When we hear people talk about plein-air painting, we often think of landscapes. However, painting the outdoor still life is an excellent way to study light and color. Students can learn a lot from this type of study as it is easier to see how light and color shifts occur on simple objects than on the more complicated forms in the landscape. Each day, exercises will be presented to help students achieve strong starts. The class focus will be on color, light effect, and value. Students will begin the first few sessions with very simple still-life setups that will become more complicated as the workshop progresses.

In this workshop, students will work short figure poses to master the quick figure study. Students will learn the value of decision making and how to prioritize those decisions. Working the quick pose will create the opportunity for students to make fast decisions, which will better prepare the student to make intelligent decisions when faced with a longer pose.

Ages 9 and Up

Start your child drawing at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Arts where they will learn methods for seeing and drawing with information our adult students learn! This program, specially designed for children, moves them through steps to learn how to draw realistically, starting with cartoon characters and progressing to more complex illustrations. This course can be continued just as our adult classes, with students working at their own pace to improve their skills. The use of markers, colored pencils, and paint will be introduced as well as working from a still life. LIMIT 6 children.

Materials: Please bring a sketchpad, a 2H drawing pencil, and a white plastic eraser to each class.

Life drawing is at the core of any serious program of fine arts. In these classes, students draw from the figure in pencil, charcoal, including an option of painting. Each drawing or painting is created over a period of sessions, developing the student’s eye for accurate gesture, proportions, and anatomy. With a single sustained pose, students will have the option of either taking one drawing/painting to a high degree of finish or completing several drawings from different positions around the model.

One-day still-life studies

This class will be focused on one-day oil studies of still lifes in color. The student will begin each class with a quick 20-minute sketch of the still life in paint. The remainder of the day will be focused on color mixing, application, and manipulation of paint on the canvas using brushes or palette knives. Each week will be a new still-life setup in order to study new textures, colors and shapes. Studies, especially done in color paint, are the basis of all finished works. This class attempts to give the student more confidence in applying paint to a surface, relieving the fear of making mistakes in paint by making those mistakes and then correcting them. Only through experimentation with application of paint on the canvas do we learn to create different effects. We will also focus on quick adjustments to value, color, and drawing with differing brushes and mixing color on the palette or directly on the canvas. Some experience in drawing is recommended as much of the class will be in paint application and not perfection of drawing skills. All levels are welcome! This class will not be focused on completing a refined, finished piece but for practice, exploration and fun! This class will use only oil paint and not other mediums. Email Cassandra Ronning at cassandra.ronning@gmail.com for questions and suggested supply list.

This new class was designed with your learning in mind. We will talk about all things figure drawing! Students will use graphite pencils to draw the figure. Lecture and demos will accompany drawing time to give the student a strong foundation from which to work. The class information will build systematically. For the first few classes, students will work from a new pose each night with emphasis on accurate proportion and a strong start. Poses will progressively lengthen from 2-4 nights as students learn to render the figure with a step-by-step approach. Topics covered will include gesture, structure, accurate shapes, perspective, and using light and shadow to render form.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast or still life in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. As students progress, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil and/or pastel techniques, composition and color.

Students begin by drawing a plaster cast or still life in charcoal, developing their ability to render accurate proportions and value relationships. As students progress, they are introduced to the fundamentals of oil and/or pastel techniques, composition and color.