Recently at Atelier Artista

The start of the school year has me incredibly busy. I haven't forgotten about you dear readers of my blog. I have been drawing, painting, cleaning and teaching everyday as well. everyday. No days off, no rest for the wicked. Unless of course the wicked gets sick, which happened last weekend during Thanksgiving so that was my break, in bed then volunteering at the QAS Log drivers Waltz.  Heres a peek into a bit of what I've got going on.

At my last figure sessions I first did a painting I didn't like so I scraped it down, the following week I decided I was better off studying the form through darks and lights rather than sticky colour. Heres a few of the steps in drawing Neema last session on Wednesday night.

My classes are running every day of the week at Atelier Artista (atelierartista.com) Its not too late to join in if you'd like to take the remaining classes until the holidays let me know and come on down.

On Tuesday afternoons I have Colour in Theory and Practice. We finished values, temperature and colour mixing and are now venturing into understanding and using colour harmonies. 

On Wednesdays we do portrait drawing and painting and have begun the first stages of blocking in our self portraits.

Its all about the light and dark and beginning with a good likeness. Next comes colour and form enhancements.

On Thursdays We have classical drawing in the morning and are currently studying some of Bargues method.

In the afternoon on Thursdays, I give a lecture and demo in my "painting secrets of the masters" class.

On Fridays we study Anatomy and more in Full figure.  Ive worked out some theories on how to be both effective and efficient. After this class,  I head on up to Waldorf to teach teens. On the week-ends I have two classes at ACAD and on Sundays I often have samplers at Swintons. 

But wait.......there is more.... there is always more...

so keep your eyes on the prize  =:D

Episode 53 - More colour!!!

I uploaded another episode on my Youtube channel and its full of colour, have a look.

EPISODE 51 Colour Strings and Swatches

Colour theory final review.

We reached the end of my Colour theory for painters course at ACAD and I did a final class discussion and review to see what they remember and to build these crazy whiteboard notes based on their retention.

 Below are a few pics of some of the final projects etc.

NUPASTEL PORTRAIT PROJECT

Just uploaded my latest episode where I use a mateial new to me that I highly recommend trying out. watch it develop through the magic of time lapse photography.

A world of colour

Things are getting exciting in my colour theory class for painters. We began working with different colour schemes/harmonies such as monochromatic, analogous and complementary. The students mixed the colours they needed on their palettes then applied them to their various compositions.

Some really gorgeous colours are being developed and some nice colour work is being done on their test panels. I love colour and all the things that can be done with it.  Also I thought I'd mention I have a new video episode up on my Youtube channel, check out the colours from my trip to Japan and hear about the harmony and balance of the aesthetic I saw throughout my trip.

Tonight, I'm uploading the final episode (as it relates to my trip to Japan) so stay tuned for Episode 17 "Composition" where I show some of the Hiroshige prints I saw at the Suntory Art Museum in Tokyo.

More colour is better

We continued our exploration of the basic colours and their inherit values.

Here are my demo notes representing the primary and secondary tint/shades chart instruction and their relative layout placement.

I love the colours around this sample swatch.

Gorgeous greens.

Beautiful colour strings in arcs on each disposable palette paper. 

And the rest......as they say.......

is HOMEWORK!!!

Colour, who doesn't love it?!

As creative people artists are really drawn to colour. Candy  for your eyes.

I am teaching Colour Theory for Painters at ACAD this semester and it is really shaping up to be a great class.  It is so much fun, it seems like class time just disappears in the blink of an eye. Here is a peek as to what we have been up to in the past few classes, seeing all this colour may interest you, maybe this is a class you'll be interested in learning colour theory and taking this class with me in the future.

The glorious colour wheel. I assigned students a very limited palette in which to create the secondary and tertiary colours with.

Others opted for a different challenge and worked with warm and cool variations of each hue.

Or blending with transparency to create something that reminds me of the "spinning wheel of death" on my mac laptop.

The majority of work, insofar, is done on the palette and the notes are what are transferred in these swatches and diagrams.

I like how each students work space looks, the variation in tools and scattering of materials.

My demo area is just as chaotic. I do bag my oils in separate zip top bags per colour, but when its time to get creative, we all know, order goes out the window in the chaos of passion :D

Pigment!

I think one generality I can make about artists is that they all seem to love colour!

This week-end I received my intermediate Copic certification and the participants oohed and awed over the variety of colours. The same thing happens in many of my classes. Heck, I feel it when i pass by the paint swatches at home depot. I really, really love colour!

I went to Sunnyside Art Supply to watch Nick do a free oil paint making demo. I have made my own oil paints in the past based on reading I had done, just so that I know a bi more about my craft. But Nick has taken this passion to a whole nee level and stirred that passion in me. He demoed a variety of pigments ans techniques and let everyone try mulling.

The tools are fairly simple, the options and combinations for recipes nearly endless and the final product exquisite.

Here is a comparison on how the natural pigments from France and Italy differ. I am really interested in making more paints using a variety of ingredients and pigments from different sources.

Here is some of what they have at Swintons. The colour's are making me salivate. I am really looking forward to finishing off what I have, using the new Williamsburg and Shiva brand pigments I recently bought and rounding it off with some good old fashioned elbow grease made pigments.

Colour Theory class opportunity

I was asked to substitute teach a colour theory class. I imagine walking into a class much like a cold call. I dread it in many ways. It can be nerve racking. I know my stuff so all I can I hope is to liven up the room and make learning enjoyable, but you never know the dynamic of the group.

 This Monday night I got my chance to instruct a Colour Fundamentals course for another teacher who was away.  I had built  a curriculum for a similar course in the hops to teach it last fall, but it didn't run due to low enrollment. Now I got my chance and my fingers are crossed it went well.

 I think I offered a "colourful" FUN-damental class based on the outline and assignments I had to give. I managed to scrape together 3 corresponding slideshows for the monochrmatic, analogous and complementary colour scheme assignments.

I really like all the different set ups an materials they were experimenting with. And the chicken soup can reused and recycled for art. I also appreciated the bright colour true lighting in the colour fundamentals classroom.

Near the end of the class I offered additional notes on Plutchick's (colour) wheel of emotions and showed a video about colour and storytelling in cinema that is a real eye opening approach for any artist to understand the value and use of colour in motion pictures and how it can relate to their artwork. It was a great class and I hope to be able to offer some of the teachings again in the future.

I also wanted to share the beautiful colourful painting I saw created live at the latest Swinton's Demo night featuring artist Donna MacDonald. Its a cheap event to attend on a Friday night that I highly recommend. Her workshop is already full but who knows there may be another listed for the fall so keep your eyes peeled.

Another successful oil sampler Sunday at Swinton's

This Sunday I was lucky enough to have a full class of enthusiastic oil sampler participants at Swinton's Art Supply and Instruction. Dont forget to read my article on their website about the creative process here: http://www.swintonsart.com/blog-articles/item/the-creative-process

First I do a little overview of the materials, methods and general concepts. Followed by a colour mixing demo and then I let them get messy and feel the buttery creaminess that is oil paint. Check out their works made in a a short period of time we had in the class.

Now that was an impressive and effective sampler class. Every time I teach it seems to get better and better, just like every time you paint your paintings get better and better.

Practice, practice, practice.