This course is all about the fundamentals of observational drawing. Using charcoal, students will learn the sight-size method, perspective drawing, how to render three-dimensional forms, and how to create interesting marks and make creative expressive choices. Students will also learn how to brainstorm compositions so that they can map out pleasing arrangements of shapes and tones.

Week 1 - Sight-Size Method - Students will learn to map out shapes and proportions of a still-life using the sight-size method. This technique is crucial to building forms, blocking in structures and creating any composition.

Week 2 - Structure & Perspective - We build upon the sight-size method, but continue onto building structure beyond the still-life. Students with pick any object or structure in the classroom to begin drawing in perspective. This will create an understanding of formal relationships and perspective necessary to create environments. 

Week 3 - Analysis of Form - This week is about rendering 3D forms using the Five Value system: core shadows, cast shadows, lights, reflected light and highlights. This is the ultimate system for rendering form, and coupled with a knowledge of structure and perspective, students will learn to draw still-life objects and environments with a true sense of dimension and space.

Week 4 - Composition - Now that we have the building blocks to create forms in an environment, it's time to think about putting it all together in a composition. This week will be about organizing structures in a relationship that moves the eye in a creative manner. Students will practice abstract shape design with thumbnail sketches and varieties of values.

Week 5 - Expressive Mark Making - This week, students will start to loosen up with their mark making all the while trying to balance creating dimension and structure. Mark making is where things start to get fun, but it takes careful planning to balance fun marks with dimension and perspective. Keeping a keen eye on structure, students will play around with various approaches to abstract marks and alternative ways to create form.

Week 6 - Putting It All Together - During our last class, students can draw whatever subject matter the they choose and will incorporate everything learned in the course. Be bold and show off your new mastery!

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to paint with oils then this is the class for you! Students will learn traditional painting techniques and methods like how to create forms, abstract marks, how to layer using the “fat over lean” rule, and how to set up your palette for success. Open to artists of all stages. No toxic chemicals will be used in this class.

Week 1- Color and Oil - Week one is a simple introduction to the working qualities of oil paint. Practicing mixing colors with mediums, applying paint to canvas, experimenting with different consistencies, and a discussion on drying times. Our first painting will be abstract and loose and getting used to the materials.

Week 2 - Artist Workspace - This week will also be a flowing paint class of any subject, but the painting ends early so that exploring different ways to clean and maintain the workspace without chemicals can literally be a life-saver (and be eco conscious as well).

Week 3 - Formal Application (Part 1) - In week 3, students will begin painting from a still-life. Using the five-value approach to creating form, paint consistency and application will be the main focus. Students will follow along a guided demonstration of paint application to get a feel for what the paint can do. This painting will be carried over for the next class to learn how to add layers after drying.

Week 4 - Fat over Lean (Part 2) - An important factor in oil painting is taking care with the amount of oil in each successive layer. Continuing with the painting from the previous week, techniques such as glazing, scumbling, and direct painting will be explored for a more polished work. This second layer will be a practical guide for students to learn about "fat over lean" and the importance of planning your mediums at the early stages of painting. Again, NO SOLVENTS!

Week 5 - Getting Real (Part 1) - This week, students will begin a two-part still-life painting that’s helps to cement the methods students have learned thus far. Knowledge of mediums, paint application, and forms will be put into practice for a "For Real" painting that will take two sessions to complete. This time, students will work on their own with help from the instructor.

Week 6 - Finishing Touches (part 2) - Students will finish the second layer of the painting from the previous week.

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

Are you ready to take your drawing style and experience to the next level? Students will learn the basics of drawing digitally with the user-friendly app Procreate and an Apple Pencil. iPads and Apple Pencils are provided by the MACC, but you are welcome to bring your own.

This beginners class is a stepping stone to our intermediate and advanced digital classes. All digital students must take this class before taking other digital classes unless they have previous digital experience. 

Week 1: Students will be introduced to Procreate with a basic demonstration of its tools, gesture controls, and layer functions. Afterwards, they will create simple landscape pieces using their new skills. Returning or intermediate students will be challenged weekly with an additional caveat to their piece: in this case, they will use a limited color palette to create their artwork. 

Week 2: After reviewing the previous week’s work, students will begin to learn how to draw from life. Students will pair off into groups of two or three and take turns sketching one another. Intermediate challenge: students may only use a single brush for the entire sketch. Critiques to follow if time allows.

Week 3: Class will begin with a brief demonstration of figure drawing. The students will then create their own figure drawings following along with a costumed model on Youtube. Afterwards, they will be introduced to still life drawings and sketch out a pre-constructed scene of objects. Intermediate challenge: add color to still life piece(s). (This is already a challenging week for all students!)

Week 4: Students will bring or will be provided a portrait or a movie still to recreate in their own style, using all their learned skills from the past three weeks to make a finished illustration. Critiques/feedback if time allows.

Member discount: 15 percent. 

This six-week course will cover advanced concepts of traditional oil painting techniques such as underpainting, glazing, alla prima (wet on wet painting), and more. Students with a strong understanding of drawing and oil painting would find this course to be helpful in advancing their skills to a professional level. Subjects will be various still-lifes ranging in simple objects to ones with complex shapes and patterns.

Week 1: Under Painting (Grissaille) - Students will begin this course with the traditional technique of an underpainting, focusing on the transparency and opacity of oil paint. We will cover which colors work best for the technique to unify future stages of the painting, as well as managing paint consistency to enhance a three-dimensional effect of the finished painting. Mediums and brushes will also be considered at this stage.

Week 2: Glazing - This week, students will paint a second layer on their finished underpainting with the traditional glazing method. Here again, students will be careful about which colors work best as a glaze, considering the colors of the underpainting, and how to control transparency while building new layers of paint. The fat-over-lean rule will apply here, as well. 

Week 3: Alla Prima - Week three will cover the Alla Prima technique, also known as "wet into wet". The challenge of this method is controlling both the transparency of the paint, as well as controlling the richness of color without creating mud on the canvas. Economy of paint, brushwork, and basic color theory will be considered.

Week 4: Advanced Color Theory - Beyond the ability to mix color, artists must understand the nature of color and light on the objects they see. This week is about how color works in space, how light interacts with color, and understanding an advanced formula for controlling mixtures to create depth beyond a simple value pattern of light and dark. 

Week 5: Painting Patterns - Continuing upon the concepts from previous weeks, students will challenge their knowledge and skill by painting complex patterns found on the surface of objects. Careful consideration of different values placed closely together will help create a strong sense of space and further the understanding of color, brushwork, and paint transparency.

Week 6: Palette Knife/Impasto - Controlling paint and color is the final focus of this course. Using a palette knife in place of a brush forces the students to more carefully consider their color choices and mark making decisions. The palette knife is not as forgiving as a brush, but does provide very clean applications of color to great effect.

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

This class is perfect for anyone trying to strengthen their portrait painting skills in oil or acrylic. In this six-week class, students will learn and apply procedures like the sight-size method, anatomy and perspective, expressive brushwork and color mixing. By the end of the course, students will learn to compose and paint a portrait from a photograph, and have a complete portrait painting in whatever medium they feel most comfortable. Perfect for either the absolute novice or advanced-level painters.

Week 1 - Introduction to medium - This week is all about colors, mediums, brushwork and application. Whether you are working in oils or acrylic, learning to apply paint in different textures and layers is essential to creating form and details in any portrait. There will also be a discussion on lighting techniques when creating a perfect reference for portraiture when using photographs.

Week 2 - Drama and Mood: How to capture character in a portrait This week, we further our application on color and brushwork to explore creating mood and drama to a painting. Without losing the structure, anatomy, and likeness in a face, how can we capture that perfect emotional quality that goes beyond just a photograph? Students will be assigned homework to compose and photograph a subject for a final portrait.

Week 3 - Thumbnails - With a photograph chosen, it is now time to create studies for the final composition. These studies are small in scale, but will inform the final painting by allowing us to solve problems early on. Using black and white, how can we create dramatic lighting? Using a full range of colors, how can we play with the liveliness of our subject? How large should the head be placed on the canvas? Which colors work best together?

Week 4 - Blocking in the portrait (Part 1) - Carefully applying what we've learned, we will begin a final portrait. In this stage, we are only concerned with blocking in shapes and colors, capturing a likeness early and building up layers that set the stage for the final product.

Week 5 - Fleshing out the Forms (Part 2) - Now that we have a likeness in place, it's time to work on creating a three-dimensional form and structure. This stage is about juggling anatomy and perspective with color and expressiveness while building on top of successive layers of paint.

Week 6 - Final Details (Part 3) - Sometimes details can take longer to finish than the early stages, but when you have developed a solid foundation with the earlier stages a little detail can go a long way. We will explore what details are totally necessary and what details aren’t. We will finally see our portraits “come alive”!

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

Capture the breathtaking beauty of flowers! In this class we will learn about the principles of design, the rule of thirds, the importance of value, and the study of color. Through each class we will practice sharpening our ability to see and accurately represent it on canvas. Implementing what we learn, we will build a composition of beautiful flowers. 

WEEK 1: Introduction to materials; walking through the principles of design and the rule of thirds. We will choose our subject matter and begin cropping it to proportionally fit within the dimensions of our picture plane. We will begin gridding both our image and our canvas. 

WEEK 2: Through the gridding technique we will begin creating the structure of our painting; using shape to build recognizable form, depicting relationships between flowers through perspective & foreshortening. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help.  

WEEK 3: Learn about the role of value in creating the illusion of three dimensional form; build the underpainting solely focusing on value relationships. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. 

WEEK 4: Begin observing the image through the lens of color; introduction to color theory; start mixing colors within our limited palette to create a wider range. Plot in general color map of painting. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. 

WEEK 5-6: Build upon color plotting by further pushing color & value relationships, start narrowing in on the details; apply finishing touches. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. Talk through varnishing techniques. We will finish up on the paintings, take a step back, and critique them. 

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

This six-week course will cover advanced acrylic painting techniques, taking advantage of the wide range of the medium's capabilities. Artists who have a strong understanding of drawing and painting will learn how to use acrylic for washes, glazing, scumbling, and develop an understanding of various acrylic mediums available today. Subjects will vary from realistic still-lifes to abstract works using every technique at their disposal.

Week 1: Washes - The first week, students will learn how to use acrylic with only water to create washes of color and build layers similar to traditional watercolor paintings. Students must work quickly and carefully in order to control the qualities of these washes without losing control of the medium or losing any richness of color. 

Week 2: Alla Prima - Working quickly, students will continue learning to control acrylic with only water, but will be building up to thicker and more opaque marks of pure paint. Quick decision making is required here to create depth and to recognize the value of transparent colors vs opaque paint.

Week 3: Slow-drying Medium - A completely new direction this week with students slowing down the painting process by using a slow-dry medium. This medium allows more consistent blending techniques for a smoother alla prima process. This will allow a greater focus on color mixing on the canvas rather than on the palette.

Week 4: Flowing Mediums vs Texture Mediums - This week, we will introduce more acrylic mediums to our toolbox. Students will use a flowing medium to mimic the techniques of traditional oil medium, while using a modeling paste to create even thicker and more opaque layers. Due to the drying time of each medium, students will strengthen their quick decision making skills in creating textures with the paint and medium.

Week 5: Abstract Mark Making - Acrylic is far more forgiving than oil in regards to building layers. This week, students use the various mediums from previous weeks to create layers and textures to new effect that are only possible with acrylic paint. Students are encouraged to use non-traditional tools to apply the paint, including scraps of cardboard, stencils, collage, and more.

Week 6: Yupo - The final week of this course will be a fun challenge. We will introduce a unique surface called Yupo paper. It is a polyester paper with slippery, non-absorbent properties that allows acrylic to be pushed around easily, wiped away easily, and flow rapidly across its surface. Students will again be applying paint using various mediums, techniques, and tools to experiment and experience yet another great capability of acrylic paint.

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%

Capture the spirit of a beloved pet through the use of oil paints. In this course we will learn about the principles of design, the rule of thirds, the importance of value, and the study of color. Through each class we will practice sharpening our ability to see and accurately represent it on canvas. Implementing what we learn we will build the linens of our beloved pets. 

WEEK 1: Introduction to materials; walk through principles of design and the rule of thirds. We will choose our subject matter and begin cropping it to proportionally fit within the dimensions of our picture plane. We will begin gridding both our image and our canvas. 

WEEK 2: Through the gridding technique we will begin creating the structure of our painting; we will use shape to build recognizable form, talk through perspective and foreshortening to build the relationship of our forms. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. 

WEEK 3: Learn about the role of value in creating the illusion of three dimensional form; build the underpainting solely focusing on value relationships. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. 

WEEK 4: Begin observing the image through the lens of color; introduction to color theory; start mixing colors within a limited palette to create a wider range. Plot in general color map of painting. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. 

WEEK 5-6: Build upon our color plotting by further pushing color & value relationships, start narrowing in on the details; apply finishing touches. I will demonstrate technique and walk through the class with hands on help. Talk through varnishing techniques. We will finish up on the paintings, take a step back, and critique them. 

Note: $50 material fee due first day of class to the instructor

Member discount: 15%