SYLLABUS FOR INTERMEDIATE OILS Summer Quarter, Wednesdays 2009 June 24 th August 26 th (7-10pm) Room 318, 1010 Westwood Center Instructor: Lia Halloran, lia@liahalloran.com Course Description: This course provides an investigation into the many technical possibilities of working with oil paints, emphasizing the importance of creativity and personal expression. Students work from classroom setups and create their own setups at home. Painting techniques covered include blending, textural underpainting, glazing, and transparency. Instruction broadens the student's vocabulary of techniques and materials and assists in developing the direction for expressive possibilities. Prerequisite: X 5C Beginning Painting: Oils or consent of instructor. Enrollment limited. Materials list sent upon enrollment. This course will build on student s prior knowledge and experiences with painting and help to develop a more critical dialogue around studio work through an awareness of art history, traditional and contemporary. Students will be given slide presentations, partake in critiques, have two classes to paint from the figure, and have time for studio work in every meeting. There will be an emphasis on the technical aspect to painting including, color mixing, glazing, brush handling, manipulation, medium usage, as well as compositional and formal structuring. An integration and discussion of how to use other mediums of painting such as acrylics, resins, encaustic, and gouaches along with oils will also be a component of the class. In addition, students will be encouraged to work more creatively incorporating more conceptually rigorous concepts into their paintings, therefore critiques will be paramount. Students are free to decide the subject matter and concepts of the paintings made in class. Each class meeting will examine at least one aspect of a painting technique that will be supplemented with examples from history. Students will have the option of preparing for and participating in an exhibition at the end of the term. Attendance: As this course consists of only 10 meetings, attendance will be crucial. Many of the techniques and information presented will be cumulative, so it will be most useful to the development of your painting skills if you are able to attend all classes. You are permitted one unexcused absence without damage to your grade. More than one missed class will potentially lower your grade, and missing two classes will put you at risk of failing the class. Group Critique and Discussion: This is an opportunity for student to learn how to talk and articulate visual ideas to one another, and important part of art making. Because this class will build on student s previous technical skill the subject matter, creative approach, and conceptual aspect of the paintings made in class will be enriched through discussion. Grading: 1
Your grade will be assessed using the following criteria: 20% Attendance 20% Completion of assignments indicating application of knowledge gained in class. 20% Demonstration of effort, consideration, and commitment to projects 20% Participation in class discussion and critiques 20% Progress of technical skill made throughout the quarter WEEK 1, June 24th Introduction & Painting Alla Prima -Discussion of Materials, safely using oils, brushes and cleaning techniques. -Painting with oils safely; using paints, oils, turpentine, galkyd, mineral spirits, cleaning brushes, wearing gloves, having the right ventilation, transporting your materials, ect. This class will review values, hues, tones, monochrome and grayscales and creating light and shadow to create a successful sense of space and volume. -Making and mixing colors, transparent and opaque -Breakdown of some of the techniques in oil painting throughout history; Broken color, (Impressionists) Scumbling and blending, (Rubens) Glazing, (Rembrandt) Line, (Tintoretto) Chiaroscuro, extreme light and dark, (Caravaggio) Impasto and Sgrafitto (Michelangelo, Jasper Johns, De Kooning) Discussion of composition and subject matter as a surrogate to the relationship of technical paint handling. HOMEWORK: Narrative: noun 1. a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. 2. a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story. 3. the art, technique, or process of narrating Next week bring in your idea of a narrative to be a bounding point for a painting. - 1 page of something you have written. This can be structured like an essay, or something more abstract that you might write, such as a list, a journal, or a free association that develops into connectivity. I d like you to start to map out a narrative of your own- including time (dates, time periods), mood (lighting, time of day), characters (how many who are they, WHAT are they) and tension (friction, and struggle in your narrative). This can be as simple as toasting a piece of bread, humorous- tripping on a curb, or something deep and moving that gets under your skin. Your first painting will be loosely based on the idea of this narrative, but not an illustration of it. It MUST include: a sense of space, a sense of time and a sense of temperature. Other than you narrative is open to be about anything- two or more objects, people, animals, anything relating or repulsing each other. Don t forget about things that usually make a good narrative: humor, adventure, downfall, romance, murder, drama, ect. 2
WEEK 2, July 1st Grisaille/ Narrative Visual narrative is used to set up relationships complex or even by simply placing two objects next to each other to create a tension. This can be a narrative within the picture plane, or a narrative that is implied, or one that carries over to the next surface of a series. For our painting we re going to start with an actual narrative and work outward towards a visual narrative. Glazing is one of the oldest techniques in oil painting where instead of mixing the desired color for application, one adds layers of transparent glazes to give a glowing appearance. This is similar to a stained glass window where form and color are kept separate. The primary component of a glazed painting is the grisaille, or underpainting executed in monochrome; usually gray (gris is gray in French). Glazed paintings require a lot of advanced planning with the grisaille done at least a week before the glazing begins. (True opaque colors cannot be used as glazes, for example- titanium white, all the cadmiums, Naples yellow, cerulean blue, ect.) -Beginning of the Grisaille painting, -Because the grisaille has to be planned out and is the structure of the painting we will go over compositional and the importance of high value using this painting technique. The original grisaille should be done on a lighter scale avoiding a full range of value; the darkest tone should be middle gray. A traditional grisaille should have an ultra-smooth finish; we will discuss brushwork and fan blenders. -Value and intensity; how it relates to the preliminary grisaille painting and the secondary glazing. -Different mixing techniques, palette vs. mixing done on the surface of the painting. HOMEWORK: Finish your black and white painting at least 2-3 days before the class on Thursday so it will be ready to glaze. WEEK 3, July 8th Glazing and Scumbling -Glazing and introduction of color onto the grisaille painting from the previous week. -Discussion of lean-to-fat method of working and identification of true transparent colors used for glazing. -Scumbling to reworking and lightening up the original composition. -Discussion of optical combination of glazing, separation of form and color. -Differences of opacity and transparencies, the variations of the nature of assorted pigments and mediums. -Various mediums for oil painting, mixing your own, use of Liquin and other substances to extend or retard the drying time. We will also go over varnishes and sealing off your oil painting when it is done to give the overall painting a uniform glossiness or matte quality. HOMEWORK: Everyone in this class will work at different speeds, but because of the slow drying time of oil I recommend having two paintings going at once. Please bring in reference material, photos, drawings, ect for the next weeks assignment based on Place. 3
Week 4, July 15th Continuation of glazed paintings. Demonstration of mixing specific oil mediums from different recipes. Beginning of: Place/ Space Creating a successful sense of space is a great tool for even abstract artists. We will go over rules of perspective, how to manipulate atmospheric and linear perspective and students will make a painting based on the subject; Place. You can bring in reference materials or work loosely from observation or imagination. Week 5, July 22nd Figure Painting, students will paint from a model- Please bring in at least 2 canvas boards, large drawing paper, and charcoal or pencils for quick gesture sketches. Week 6, July 29 th Continuation and Completion of the two projects: Narrative and Place. Critique of these next week. HOMEWORK: Next week the subject of your painting is up to you as we explore the physicality of paint. Bring in any reference material you d like: drawings, photos, ect and at least 3 patterns or textures to reference for next weeks class (i.e. pattern from a fabric, leaf, or other tactile textures.) Week 7, August 5 th Texture; Impasto vs. Smooth Blending We will start our class with a critique of Narrative and Place This week s class will be dedicated to exploring the physicality of paint as well as texture of painted patterns. We will discuss the method of Impasto, which is a deliberate heavy build up of paint to emphasize texture and brushwork. We will be also experiment with palate knife painting and sgrafitto and other creative ways to approach painting in a more immediate sense, as well as changes and corrections made from scraping. In addition we will also go over smooth blending techniques and there will be a demonstration of how to make seamless and glassy color mixtures by manipulating the paint through use of mediums and brushwork. Artists to look at; Bronzino, Vermeer, Van Gough, Rubens, Picasso, De Kooning, Jenny Seville, John Currin, Kurt Kauper, Amy Adler, Lisa Yuskavage. HOMEWORK: Reference Drawings for Final Paintings For week 8 please have 10 drawings as a method of brainstorming for possible subject matter that you would like to explore in this course. They can be 10 completely different ideas, or a variation on one idea. Drawings do not have to be completed or finished looking, can be loose and quick. You can bring in reference material such as; photographs, still life objects, drawings, ect. to work from. Week 8, August 12th 4
Final Project Preparation for final project, critique of paintings from the previous week and discussion of contemporary art and the integration form and content. Students will have the freedom to choose their subject matter. Students are encouraged to draw from personal experiences and narratives to complete the final painting using one of the techniques discussed in class. We will discuss the history of figure and portraiture painting as an option for a subject for the final painting. Week 9, August 19th Continuation of final projects- discussion and demonstration of varnishing. Week 10, August 26th Last class, final critique and show MATERIALS: good luck! For these I always recommend that you make two trips one to an art store and one to a hardware store. The main art stores around town are: Pearl Art and Craft 1250 La Cienega 310-854-4900 Dick Blick (The Art Store) 7301 W Beverly Blvd 323-933-9284 Or 11660 Santa Monica Blvd 310-477-0451 Utrecht 11677 Santa Monica Blvd (at Barrington) 310-478-577 RGH (online) http://www.rghartistoilpaints.com/ (great prices but you have to order) 5