Acrylic Painting III: From Inspiration to Practice

Instructor:  Robin Adair
Fridays 5:30-8:30pm
10 weeks: February 7 to April 11
Location: Online
$387.50 (supplies not included)
Prerequisite: Students are required to have taken at least one Acrylic Painting 1 and one Acrylic Painting 2 from any instructor in the program; and, have a well-developed familiarity with the acrylic medium. If you are unsure whether you have the appropriate prerequisites and/or experience for this course, please contact the instructor, and he will respond on a case-by-case basis.

This course is designed to help individual artists hone their technical skills in the acrylic medium, as well as create habits and strategies for developing a personal artistic practice. The instructor will help students individualize their trajectory based on specific goals, desired subject matter, and artistic sensibilities. Each class will offer exercises to help students navigate some of the fears and challenges inherent to the creative process. In addition, there will be time set aside for students to give constructive feedback on the work of fellow students.

Note: Due to the individualized nature of this course, class enrolment will be limited to 8. 

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Syllabus

• Week 1: Introductions; Discussion about tools and supplies, and the trajectory of the course; Warm-up exercises
• Week 2: Discussion: Choosing Subject matter; Skill development: paint mixing and building an individualized palette
• Week 3: Skill development: building confidence with brush handling and mark making; individual work
• Week 4: Individual work; class critique
• Week 5: Skill development: translating from photo reference, creating a composite from multiple references
• Week 6: Skill development: Mixing and utilizing glazes effectively; Individual work
• Week 7: Individual work; class critique
• Week 8: Discussion: understanding one’s artistic practice as a “body of work”; Individual work
• Week 9: Individual work
• Week 10: Individual work; wrap-up critique and discussion

Supplies

Below is a suggested list of materials. Keeping in mind the customized nature of this course, students may bring supplies already owned to the first class. The instructor will discuss alternate or additional tools and materials for each student, depending on individual needs and goals.

• Brushes: a variety of acrylic brushes, either synthetic or hog hair bristles 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
• Paint: whatever colours you already own. I recommend the following pigments and 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
  • Titanium White
  • Cadmium Yellow Medium
  • Primary Yellow (or Hansa Yellow Light)
  • Cadmium Red Medium
  • Quinacridone Crimson
  • Quinacridone Magenta
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Cyan blue
  • Pthalo Blue (Green shade)
  • Cobalt Blue
• Paint palette: a large palette, around 12" x 16", 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. I will also teach you how to make your own wet palette. For this you will need paper towel, parchment paper, and bulldog clips
• 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 a regular soft gel, either matte or gloss, or the Golden GAC (100 series). Either of these are versatile acrylic gel products and are suitable for the projects we will be doing in this course
• Cotton rags
• Supports: feel free to use whatever support  (canvas, board, paper etc.) you have experience with.