In Still Life Painting Techniques, students will choose from three different paces, or methods, of exploring still life painting. 

Method 1: “Alla Prima Still Life”:  In this track, students will execute a new painting each class session.  Emphasis will be put on getting the big color relationships down quickly without getting bogged down in a lot of excessive detail.  Painting in this quick way helps build decisiveness which will aid the student in any type of painting that they do.

Method 2:  “Academic Still Life”:  In this method students will complete a drawing, transfer it to canvas, learn to mix colors before starting on their finished painting, do an underpainting, main pass, and then finishing touches.  In this method students have the time to really pick apart the process and explore the nuts and bolts of how all the different concepts work.  Emphasis will be put on solid understanding of drawing, light, form and color, as well as gaining an understanding of how the various parts of the process all fit together from start to finish, to create a complete painting.

Method 3:  “Hybrid or Direct Still Life”:  This method could be called the “Goldilocks” method, in that it’s not as fast as Alla Prima, but not as slow as the Academic method.  Students will begin directly on canvas with paint, by executing a washy underpainting to establish basic colors and placements.  From there they will begin to move through the painting in two more layers to completion. Students may elect to choose one of the three methods and stick with it for the entire time, or they may opt to switch back and forth between longer projects and quicker paintings.  Each of the three methods ultimately helps to inform our efforts in the others, so over time, giving them all a try is definitely encouraged.

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