Acrylic Painting with Tom Quinn

Six Tuesdays, May 26-June 30, 3-5 p.m. (teens-adult)

Cost: $168

Acrylic paint is the most flexible of all painting media. You can work from light to dark or dark to light, paint rich textures or flat sheets of color, and easily correct any mistake. In this medium, there is no point of no return. We work in layers, mostly dark to light, with an emphasis on smooth and textured gradations of hue, value, and temperature. 

Week 1. Introductory lecture on materials. First project, painting a landscape from background to foreground

Week 2. Lecture on color theory. Continue working with layered landscapes

Week 3. Continuation of layered landscape

Weeks 4-6. One-on-one instruction on personal projects

Please bring the following supplies to class (This list will be emailed to you when you register)

Colors

Professional quality paints are far preferable to “student grade.” Some professional colors are available in 2 ounce or .75 ounce tubes.

One excellent kit of 12 colors is the Liquitex Heavy Body set. Two essential colors not in the kit are raw sienna (or yellow ocher) and neutral grey.

When buying colors individually, it’s best to start with darker values. You can always lighten them with white and later buy lighter values as your budget allows.

  Titanium White (Usually sold in 5 or 7 ounce tubes. Ask if they have it in 2 ounce. Do not buy zinc white)

  Ivory Black

  Yellow Cadmium Hue Medium. If that’s not available, Hansa or Azo Medium

  Phthalo Blue (Green shade only!)

  Ultramarine Blue Hue (Red shade only!)

  Cadmium Red Light Hue 

  Alizarin Crimson 

  Raw Sienna (if unavailable, you can substitute yellow ochre)

  Burnt Sienna 

  Raw Umber 

  Burnt Umber 

  Phthalo Green (Blue shade)

  Neutral Grey (not Payne’s grey). Preferably Value 5. If that’s not available, look for Golden Neutral Grey Value 4 or 6.

Avoid genuine cadmium or cobalt colors. If the word “hue” is on the table, it means the color is an imitation hue — which is satisfactory and much less expensive.

Some colors are available at .75 ounce or less. If you can afford more colors, you may want to add Dioxazine Purple, Chromium Oxide Green, Alizarin Crimson, Prussian Blue, Chromium Oxide Green, or Payne’s Grey

Brushes

Should be nylon bristle — no hog’s hair or sable. Because there is as yet no standardization in brush sizes, numbers vary from one manufacturer to another. You should have:

  At least 3 flats: one quarter-inch, on half-inch, and one at least one inch

  2 round brushes: Silver Brush Silverwhite #1 or equivalent size and Silver Brush Silverwhite #2 or equivalent. Silver Brush Silverwhite #0 or equivalent

  No angle brushes or fan brushes  

Surfaces

I recommend canvas panels for economical reasons. 8 x 10, 9 x 12 and 11 x 14 are good sizes. “Paper canvas,” sold in pads, is even more economical. A little more expensive, but also practical, are sheets of actual primed canvas, sold in pads.

Palette

Disposable paper palettes, sold in pads, are ideal. No wooden, plastic, or “stay-wet” palettes.

Palette Knife

Metal, not plastic, and preferably trowel-shaped.

Vessels

A plastic brush basin with ridges on the bottom. If that’s not available, you may want to buy a Silicoil jar, which comes with a coil at the base, but not the Silicon solvent sold in conjunction with it.