Draft Syllabus
Painting: Beginning and beyond

Week one:
Meet the paints- short demonstration in value painting. Studying light and translating three dimensions into two dimensions.  Grayscales, and mixing a neutral. Learning about paint control. 

Week two
Color Mixing Introduction: Swatch color play. Making and using a color wheel--different colors results in different wheel = gamut. Moving around the color wheel to darken and light colors. Three primaries, six primaries and why. Mixing across the color wheel to get neutrals. The three pillars of color: Hue & Value & Intensity.

Week three
More color mixing.  Painting+collage exercise for in class work. Improving outcomes in color mixing. Pathway palette mixing.  Introducing the difference between alla prima and "classical" glazing techniques. 

Week four
Composition and Design: Designing for successful paintings. Negative space, proportion and composition. Draw what isn’t there. Negative space and composition studies. Seeing things in black and white and arranging them in your picture plane. Paint four small starter paintings.

Week 5
Painting from secondary sources
Using photos, sketches or public domain materials to create a finished piece without falling into the usual traps of drawing from anything but life. What to look for in source material, and what to avoid. How to take your own photos for source material.

Week 6
Revisiting Value: Painting things that are white, and why. Paint a value painting, and then duplicate it in color.

Week 7
Painting blocks and spheres for understanding light on form. Talking about full-spectrum
painting. Palette knife painting, sky paintings for landscape.  

Week 8
Designing abstraction and mixed media painting.  Abstracting from life, or from sources. 

Week 9
TBA--perhaps figure drawing if people are interested, or self-portraits.