Acrylic Painting Fundamentals (5 Weeks)

Instructor: Robin Adair
Mondays 1-4pm
5 weeks: November 1 to 29
Location: Online
$200 (supplies not included)
Prerequisite: None

This 5 week course will explore a range of basic principles and techniques in painting through the lens of various stylistic periods in art history. Students will be introduced to techniques such as chiaroscuro, glazing, broken mark, impasto, and imprimatura, while exploring the art historical movements in which these techniques were utilized, including the baroque, impressionist, and fauvist periods. This class is for beginners who want an introduction to some of the basic fundamentals of painting, as well as more experienced painters who want to hone their craft in a supportive studio environment.

Syllabus

  • Grisaille study: Working on a toned ground with a limited colour palette to create lights and darks.
  • Fauvist study: establishing colour dynamics with warm and cool colours
  • Impressionist study: Mixing with secondary and tertiary colours; broken brush mark techniques.    
  • Baroque chiaroscuro study: Building thin layers of transparent colours and opaque tinting to create form and depth.
  • Impasto technique: experimenting with palette knives.

Supplies

  • Brushes: A variety of hog hair and/or synthetic acrylic brushes (ranging in size from 6-12). I recommend filberts, flats, and rounds.
  • Palette Knives: 3 palette knives (either plastic or metal). I recommend finding different sizes of the trowel (diamond shaped) blade. Many stores will carry assorted packages of plastic knives, which are also suitable.
  • Paint: Titanium White; Yellow Ochre; Burnt Siena; Burnt Umber; Mars Black; Cadmium Yellow; Lemon (or Hansa) Yellow; Cadmium Red; Quinacridone Crimson; Ultramarine Blue; and Cobalt Blue. Please note: the names given in this list are based on the ones used by Golden brand paints. If you buy other brands, you will find some variance in the way the names match the pigments. 
  • Paint Palette: A large palette (around 12x16 inches). You can purchase plastic, metal, or ceramic palettes at any local art store; or, you may use your resourcefulness –  i.e. an old plastic Tupperware tray will work just fine.  
  • White Gesso: 33 oz container.
  • Acrylic Gel Medium: As you will see, there is a wide range of gel mediums on the art store shelves. Most of the brands and types are suitable for this course. I recommend the Golden GAC (100 series) because it is one of the most versatile acrylic gel products available, and is suitable for the projects we will be doing in this course.
  • Cotton Rags.
  • Supports: For this course, we will be using paper supports. You may choose any of the cotton rag or cover stock brands of paper. I recommend white Stonehenge because it is a good quality paper that will serve as a sturdy support once it is gessoed. Two full sheets of Stonehenge (22”x30”) should be sufficient for our projects in this course. We will be dividing the full sheets into halves and quarters as we progress through the class. Note: If you already had experience with other kinds of supports (canvas, board, etc.) please feel free to use them in this course.