Lin is a fully trained art teacher and has taught art at all levels from primary school to college and in adult edcation. You will be encouraged to ‘find your own style’ as we progress. The techniques will be broad-based so that you can experience many different approaches to design, colour and the way you use oils and and you will slowly develop your own style and technique. Each module will cover a specific technique / theme.
In oil painting this course is geared for beginners and so for a common starting point Lin is also teaching the basics of art and drawing alongside the introduction to oils. Even if you have drawn and painted extensively, others may feel uncertain about colour mixing etc. After the first few courses it will be easier to recognise what you really need, but it is always good to go back to basics. It gives a good opportunity to get started with oils which has a different approach to watercolours or any other medium.
We start with tone because we are able to use tone to introduce strong contrasts and experience how you can paint with white on top of black in oils. The first painting is done in grey-scale with just five tones, and this is then translated into colour. After this we will scarcely use black paint, preferring to mix beautiful coloured darks.
Below is a Notan, which you won’t have to create, but it demonstrates how that area can be seen as dark or light. It is a Japanese division of the patterns created by using only black and white. The initial project will help you explore the full tonal range of colours.
Our first few oil paintings will be a series of simple (unthreatening) still-lifes, on small prepared gesso boards.
In the first four sessions we will cover:
- Basic materials for oil painting
- Working at an easel
- Preparing a gesso board
- Methods of drawing accurately
- Drawing with a brush
- Understanding tonal contrast
- Mixing colours
- Painting and correcting
- Mediums used in oils