Introduction to Oil Painting
Four-Session Workshop: November 7, 14, 28 and December 5
9 am – 4 pm, with a lunch break
Members: $295
Non-Members: $305
Instructor: Corey Garman
Class Description
This workshop is all about the basics: the foundations of a successful start in oil painting. You’ll learn about underpainting, thin to thick and dark to light, as well as the basics of color mixing and composition. If you want to start out right or start over on the correct path, this is the workshop for you. With a solid understanding of the basics you can paint anything you want!
Day One – In the morning we’ll have a discussion of materials and tools used in oil painting and make a tone chart. After lunch we’ll discuss shadows, half-tones and reflected light, then you’ll create a simple tone painting using the key concepts of underpainting, thin to thick and dark to light.
Day Two – You’ll make your own color wheel using your own paints. This, along with your tone chart, will be used in the next two classes. We will discuss the three components of color: Hue, Value and Chroma. You’ll learn to mix secondary and tertiary colors and how to lighten, darken and modify color. In the afternoon you’ll complete a simple, full color still life of a single fruit.
Day Three – We’ll discuss what makes a good composition and the key elements of a good oil painting. We’ll discuss negative spaces, the importance of shadows and how to sharpen your powers of observation. Today you will start the underpainting for a full color, still life painting that you will complete on day four.
Day Four – This day will be all about combining previously learned skills and finishing your still life painting.
Materials List
- Canvas panels (12-pack on Amazon is $12.99)
- Disposable gray scale palette (9 x 12, 50 sheets, on Amazon for $12)
- #2, #4, #6 flat brushes (Blick Scholastic Golden Taklon set of 6, $12.37)
- Palette knife (offset, 2-1/8 x 5/8, approx. $6)
- Gamsol 8 oz (approx. $12)
- Galkyd (optional)
- Blue shop towels/old rags
- Two small lidded jars for solvents and/or mediums
Paint:
- Titanium White
- French Ultramarine
- Winsor Red (Cadmium free red medium, or equivalent)
- Winsor Yellow (Cadmium free yellow light, or equivalent)
- Burnt Sienna
Notes:
- I priced individual 37ml tubes of Winsor & Newton on the Dick Blick site and they can be up to $62. Please don’t handicap yourself by using old, crusty paint or hobby store paint. Try Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, Utrecht, or Rembrandt.
- Don’t spend too much on brushes just yet… but don’t spend too little! I found a set of 12 on the Dick Blick site for $16.80 that will work for now.
- If you have some things that you think might work but aren’t exactly the materials listed, just email me (cleegarman@gmail.com) and I’ll let you know if they’ll help or hinder.
About the Instructor – Corey Garman
Corey Garman has been painting professionally for over 20 years, with an emphasis on landscape and wildlife. She teaches drawing, studio oil painting, and plein air painting. Corey is passionate about the Western landscape and travels frequently to gather ideas and inspiration. Recently she took her paints along on a rafting journey down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Her work has been displayed at the annual Cowgirl Up! Exhibition at the Sigler Museum, and at various juried and invitational shows including the Women Artists of the West National Show at the Phippen Museum, the Mountain Oyster Show in Tucson and the upcoming Tales of the West Invitational at the Wildside Gallery at the Phoenix Zoo. Corey also heads up the Wickenburg Plein Air Painters, a regional group of outdoor painters that gathers twice a month to paint at various locations in and around Wickenburg.
Member of: Oil Painters of America, Women Artists of the West, Arizona Plein Air Painters and California Art Club-Out of State Artist. www.coreygarman.com