Discover your creative side and join artist Christina Theobald every Monday in February from 10:30am-12pm at Alicia Ashman Library as she leads participants through this four-week exploration of acrylic paints, watercolors, brush techniques, and more. Classes build on skills learned in the one prior but they can also be taken individually, so come to one or come to them all. Space is limited to 10 participants in each class and registration is required; registration for ALL 4 classes will open on January 22 at 10am.
Week 1 [FULL]: Intro to Acrylic Paint - Mon, February 5
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brief discussion about primary colors, mixing colors
- make 3 small collages from solid color construction paper, each focusing on a specific color palette
- use these collages as a guide for three small paintings
Weekly goal: to be introduced to the materiality of acrylic paint, get familiar with mixing colors, building compositions based on shape and color relationships
Week 2 [FULL]: Brush Techniques, Layering Color - Mon, February 12
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continuing with acrylic paint
- experimenting with different brushes, brush applications to learn how to create textures, blending, sense of space
- make a new collage using construction paper, magazine cut outs to build a nature composition, make a painting based off of the collage
Weekly goal: to build off of color skills from previous week, learn how to layer color to create textural and spatial effects
Week 3: Intro to Watercolor - Mon, February 19
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brief overview of difference between acrylic and watercolor
- experimental time to try out skills from previous weeks, but with watercolor
- introduce incorporating chalk pastels with watercolor to add interest
- use flower photos as reference to create a mixed media replication
Weekly goal: to try applying the painting skills we've been learning into watercolor, tap into a playful spirit as we begin to combine different mediums into our pieces
Week 4 [FULL]: Mixed Media Still Life/Open Studio - Mon, February 26
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do a demo of different ways to approach working from a non-photo reference
- have a small, but colorful and simple-object still life set up for participants to work from
- try doing one or two different viewpoints, room to experiment with approach and combination of materials
Weekly goal: try working with 'real life' references, have an open-studio kind of vibe for the last day so that everyone has a chance to either try something new or work on a skill that they really liked