November 11, 2025 from 9am-1pm - Session 1: "Filling in the Gaps" (Material & Design)
If your study of art has been a self-directed education consisting of advice from fellow artists, random workshops and Youtube videos, it is likely that your artistic development has a lot of knowledge gaps. Along your journey, you may have missed some critical pieces of information that may mean the difference between a successful painting and painting that doesn't work. And the worst part about it is, you may not understand why it doesn't work. It may be too late for you to spend four years in art school studying under an organized and structured approach, but you can fill in the gaps left by years of self-study and experimentation. This class has been developed with the intention of filling in these gaps.
The first session in this series will explore the artist's choice of materials and reasons for their choices. This will include/cover:
- paint (which colors are essential and which are optional)
- mediums, solvents and thinners
- brushes, sizes, shapes and types (bristle, sable, natural hair and synthetic) and how to clean and care for them.
- palette knives, the different sizes and shapes and their uses
- different types of palettes and pros and cons of each
- discussion and example of the various types of grounds for painting on (stretched canvas, canvas panels and gessoed boards). I will discuss my personal favorite ground and how I make my own canvas panels and gessoed panels.
- reference material from live models or plein air to digital or photo references, with pros and con of each
- problems with outdoor painting and live model painting
- problems with painting from photos in the studio and how to overcome the problems posed by painting from photos by understanding atmospheric perspective and other inaccuracies of photos
- the hierarchy involved in the painting process
This first session will also have a lesson on the first step in the painting process, the planning, design and composition of a painting (format, size, placement of objects, focal point, edges, color, texture, etc.) The student will be taught how to go about the development of a painting from its concept through the physical layout of the painting. Students will bring a sketch book and pencils and/or markers for use in developing a composition and value study. This design section has been formulated in such a way as to cover virtually every aspect and every consideration needed for a successful painting. In Edgar Payne's words, “Your knowledge should precede your execution.”
Supply List:
Duane Langston - Supply List - Session1
Learn more about your Instructor here:
Duane Langston - Bio
