Introduction to Oil Painting

This 5 week class orients students to the materials and processes of oil painting through still life and master study subjects. Whether students have painting in acrylic, forayed into oil painting, or never painted before, this introductory class is a great place to start. We’ll begin with a focus on value and form, using a palette knife for careful color mixing, and breaking the subject down into light, medium, and dark shapes. From there students will move into observational still life painting and learn methods for capturing accurate proportions before exploring the subtle shifts in color temperature cast by light and shadow. Painting with a limited color palette will stretch students to see value and color relationships, practice brush control, and focus deeply on observation of subjects both from life and image references.