Painting with Bravura in Acrylics: Color, Composition, and Creativity
Location: Scottsdale Location
Room: TBA
Jan 11-15, 2010
Meets 9:00 AM-4:00 PM
on Mon Tue Wed Th Fri
Tuition: $585.00
Level: BEG-INT
Status: This program is completed
Explore the magic of this medium approaching a variety of subject matter using a variety of different techniques. Beginning transparently on paper, we’ll work our way up to painting opaquely on canvas. As we journey, we’ll have adventurous discoveries with intriguing textures, creating personal symbols, and exploring color
harmonies. We’ll layer transparent washes for subtlety, and we’ll use saturated flat color for drama. We’ll experiment one day with painting on colored gesso for unexpected and surprising results. Spontaneous starts with realistic finishes will enhance your understanding of the versatility of acrylics. Demonstrations by the Instructor and personal attention. Class critiques. Please bring one painting that represents your current style and subject matter. Participants must have some experience with painting and drawing before taking this workshop.
Instructor -- Betsy Dillard Stroud
Betsy Dillard Stroud, AWS D. F. NWS, is a nationally acclaimed artist with signatures in many prestigious organizations, including the National Watercolor Society and the American Watercolor Society in which she is also a Dolphin Fellow. An active and popular workshop instructor since 1987, Stroud has taught nationally and internationally and has judged over fifty international, national, regional, and state exhibitions. Stroud is also the author of the books: Painting from the Inside Out and The Artists Muse: Unlock the Door to Your Creativity.
- Please bring the right materials. When you use cheaper paint (like decorative paint,) hardware store brushes, and the like, your painting suffers. If you are new to acrylics, invest in at least the recommended pigments I request. You won’t be sorry.
- 2 sheets of paper for four days. Cold press and Hot press both. 140 lb. will do.
- One canvas (size depends on you. Not smaller than 12 x 16 and not larger than 18 x 24
- Brushes: a good 2” or 3” brush to use as a wash brush. I recommend the Golden Fleece by Cheap Joe and the Robert Simmons “Big Daddy” brush. You’ll need a variety of sizes in both round and flat. I like Grumbacher brushes, Winsor Newton Scepter brushes, and Savoir Faire’s Kaerelle brushes. I do not recommend using your good watercolor brushes. Acrylic will ruin them.
- A good palette. I use a butcher’s tray. It cleans easily with Windex and Comet and Murphy’s Oil Soap. Please bring a small bottle of Windex or Comet with you.
- A support for your paper. I suggest Foamular, which you can buy at Home Depot. It’s cheap and light as a feather. You can get at least four boards out of one sheet. It costs about ten dollars a sheet. Otherwise, bring gator board or thick foam core that won’t warp. Have it cut to this dimension: 31 x 23.
- Two big water containers (plastic) no tiny margarine cups.
- 2 B Pencils, water-soluble pencils, water soluble crayons
- Pigments: Mandatory palette of at least three fluid pigments. I recommend Golden’s: Napthol Red medium; (or quinacridone crimson); Ultramarine Blue or Phthalo Blue; and Quinacridone Nickel Azo Yellow or Indian Yellow as a start. I will be using other pigments. The pigments that I use are: Phthalo Turquoise; Dioxazine Purple; Quinacridone Magenta; Quinacridone Burnt Orange; Anthraquanoid Blue; Phthalo Green. Bring what you can and what you can afford.
- We will also use tube acrylics: Recommended pigments to match the fluids you bring. Other pigments that I use are: flesh tint or portrait pink to mix with greens and blues to make gray. A good gray pigment; cadmium orange; cadmium red light; ivory black; Indian Yellow; You may also want to get a tube white. Titanium White is opaque.
- Fluid Black Gesso
- Fluid White Gesso (I often use this as a substitute for white paint.)
- Fluid Matte Medium
- Some small Lean Cuisine or other containers to mix gesso and other things in.
- Photographs of subjects you like to paint.
- A few still life objects that are intriguing. For example, an interesting drapery or cloth; bottles, vases, ribbons, figurines, etc. Hats…….
- A few pieces of collage paper, your choice.
- A newspaper
- A soft linoleum stamp (Speedball, Daniel Smith, or Stadler) with a linoleum cutter.
- Notebook to write in.
- Drafting tape. Masking tape tears your paper.
- Leave your worries behind with your designer shoes, and we’ll have a ball.