Materials

For Water media, I will be using a variety of:
Acrylic paints in various colors, Heavy Body paints are great for building up textures, and I will show some of this with Heavy Body White, but regular viscosity is great too for most other things I’ll be doing in acrylic.

I’ll also use and discuss mediums such as:
Matte Medium and Gloss Medium/Varnish

Oil paints:
(you are welcome to use a limited color palette or other similar colors if you choose)

The colors I may be using during this class are:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Pale
Cadmium Red Light
Transparent Gold Ochre
Transparent Red Iron Oxide
Transparent Maroon
Burnt Umber
Ivory Black
Ultramarine Blue
Dioxazine Purple

I will talk about other colors that I use frequently as well such as the Grays and Radiants by Gamblin. If you do not have these colors listed above, don’t worry. If you are painting along, please just use what you have. And no matter whether you are painting along or just watching and taking notes, you can pick up any of these colors if you find you’re interested while taking the class, but it is not necessary to have all these colors.

If you’d like to use water based media only, that’s fine too but just be aware of drying time

Brushes:
Various sizes and shapes of sables from small rounds to mid-sized flats, brights and filberts
Various mops or large soft sables if you don’t have mops (basically something puffy and soft)
A couple larger bristles or utility bristle brushes, a couple medium-sized bristles could be good too.

Supplies for water-based media:
Jar/cup for water, rinsing brushes

Supplies for oil-based media:
Gamsol mineral spirits or odorless turpentine
Jar for gamsol
Linseed oil
rags or paper towels
silicone spatula (kitchen spatula)

If you have more than one, that’s great, but one will be fine for the workshop

Any other sort of silicone tools such as paint shapers or combs.

Other unconventional tools I will be using are: scraps of foam core, kneaded erasers, rubber stamps, squeegees, paint rollers, plastic wrap, sand paper, straws, misc found objects.

I will discuss different surfaces and how they react differently to various media.

Suggestions for surfaces to use:
Pre-gessoed masonite panel such as the Mona Lisa gessoed art boards
Matte board or illustration board
Yupo paper

**Note: You’re welcome to paint along during the live workshop, or watch the demonstration and take notes, then watch the recording later to paint along.

If you do not have any of these materials, and especially because of the possible limited opportunity to go out to acquire new supplies, it is not necessary. You can still learn by watching and listening to the demo and I will show various options to try in place of some of these unconventional tools. You can also obtain the tools you may not have at a later date to experiment on your own after watching the demo.

This online course requires the use of the Zoom program. You will need a computer, tablet or smartphone (with camera preferred) and internet. To download the program, click on the following link: zoom.us/download.

A Zoom meeting link will be sent to you up to 24 hours prior to your class start date. If you need help with Zoom, please let us know and we will schedule a short tutorial for you prior to your class.

Vanessa Lemen is an award-winning painter based in Carlsbad, CA, with works exhibited and in private collections internationally. Her paintings are layered in subtle allegory, with an explorative process that intertwines realism and abstract to depict humanity, metaphor and story. Her work has been published in two new Illustrated Limited Edition books: The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin and A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, and is published in such art books as Spectrum, Women of Wonder, The Journal and Infected By Art, and has been featured in articles in magazine such American Art Collector, ImagineFX, and Poets And Artists. Vanessa also writes monthly columns for the Muddy Colors blog, and is an educator who mentors privately, teaches classes online, and instructs at workshops across the US. Her recent work has earned her The Chesley Award and other awards in publications such Infected By Art, a Spectrum Award nomination, as well as Art Renewal Center’s ARC Salon, and participation in the International ARC Salon Exhibition.

Described through metaphorical imagery, it’s excerpts from her personal journey and reflection that she credits most as the inspiration for her work, and rolling with the unexpected as the very nature of her process. Much like the spontaneity of a dialog, the marks on the surface are what evoke a response and then a discovery, and a possibility of something new to form. Each piece she creates seems to come from a chaos, and in it, she is able to create a place of reflection and curiosity, a balance of the deep-seated and the unknown, with areas of rest and of movement that intertwine to form a calm amid the chaos.

For more info, visit VanessaLemenArt.com
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