FINA20006: Painting Techniques

Folio of work completed during class and 2 x painting done during your own time (80%), and visual diary (20%).

Really loved this subject. The teaching staff were helpful and incredibly helpful (there's even this sit-down to check on your progress/ask 1-1 questions mid-way through), and you really improve at the end of it whether your were a total beginner or advanced because you're just thrown into it doing painting 8 hours a day. It's a breadth subject for all courses bar Fine Arts and they assume no painting knowledge so anyone can do it.

The subject is essentially broken down into projects and you work through them during the teaching period.
- Project 1 is the visual diary. You ideally should work on this as you're doing the paintings and it should be filled at the end. It should track your 'creative process' and how you got to your final painting, and this is how they mark it. Take heaps of pictures of everything, research different artists and paintings, and do little random experiments testing out brushwork, a certain colour scheme, blending technique etc.

- Project 2 is one tonal painting of a paper sculpture (which may be as a simple or complex as you like). You do thumbnail sketches to test out different compositions and a tonal drawing to prepare beforehand. This is done using oils on wood - they'll guide you on how to prepare a wood panel for painting.

- Project 3 is two geometric abstraction paintings done in acrylic on wood, one in class and the other at home. You're introduced to colour here so that's the main thing you should be focusing on. Don't go crazy complex with your design - this is abstract art remember and something as simple like white on white could be considered an excellent painting.

- Project 4 is two still life done in oils on wood (one in class, one at home). You basically get some objects and paint it. Choose simple objects.

- Project 5 is an appropriation of two paintings from the NGV's permanent collection. On the 4th or 5th day you'll visit the NGV as a class and the teacher will guide you through some paintings talking about technique and whatnot (you'll have to take notes during these to put in your visual diary). You could choose from them to appropriate but my recommendation would be to go back during the lunch break (it's right next door) and find the simplest paintings to use (check out the contemporary section). This painting is done in oils on canvas - you'll learn how to prepare a canvas in class.

My main advice for this subject is to be don't slack off. You'll have homework every night during the teaching period and that's mainly stuff to add to your visual diary - do it - and the subject doesn't lie when it says intensive because you have a lot to do in a short period of time. Use the class time wisely, keep up with the work and don't waste the 10 days you have after the teaching period (esp. cause most of them are in oils which take forever to dry - bringing in like 3 wet paintings to submit is gonna be hard lol). Overall though, really fun and rewarding subject and would totally recommend it to anyone looking for a breadth to do.

P.S If anyone is super shitty with maps like me and gets lost to the teaching workshop on the first day lol, the simplest way from the tram stop on the Flinders Street/NGV side is to cross the road from the tram stop, walk left to the the big road, turn right and walk down that big road until you see another big road, turn right and keep walking until you see a big 'Gate 5' sign - turn in and then you're there! There are quicker ways but just in case you're lost and late on the first day lol.

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Okay, one small gripe about the subject: the oil painting part was essentially a bare-bones introduction to oil painting. You're taught all the technical, unique things about oil painting like odourless mineral solvents, alkyd medium and rabbit-skin glue but then you don't even get to see let alone use them... I guess it's for OH&S reasons but it was kinda disappointing nonetheless.

N/A - no lectures! Painting all day everyday.

Various professional artists take the classes. I believe most of them are seasonal or teach one term and don't teach the next so it varies greatly.

N/A - no exams either!

5 Out of 5

There's no prescribed textbook but there are some recommended books given in the subject guide at the beginning, which I guess would be helpful to read? Everything is taught by your teacher though and they're more than happy to answer questions so you don't need to get anything.

Edit: Oh! There's a supply pack and material levy you have to pay for though (~$150 in total). You could probably buy the supply pack yourself (the material levy is the 'stuff for everyone' that they give you) or use supplies that you already have at home but it's artist-grade stuff in the pack and since they buy everything in bulk, you get awesome high quality stuff at an absolute ripper of a bargin!

The intensive teaching period goes for 6 days, Monday to Saturday, 9:30am - 4:30pm with an 1 hour lunch break at 12:30pm. Hand-in for the folio and visual diary is 10 days afterwards.

2019 Winter. It's run during most of the teaching periods though - Semester 1 and 2, June, Winter, February and Summer - but get in quick cause the subject is quota'ed and places fill up fast.

TBA