.  One day or multi-day workshops in a variety of subjects with this award winning certified art instructor.

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Mastercopy Painting -

This project is a centuries old tool to learn drawing skills, painting techniques and styles. You start by choosing a Master (famous artist). Choose an artist that you like and whose style of painting you would like to learn.  This project is suitable for advanced or beginning oil painters.

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Storybook Illustration or The Psychological Impact of Line, Shape, Illumination, Color and Placement: 

Improve the emotional impact of your work by learning to understand how to use the visual vocabulary of line, shape, illumination, color and placement within the picture plane. you will learn the fundamentals of page design and how to use line, shape, placement, illumination and composition to heighten the emotion of the most important moment in your story.  You may use your own story or a favorite story as the basis for your own pen & ink illustration.  We will incorporate the six rules for showing depth of space and rule of thirds. Learn to work from your original idea step by step through the planning process.  

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Oil Painting over Acrylic:

In this fun studio workshop we will begin by creating a loose patterned background using acrylic paint with stencils, stamps, collage and metallic paints to create a ground for a more realistic oil painting.  Bring photos to use as the resource for the oil painting or articles to use in a still life. Perfect for Intermediate and advanced painters.

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Making Space, One Point Perspective and the 10 Rules of Depth: 

Create a single one point perspective painting or a series of simple paintings employing all of the visual rules of depth of space from your own photographs. Perfect for intermediate and advanced painters in any media.

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Journal Your Life:

Our lives are always changing, unraveling, transforming.  How do we make sense of it, create our own order?  Creativity is not a luxury, it’s the essence of life.  How can we have perspective on what matters, deal with change without being overwhelmed, or recognize the long succession of small epiphanies?  By making art we can record what we are living through and what we are learning about it.  A drawing and a sentence or two in a sketchbook turns those everyday moments into something significant. Our sketchbook will set a frame around this period, or this place, in our lives  and give perspective in what really matters. A sketchbook is a visual record of how much we already have - Our real treasures. Perfect for any skill level.

 

The Loomis Method -Faster, Better Portrait Painting:  

Learn the standard proportions of the face and how to use the Loomis Method.  We will practice drawing heads from statues, mannikins and models in charcoal before beginning a final portrait of a family member in pastel for our final painting.   Experience with pastels recommended.

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Georgia O’Keeffe Watercolor Flowers :

“A flower is relatively small. Everyone has many associations with a flower - the idea of flowers. You put out your hand to touch the flower — lean forward to smell it — maybe touch it with your lips almost without thinking — or give it to someone to please them. Still — in a way — nobody sees a flower — really — it is so small — we haven't time — and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.. .So I said to myself — I'll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it — I will make even busy New-Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.. “ Georgia O’Keeffe.  

In this workshop we will apply the tools of composition to create a flower painting which engages the viewer into the world of the flower as we see it. If you already use watercolor, or it is new to you, this project is great fun and will improve your ability to create a finished artwork from a photograph. Sharpen your skills in transparent watercolor and in composition.  Starting from a photograph of a flower and manipulating it through planning to personalize it and create a strong composition.  Learn to use contrast, value, rule of thirds and a complementary color scheme.  You will learn to preserve whites, glaze with three values, work wet-in-wet and create a variety of textures. Some experience with watercolor recommended

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Composing a Successful Still Life:  

What makes a successful still life?  What should you photograph? How can you take your photograph and distill a strong composition from it. Tips and tricks to strengthen your idea, take that idea and personalize it and transform it into a painting,   Learn to arrange and light a group of personal objects to create interest. Use value, rule of thirds, contrast and a viewfinder to distill your arrangement into a successful composition. Learn to use a limited color palette,  warm/cool variation and color placement to create a more harmonic final painting.   Some experience with oil or watercolor painting recommended.

 

 The 6 essential expressions common to every human culture:

One of the most challenging aspects of portrait drawing is expression.  A happy face looks very different from a sad face.  In this class we will learn to recognize and reproduce the six universally recognized emotions: happy, sad, angry, fearful, surprised and disgusted.  We will study how the facial muscles interact and practice with a mirror and camera before drawing one example of each expression.

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All groups should have a minimum of 8 participants and must be booked well in advance.  Please contact me for a price quote and availability for each course.