Under painting using one dark color – usually burnt sienna, burnt umber or a dark blue – is the thin foundational layer of paint applied to a canvas to lay out composition, tone, and value (light and shadow) before applying final colors. An underpainting eliminates the stark empty canvas and sets the tone of the subsequent painting. Painting objects or shapes with changing values, creates an immediate illusion of space, and your painting becomes an exciting, vibrant artwork — even before adding color. It all just gets better from there on! Alex will paint from a still life as she demonstrates how to compose the objects and add “life” to them with the underpainting. Paint along in either oil or acrylic.
 
Location: Web-delivered (Online)
Instructor: Alex Sharma
Cost: $30
Sponsor: Art League of Hilton Head
Website, email, (843) 842-5738

Many artists can feel frustrated in front of a blank canvas, unsure of how to start and what to paint. Paint with confidence by learning techniques to tap into your intuitive process and find inspiration more easily! Experienced instruction and advice will push students to take chances and explore unexpected directions and accidental marks to achieve artistic discoveries. Students will use line, color and space, and editing possibilities to create busy/calm areas and focal points in their paintings as they work from personal imagery, expression, and imagination. Instruction will take the form of PowerPoint presentation/examples, formal direction from modern and contemporary artists, and one-on-on critiques in Zoom sessions that are geared toward open painting time in a classroom-like setting. Painting experience recommended.
 
Location: Web-delivered (Online)
Instructor: Kassem Amoudi
Cost: $175
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632

Explore ways to improve your use of color and enhance your personal style and expression with Al Gury, noted professor and author of Alla Prima, Color for Painters, and Foundations of Drawing. Great colorists such as Velasquez, Manet, Matisse, and Diebenkorn among others will provide the focus for weekly explorations of how to improve color in your work. Visual histories and examples, materials, problem solving, and color theories will be presented through live Zoom meetings and recorded video demonstrations, with a goal of helping each student find their own color voice. Assignments will be posted on Canvas, PAFA’s online learning platform, and critiqued by the instructor for helpful feedback. Open to all levels of experience and all media: oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pastel.
 
Location: Web-delivered (Online)
Instructor: Al Gury
Cost: $295
Sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Website, email, 215-972-7632