This workshop will be a process and preliminary work focused class that will take place over the course of two weekends. The objective of the workshop will be the creation of preliminary work needed to execute a finished outdoor composition involving a clothed figure. Two Saturday afternoons will be spent out “in the field” working from a live model to create sketches, develop color studies, and gather reference images (photographs). Two Sunday afternoons will be spent working in-studio from the created reference materials to develop a well thought out, smaller scale, full-color composition. The goal by the end of the workshop will be for students to have on-hand the necessary preliminary work and knowledge to create a finished outdoor figurative composition back in their own studios.

Andy will contact the students closer to the time of the workshop to briefly go over the supply list and location for the outdoor portion of the workshop.

Dates: Saturday–Sunday, April 27–28 and Saturday–Sunday, May 4–5
Length: 4 days
Time: 1:00pm–5:00pm

Hybrid Class (Students may attend in-person or via Zoom.)

Do your pictures fall flat or look jumbled? Do you find it tricky to figure out what to put where? Sounds like you need pictorial composition tools! In this class we'll explore a variety of tools: the elements and principles of picture composition, visual hierarchy, intent, Notan and value design, and color. You'll learn by doing and experimenting with sketches. We'll also analyze pictures to see what tools the artists used and we'll break compositions to see what happens when pictorial elements are altered. And what's the big deal with tangents, anyway? Are they “bad”? There will be recommended homework.

If you'd like to learn more about the convenience and possibilities of digital tools like Photoshop, then this workshop is for you. Christine will teach you some of the essential digital skills she uses for her digital and traditional art making. Learn about different color modes for making art for print or on screen, “frankensteining” your reference, using a pencil drawing as a base for a digital painting, altering your sketch digitally to explore composition and value design, and drawing and painting digitally. We will not be using any AI/ML image generation tools. You will also be given suggestions to continue to practice on your own. About a week before the workshop, registrants will receive access to the workshop files.

The majority of our projects will be done using Photoshop. To avoid getting locked into a year-long Photoshop subscription, I recommend using the 7-day free trial of Photoshop for this workshop. We'll also look at alternatives to Photoshop that cost less.

Please direct questions to Christine.Mitzuk@TheAtelier.org

Some technical assistance will be available. The workshop does not include any software or hardware.

A 3-day workshop in which participants will have the opportunity to explore planning pictures that hold the viewer's attention.

This listing is for the lecture/demo only. See also: Composition for Visual Impact (Full Workshop)