Hello and welcome
Please bear in mind that during this video and some others I may mention the 5 day free course (which this course was in summer 2022) and a Facebook group that was purely open for a week or so and is now closed. I will be re-recording this introduction and adding or iterating content. You have lifetime access to this course and any changes made in the future.
My aim is to make this a place you can return to for inspiration whenever you need it.
You could do this course intensively across 5 days but realistically it would take longer if you actually investigate every aspect fully.
If you've been feeling stuck this course will help you become unstuck. If you're new to acrylics then this will be a good course to start experimenting with. For those of you who are more experienced, I hope that this will be fun for you and that perhaps new ideas and perspectives will enter your practice.
Every time you create you're nearer the artist you dream of being, but you are an artist right now. The way you paint is the way only you paint, no matter what stage you are at.
We're always improving whenever we draw and paint, even if - and this happens often - it feels like we are going backwards, because making ugly work is essential to learning. How else will we know what feels right to us unless we try it?
This is about you discovering how you like to work and what you like working on. I don't mean forever, I mean now, and in the immediate future.
My aim is to make this a place you can return to for inspiration whenever you need it.
You could do this course intensively across 5 days but realistically it would take longer if you actually investigate every aspect fully.
If you've been feeling stuck this course will help you become unstuck. If you're new to acrylics then this will be a good course to start experimenting with. For those of you who are more experienced, I hope that this will be fun for you and that perhaps new ideas and perspectives will enter your practice.
Every time you create you're nearer the artist you dream of being, but you are an artist right now. The way you paint is the way only you paint, no matter what stage you are at.
We're always improving whenever we draw and paint, even if - and this happens often - it feels like we are going backwards, because making ugly work is essential to learning. How else will we know what feels right to us unless we try it?
This is about you discovering how you like to work and what you like working on. I don't mean forever, I mean now, and in the immediate future.
Materials you might need:
Gesso - white ( black if you already have it* )
Acrylic paints - if you want to paint on a large scale I suggest System 3 paints which are student quality but good and relatively good value ( for 500mls they are about £8-£11 depending on where you buy them). Use what you have as ultimately we are going to be using one blue, one red, one yellow and a dark colour. You can of course use other colours you have already.
Cadmium yellow Lemon Yellow Yellow Ochre Cerulean Blue Ultramarine Blue Cobalt Blue Pthalo Blue Alizarin Crimson/ Crimson Cadmium Red Magenta White Burnt Umber Paynes Grey Burnt Sienna Black*
Any colours you LOVE
Oh and some sort of medium - like gloss medium or matt - you could mix both and if you're an acrylic painter you will have this already I expect?!
*I have black gesso which I'll be using as a base for one exercise, but you could try a small example with black acrylic over primed paper
A1 cartridge paper - 300gsm - probably about 5 to 10 sheets would be plenty - less if you're cutting them down to A2
Watercolour paper - heavyweight if not stretching - if stretching can be thinner - a few sheets to make experimental paintings on
A3 sketch pad (or use sheets of paper)
A journal and pen
Brushes and miscellaneous tools - what can you find around your home that you could paint with that isn't a brush?
I've received a great recommendation for a masking tape - thank you Richard:) I'll buy that myself.
"After trying several types I now always use a blue coloured painter's masking tape from Toolstation.It does an excellent job, as it has a medium to light tack, so it will adhere strongly enough, yet doesn’t damage the surface below when removing, nor leave a sticky residue behind.
It comes in 25mm width at £2.54, or 50mm width at just £5.04.
The link here should take you to the 50mm version.
https://www.toolstation.com/professional-uv-resistant-14-day-masking-tape/p74506
In this short course, I'm doing exercises that involve still life as a subject because it's accessible and full of variety but those of you who just aren't interested in that can interpret everything in your own way; you might like to use self-portraiture or views of your garden; it's entirely up to you. Total abstraction possibly doesn't lend itself to everything but drawing, for example, helps all art practice.
What would excite you to get really stuck into if there were no pressure to earn, no one to worry about feeding and nowhere you had to be?
Let's discover that.
The next lesson is simply a video on how to stretch watercolour paper - skip that if you already know how :)