Beginning Painting

La maestra habla español. 

For complete beginners who wish to improve their painting skills while learning to work in the medium of their choice. Each week we will discuss and put in practice a foundational painting concepts.

Experience Levels: Beginning to Intermediate

What To Bring

Grounds

• Follow your preference for acrylic and oil. You can use a pad paper formulated for oil painting, gessoed cardboard, canvas panel, canvas, wood panels, or masonite panels.
• For gouache and watercolor, multimedia paper is an economic alternative to watercolor paper. Just make sure you tape it to a board to avoid warping.
• No matter what you use, make sure it measures no more than 16 x 20”

Brushes

• For oil and acrylic, you’ll really need brushes with looooong handles. A big nylon or bristle filbert about 3/4" or 1" across, then two or three smaller nylon or bristle brushes (filberts or rounds), and a fine round brush (size 2) for details. Blick’ Academic is a good and cheap brand.
• For watercolor or gouache, the handles can be short. You’ll need a cheap “mop” brush an inch across, a round nylon brush about 1/2” in diameter at the ferrule, and small round nylon brushes size 2 and 6.

Paint Colors

• Acrylic or Oil: You want tubes with big, easy to turn caps or squeezable bottles, not wide mouth containers . Cheap brands are fine, just make sure you have the list of pigments below.
• Gouache and Watercolor: sets are great or if you already have tubes, bring them! Just make sure you have the following pigments:
• Buy in a large (150 ml) size. It can be a cheap brand:
• Titanium white - buy a large tube or bottle, as much as you can afford
• Buy in a high quality brand:
• Ultramarine blue - a cold blue that makes a great black
• Buy in a cheaper brand or smaller tubes:
• Cadmium yellow light hue - a cold “lemon” yellow
• Cadmium yellow deep hue– a warm, “egg-yolk” yellow
• Cadmium red hue - a warm red of great opacity and power
• Alizarin crimson or quinacridone red – either of these semitransparent cold reds
• Phthalocyanine or Cerulean blue- either of these warm blues
• Optional – Bring them only if you have them, or buy only if your budget allows
• Dioaxine purple - a synthetic, semitransparent violet
• Burnt sienna – a reddish-brown earth color
• Burnt umber – a very dark brown earth color
• Yellow ochre – a “mustard” earth yellow
• Lamp black or Payne's gray – a dark grey and a black

Other Useful Tools

• Paint knives: One plastic or metal knife with which to mix and apply paint.
• Rags, because they last way longer than paper towels.
• A water container for gouache and acrylic
• An oil container for oil painters

Mediums

• Gouache and watercolor - no medium necessary
• Acrylic: Acrylic medium, liquid or gel does not matter which, matte or gloss - does not matter which either.
• Oil: Gamsol and linseed oil in small amounts is fine.

Palettes

• The bigger the better!
• Oil: a disposable paper palette or any flat masonite or plastic surface.
• Acrylic: if you want to be green, get a Richeson plastic palette or a piece of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) from Tap Plastics.
• Gouache or watercolor: something with LARGE wells. It does not have to be airtight and it does not need to have a lot of compartments for a zillion colors.