FINA20026: Painting Techniques

1. A comprehensive folio that will include completed work made for set exercises/projects, and related materials (80%)

2. A comprehensively illustrated and notated visual diary, reflecting on material trials and notes on various techniques (20%).

Both the completed folio and workbook will be required to be presented two weeks after the final supervised studio practice session. Students are notified of the exact date/process in the first class.

♦ This class is not taught during the semester, but rather over the summer and winter breaks. More people are allowed to enroll than register. After enrolling, you must be 1 of <100 students to register on the registration date. The spots are highly competitive, and if you don't refresh the registration page within the first few minutes of registration release, you most likely will not be able to register, and will be asked to unenroll.

♦ The 6 hrs daily for 6 days are taught in studios at the Southbank campus. Small, intimate, friendly.

♦ There is a general subject outline that tutors follow, but each stream is taught slightly differently according to the tutor's preference. My tutor, David Ralph, was an absolutely charming gentleman <3

♦ Project One - National Gallery of Victoria visit to observe different historical painting styles. Personally found it fascinating, and I returned on the weekend to take more photos for quick brownie points.

♦Project Two - Painting a flat, linear tonal piece in acrylics. Boring, but paint fast because acrylics dry as you paint, and you will be assessed on the texture of your piece. Don't mix paint brushes; keep a few for light colours, a few for dark colours.

♦Project Three - Stretching, sizing and priming a canvas with gesso etc. Easy. Don't forget to document every step for these projects with notes and photos, however seemingly minor, so you can add them with annotations to your visual diary later.

♦Project Four - Working alla prima with oils. In the week you have to finish your portfolio, try to finish all your oil paintings first. Oil paintings take a ridiculously long time to dry, even in winter. When I collected my paintings, I noticed many students' work had been damaged. Their paintings were stacked upon other paintings, and the paint had stuck them together. It took a few hours to mend my own work when the class had ended.

♦Project Five - Colour as it applies to the creation of illusions. BLUE + YELLOW = GREEN done.

♦Project Six - Oil paint on canvas. Definitely everyone's favourite, and the last project of the intensive week. You pick your own subject to paint, and the hours fly by. If you're particularly enthusiastic you can choose to do multiple oil paintings of your preferred subjects, and have the tutor grade what s/he deems to be the best. I chose to do this while waiting for the paint layers of every other painting to dry. Remember to document EVERYTHING. Bring a camera to every class.

♦Despite being an intensive class, the workload is not at all demanding and students from a variety of degrees will be able to succeed. There were only a few bewildered science brethren who seemed to struggle with the very practical, hands-on approach.

♦ Don't leave everything until the day before assessment. Painting itself is straight-forward, but excruciatingly slow. Carpal tunnel syndrome levels of slow.

♦The teaching style is paint-by-numbers; you're walked through painting using the Renaissance and Baroque methods layer-by-layer. The main disadvantage is patience. My entire class took ~15 hours to paint a very simple, monochromatic graphic on a panel of cardboard the size of my hand. If you don't enjoy repetitive, practical-based commitments, you may not flourish. Otherwise, assuming you have the motivation, Painting Techniques is a given H1.

No

You are assigned to one of several 'streams', and a different tutor teaches each stream. That person is virtually your only staff contact; mine was David Ralph.

N/A

4.5/5

No

Contact Hours: Intensive Mode: 6hrs per day for 6 days (36hrs)

Total Time Commitment: 120 hours (including 36 hours contact and 84 hours non-contact)

February, 2014

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