Caravaggio is one of the great masters in Art History, and in this course you will learn from him. To understand what made his paintings so extraordinary, we will be studying his palette, composition, paint application, and brushwork - everything that matters in painting will be covered. The unusual aspect of this course is that you will be taught how to stage your setup in order to achieve a similar visual effect. Yes, you'll paint from your own still life! Every student's work will be different. Compose it in large format, choose a set of pigments for the dramatic lights and shadows, control the form, and bring your subject to life, and discover how without making a direct copy of Caravaggio, you can produce your own Caravaggesque figurative painting or a still life.
We will create gestural poses by means of negative shapes, i.e. we will direct our focus to the space that surrounds the figures. We will practice this in our warm-up practice to create multiple studies before we shift to the main project, where we will paint around the silhouette and add charcoal to define the body. We will spend 2 weeks on one drawing, refining it step by step.
Members-only pop-up workshop (all levels welcome). Create expressive, imaginative portraits using playful charcoal techniques - no anatomy or experience needed. Members may bring up to two guests free.
In this course, you'll experience a deep sense of how speed and time transform your drawing process and artistic expression by creating four dynamic artworks: two bursting with quick, gestural energy and two with more developed, intentional figures.
