Course Description Acrylic paints are made by suspending pigment (or color) in synthetic polymer emulsified by water. They are basically plastic, water-soluble paints that have good adhesive qualities, and are very stable. They don't oxidize, decompose or turn yellow over time.
Come join us on a painting journey! This class is a lot of fun and is geared for beginners and artists alike.
Can't draw? Well don't feel badly, I can't either. So you have a nice photo and you want to paint it; how do you get it on the canvas or whatever you're going to paint on? There are those little machines that have the light bulb in them that you put a pattern under and it enlarges things. Do they work? Yes, but it's hard to work with because the projected image is very faint unless you're in the dark and then how do you work when you can't see anything and you're always in front of the image. If you have Windows XP, the printing wizard will print different sizes up to a page size. If you have Paint Shop Pro or similar programs you can set the print size but what if your printer won't print anything but regular page sizes? Luckily, there are poster printing software programs that are really cheap that will print out photographs on several sheets of paper and then you tape them together, lay it on the piece you want to paint and trace in the details where you want them. How does that work? BEAUTIFULLY!
I can't emphasize enough that you must really learn to "see" how things are put together. How to colors and patterns blend in with other colors so they look like they are all one. Being a good artist means looking at things in a different way. It means that you no longer see an object as a whole but are capable of seeing all the subtle things that go into making that object a whole and actually that's a beautiful thing to do. You will find nature opening up right before your eyes as you see flowers and trees, bees and everything else with all their myriad parts instead of just taking for granted that they are what they are. If you can't see it, you can't paint it, so practice, practice, practice looking at everything with the mind set of seeing what makes it what it is and how's it put together.
This class takes you through step by step the process of painting beautiful acrylic landscapes.
Patterns are provided for you to trace onto the painting background you wish to use. Easy to follow guidelines begin with tracing the pattern and guide you progressively through each step to the complete painting.
This is a 6 week, self-paced, online course. If you need additional help understanding the material presented, you can communicate with the instructor and fellow classmates. The instructor will monitor and track your progress throughout the class. LVS Online offers many wonderful learning tools to help you get the most out of your online course, including an online portfolio service that manages all your course registrations, certificate of completion option, a class discussion board to interact with your instructor and fellow classmates, free hosting account, and a student upload area.
LVS is a Corel Training Partner. LVS students may purchase Corel products at a significant savings. Follow this link for details.
LVS students are also eligible take advantage of special offers made available by famous software developers such as Andromeda, AV Bros, Extensis, Harry Heim, namesuppressed, Nik Multimedia, and Ulead. Details are provided in the classinfo link found in the confirmation of registration.
If you would like to receive more information regarding this course, click on the "Contact Us" link in the Information section and we'll try to answer any of your questions within the day.
Course Requirements Although this course is written for traditional paint on canvas instruction, digital artists are welcome to join us. Former students have taken the class and adapted the techniques taught to their digital paintings. Please be advised that you must know your program, as no advice as to the use of any digital program can be given, only the techniques used in the creation of the painting.
Homework must be reviewed by the instructor in order to earn a certificate. Students have the option of using the Student Upload Area or free web hosting made available for LVS students. Details are provided in the classroom.
If you prefer to use your own web space, you must know how to upload your files to a server. Free tutorials are available: Basic HTML page
WS_FTP
SmartFTP Students should have working knowledge of their operating system: Free Windows Class Here
Directory Structure Tutorial Here Zip files may be necessary to complete the exercises provided each week. WinZip, PKZip, Windows Compression or similar program is required to unzip these files. Winzip Tutorial Here
Windows Compression
Supplies: I am providing a list of supplies that you will need. You can probably get them from your local art supply store but I will give you online links to art supply sites that I have been happy with. What to paint on? The patterns supplied are sized 8 x 10. You can use stretched canvas, canvas boards or even if you want to start out very inexpensively canvas paper pads. Brushes: An absolute must for this class are rake or comb brushes and detail brushes. If you are going to a local store to buy your brushes, see if you can find two types of the rake or comb. These brushes look like this:
You can see that they look uneven and a little raggedy on the ends. Some are more "toothy" than others. You need at least one as "toothy" as you can get it to get some real fur detail. You should try and get a set of rakes, at least 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 inch. You will need several detail brushes that make into a fine point. There is nothing more annoying that trying to do very fine detail, like whiskers with a brush that won't hold a nice sharp point. You will also probably need a set of filberts for shading and putting in background, starting at at least 1 inch down. Other than the detail and the rakes you can use whatever you are comfortable with. Many of the local stores as well as the online stores have brush sets that are very reasonable. For acrylic work, you can use natural or synthetic bristles, but the natural bristle do not hold up as well with acrylic paint. You will also need transfer (tracing paper) to put the patterns on whatever you've chosen to paint on. You can use regular carbon but it makes a horrible mess. Art stores have artist transfer paper in many colors, but just get black for now. A cheap plastic palette is nice. You can just scrap off the dried paint but in a pinch just use some wax paper. If you plan on keeping your artwork or hanging it you should have a varnish fixative. I personally like Grumbacher or Blair spray varnish for acrylics. It comes in matte or gloss. Both are excellent and make the colors very vibrant. Now for paint. There is a big controversy that you must use the top quality, most expensive paint on the market. Well, that's nice but, just starting out you don't need to spend a lot of money. The cheapest paint I have found is not worth buying. It's hard to work with and the colors are not so bright and vivid. Personally, I like Folk Art (they also have artist's quality pigments), Americana, Ceramcoat. I will give you a list of the paint that I used to create these lessons. You do not need to use these exact colors. If you want to try to conserve and just want to buy one green and dilute it with white to make the medium and light colors, that's fine too, but here's what you'll need to complete these paintings.
White Black Dark Gray Light Gray Medium Gray Blues:
Ceramcoat Ocean Reef Blue
BlueGray Blue (Ceramcoat Cape Cod Blue)
Light blue (Americana Baby Blue)
Medium blue (Folk Art True Blue), Phalo Blue, Ceramcoat Azure Blue, Turquoise (Ceramcoat Turquoise) Greens:
Dark green (Ceramcoat Dk Foliage Green), (Ceramcoat Forest Green)
Medium green (Ceramcoat Foliage Green)
Light green (Ceramcoat Light Foliage Green)
Yellow green (Americana Citron Green)
Bright green (Ceramcoat Jubilee Green)
Silver Green (Americana Silver Sage Green) Aqua (Folk Art Aqua)
Black Green
Gray Green (Ceramcoat Eucalyptus) Browns:
Tan: (Americana Khaki Tan)
Beige: (Folk Art Parchment)
Beige: (Folk Art Linen),( Ceramcoat, Territorial Beige)
Dark Brown: (Americana Dark Umber), (Ceramcoat Dark Burnt Umber)
Medium Brown: Burnt Sienna, (Americana Sable Brown)
Golden Brown: (American Honey Brown)
Terra Cotta
Cinnamon Brown
- Yellow: (Ceramcoat Luscious Lemon)
Gold: (Ceramcoat Antique Gold)
Honey Gold
- Pink
- Bright Red
- Dark Red
- Burnt Carmine
- Lilac
- Lavender
- Dark Purple
- Bright Orange
Online art supply:
The following are places that I deal with and have had very good results. The prices are good, service is great and shipping is fast. These are by no means the ONLY online art supply stores and neither I or LVS can guarantee any transactions with these companies.
www.artistsclub.com
They have very reasonable rake and comb brush sets called Papillon. They also have interesting specialty brush sets, and transfer paper. They also have a paint set called Reeves. I have never used this paint so I cannot tell you anything about it but you might want to look at it.
www.aswexpress.com
www.jerrysartarama.com
These are basically both the same company. They have extensive supplies and are a great source of canvas. Their Creative Mark stretched canvas is very nice, stapled in the back, good quality and the lowest prices I have found, but you have to buy a minimum of 2 boxes. They also have a variety of canvas boards and panels and also canvas paper pads. They also carry the spray fixative and lots and lots of brushes and other goodies. Their shipping has always been super fast.
www.craftsetc.com
They have the lowest prices I have found for paint, usually around .89 to .99 cents a bottle.
www.dickblick.com
Large selection of art supplies.
cheapjoes.com
Good prices on stretched canvas
Plan to devote approximately 3 - 4 hrs per week on the lesson and assignment.
Course Prerequisites None
Course Syllabus Lesson 1 - Winter House
- Simple landscape, house and trees and lots of snow
Lesson 2 - Oriental Tea House
- Beautiful landscape of teahouse and lot of colorful foliage
Lesson 3 - Lighthouse Point
- Magnificent lighthouse sitting on a rocky point with ocean view
Lesson 4 - Autumn Millhouse
- Dazzlingly brilliant millhouse with small waterfall, pond and lots and lots of colorful foliage
Lesson 5 - Purple Mountains
- Snowy mountains and a breathtaking icy aqua lake
Lesson 6 - Forest Waterfall
- Waterfall and pond deep in the forest surrounded by trees
Course Excerpt Lesson 1
STEP 1: If you havent already downloaded the pattern for this lovely winter scene, do so now and trace the pattern onto whatever you have decided to paint on.
Not every detail is put in the pattern; but indications of where things stop and start.
STEP 2: Sky
Using the Medium blue, scuff in the sky. Dont worry if it is not uniform in color.
STEP 3: Ground area
Using Baby Blue, a little Med Blue, unevenly scrub in the ground area. Using white, make splotchy white patches here and there.
STEP 4: House and fence
You can use a flat brush loaded with cinnamon brown on one side and dark brown on the other which would make the board shadings, or you can stroke in each board with the cinnamon brown and go back with a small detail or liner brush with dark brown for the shading under each board. When you stroke in the boards, dont worry if its not a consistent color all the way across the board, as wood is not the same color overall.
Using a small brush with white irregularly dob white snow on top of the fence posts, top of the fence boards, side of the roof. Take a little blue and white and tap snow on the side of the roof that shows.
Use the dark brown under the roof edge and a thin line across the roof top. Outline the windows in the dark brown.
Use a thin wash of white and put it inside the window panes so its not a solid color but gives the impression of glass.
The fence posts were made with dark brown with a little circle at the top using a small round brush. Do the same with the fence boards. Paint the back fence in the same manner.
STEP 5: Background Trees
Pull dark brown trunks and branches with a liner or small detail brush. Using pink, golden brown and a little white, tap in foliage to the far trees. There is really not much definition to the leaves as they are far in the background so just tap in dobs of color letting some of the trunks, branches and background show through.
Continued...
Please note: Lessons provide step-by-step instructions with detailed screen captures.
Course Goals By the time you finish with the class you should be able to apply the painting principles to anything you want to paint. Each lesson adds new elements and challenges.
Course Reviews New class September 2007
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