I am in the process of getting all the teaching materials together for the Beginning - Intermediate Acrylics class I will be teaching and working up the lesson plan. I went to the craft store here to check on the cost of a "gray scale /value finder". Unfortunately they don't even carry them. So I had to go home and make a dozen copies of mine, then glue each one on a 4x6 index card and proceed to cut out 10 holes on each card. That took most of the afternoon. Then I made copies of all my other papers to hand out. Thankfully, copy paper is cheap. It is a lot of work to do all this, but I feel it is very important to get a good base of knowledge before we pick up a brush.
Actually, we may practice a little with the hake brushes on the first day, but it depends on how much time we have. We will actually start a painting on the second lesson and that will be fun for all.
We will learn how to create depth, mix colors, use a color wheel, a value finder, create perspective, and even how to look at a scene or photo and decide what we really want to paint and how to simplify to make the painting uncluttered.
We will learn how to paint the sky and clouds, trees, water, rocks, grass, proper shading and other elements. We will discuss rain, snow and fog, and I will discuss animals, but we may or may not paint an animal. It depends upon whether we have time and if the students want to do that. We will do a seascape, a landscape and a house in a field for a lesson on perspective. That is very important if anyone ever wants to have a building in a painting. It also applies to animals in many cases.
I think this six weeks will pass very quickly and hopefully the students will want more time, so we can start another class! I feel that will be my challenge. To make it interesting and fun while the students are learning so much that they want to KEEP learning. Anyone who is committed to painting will keep on as long as they see improvement. So I will do my best to help them improve their technique and spark their love for creating beautiful paintings! If I do my job right, each one will have at least one GOOD painting to frame, hang on their wall and say "I did that!"
Below I have a picture of some of the teaching tools I am getting ready. See if you know what each one is and how it is used. If you do, I am proud of you, go to the head of the class! LOL!
