, where necessary, photography as a reference tool rather than a substitute for working from life. The text presents photography as useful only when it supports, rather than replaces, direct observation.
In one of the interview’s more concrete recommendations, Longo says students should spend years drawing before moving too quickly into painting, and he estimates that consistent full-time practice over three to five years can produce admirable results, with 10 to 15 years needed for higher efficiency and mastery. The interview closes by returning to the long-term nature of realist portrait training and to the value he places on traditional academic methods in drawing, painting and sculpture.
