origami
Students create two origami forms to paint from observation. A successful composition considers placement, scale and color. Special attention is given to proportions and foreshortened planes of the origami forms. Observing how hue, value, and saturation are affected by a directional light source helps students create a sense of 3-dimensionality through layering watercolor paint. Students are encouraged to observe how values shift in deep folds, curved areas, creases, etc.
Food from observation
Students create a food still life setup to paint from observation. A successful composition considers placement, scale and color, with attention to proportions. Students create an illusion of volume by observing value structures and building up layers of color. Students also interpret surface quality/texture using watercolor painting techniques.
Landscape
Students conduct visual research for landscape paintings by gathering imagery, either photos they have taken or images found online. They observe how atmospheric perspective affects color, and create a strong sense of spatial depth where forms in the foreground, middle-ground, and background are rendered in diminishing detail and scale. Students explore mark-making techniques and layering to describe various textures and surfaces from their source image.
Portrait Project
A brief overview of facial proportions is provided to introduce students to rendering the face. Students gather good source images with strong directional lighting, and learn the diagonal technique to transfer their image onto paper. Students learn how to mix muted neutrals to create skin tones, capture value structures throughout the face through layering, and render various surface qualities (such as hair, glasses, clothing, etc.) to capture likeness and further develop their painting skills.
Acrylic Fruit
Students are introduced to acrylic painting through a series of exercises. For their first color painting, they observe fruit set on colored fabric. Students create an underpainting to study value structures and proportions, and learn how to mix acrylic paint to build up layers to create a sense of 3-dimensional form. Complimentary color mixing to alter hue, value, and saturation is emphasized, and students represent surface quality and texture through painting techniques.
Toy Painting
Students paint a toy from direct observation using acrylic. Still life setups with strong directional lighting are provided. Students continue to develop painting skills where attention to proportion, color mixing, and value structures is key. Additionally, students interpret various textures and/or surface qualities unique to their form.
Final Project
For their final project, students are provided a list of modern and contemporary figurative painters. Students create a portrait influenced by a painter of their choice. They choose three formal properties from that artist to incorporate into their painting, such as color palette, painting style, composition, lighting, etc. Paintings are at least 18”x24”and are developed over the course of the last several weeks of class.