Please contact us if you need a teacher for group classes.

Patty Zevallos
703-912-7649

What is the best, fastest way to learn to draw? How do you move from drawing to painting? How do you find ideas that are uniquely yours? How do you enjoy yourself while doing creative work?

This course helps you to not only learn techniques that free you to draw and paint what you want, but find out what it is you want to create. It requires a half hour of instruction once a week or once every two weeks, and about three hours of independent work in between classes. The course will follow these steps, with some adaptation, and will go at the pace that works for you.

1. Art is a message, one that is better expressed by pictures than words. We will look at several reproduced artworks, and learn how to read this message.

2. You start your "idea book." This collection of art ideas is crucial to finding pictures you want to do and knowing how to execute them. After a while, the idea book will expand to a few volumes instead of one. This needs to be a "changeable" book, such as a binder, a handmade book connected with binder rings, a pressboard folder, or 5x7 index cards (not exactly a book). This collection of ideas will include color combinations that attract you, subjects you may want to draw or paint, other people's artwork that you find interesting, instructions that you want to keep on hand, descriptions of artwork you want to do in the future, and small sample artwork you have done. You can organize these in any way that feels comfortable to you. You will continue to use this throughout the course and as long as you do artwork.

3. You do a watercolor wash painting on a watercolor block. This doesn't require extensive training and is really fun. You will see that fun is the crucial element to art. If what you are doing is not exciting and you are not dying to do it, something is wrong. Your best work will come during those times that a little spark goes off in the back of your head, saying to you, "This is great stuff!"

4. We start working on the basic shapes in drawing: cylinder, sphere, block, and cloth, starting with simple versions and then more complex ones. There are several ways to do shading: lines going one direction, lines going multiple directions, pencil rubbed on its side and no lines, and using the blender (stump) only. The first three methods can also utilize the stump for a different effect. You choose what works best for your drawing.

5. Composition--Learn how to compose a picture. What the heck is "The Rule of Thirds"? How do you establish a focal point and a path for the viewer's eye to follow? How do you balance a picture without it looking boring? How do you find a whole new point of view that makes an ordinary object look interesting?

6. Window drawing--this is also called squaring off. You find a picture without people or animals (too difficult at this point) but with distinct lines. You trace it, then add squares to the tracing. On your drawing paper you reproduce the squares, but larger. You draw what is in each square on the blank, larger paper. This is a fast, easy way to reproduce a landscape, building, or still life, and it helps teach you how to draw. After doing many window drawings you will be able to draw better without the squares.

7. Assisted drawing--We both hold the pencil and draw more complex shapes. You will see how to first draw the overall shape, spot what is wrong and fix it, then add details. After window drawing and assisted drawing you should be ready to take off on your own.

8. Independent drawing--you find photos, perhaps from your idea book, or real subjects that do not move, and draw them yourself, without window drawing or assisted drawing. We look at what goes right and wrong. At this point you will find drawing relatively easy, so it is time to move on to . . .

9. Painting! We start simple, with clip art shapes that require solid colors instead of blending, and work on how to use the paintbrush, a manual skill that requires practice. You choose clip art images with lines and colored-in shapes, and choose the colors you want to use. You paint a background color on your watercolor block, transfer the image, and fill it in. You will learn how to choose images and colors, and practice using the brush. You will also learn about paintbrushes, and when to use each kind.

10. Now you learn the methods of blending wet paint on dry paint and wet paint with wet paint. You will use these methods to paint those ole basic shapes: cylinder, sphere, block, and fabric.

11. Now you can plan a small painting for your watercolor block. Choose subject, colors, and blending method. Make a preliminary drawing, color it in with markers or pastels to see how you like it, paint a first-coat background color, and transfer the drawing. You then paint a first-coat background color for each shape, and use the blending method you decided on. This is the fun stuff.

12. You do the same thing on a larger canvas. You will continue painting on watercolor paper and canvas.

13. We will also look at other materials, and finished forms other than pictures--painting on wood, glass, cloth, and ceramic; handmade books and cards; candles and soaps--depending on your interest.

Depending on space, and how much you want to get into this drawing and painting stuff, you may want to have a permanent studio, or a portable one. A permanent studio can be any size, even a corner. You need a table, the larger that you have room for the better, and possibly a drafting table with a small table (tabouret) next to it. You will need shelves for supplies and books. Supplies are best put together in "kits," all drawing supplies in one container, all acrylic paints in another, with more kits if you are interested in specific areas, such as silk painting or handmade books. This way you have all the supplies right on hand for the particular activity you are doing, without having to hunt around. Your idea books need to be very accessible. Storing finished pictures and blank paper is tricky, especially because they are different sizes, and I have found only one way that works when you have a lot to organize. Demco, and other library supply merchants, sell hanging plastic bags of different sizes that let you organize your flat items like clothes in a closet. I do not recommend flat files with large flat drawers. They eat up a lot of space, and things get lost inside them--they are hard to organize.

A portable studio is a drawing and painting set-up you can move anywhere. There's generally an easel, a box for paints and pencils, and a carrier for canvases and paper. French easels hold the supplies in a drawer and sometimes support a canvas when folded. Some painting, such as watercolor style or the painting of three-dimensional objects, requires a flat surface. You may be able to use a newspaper-covered table temporarily, or have an easel that will lay flat (a few will.) Before spending serious money on a portable studio, adapt what you have around the house to see what you are going to be comfortable working with. Make sure that set-up time is minimal, or you will tend not to paint because it is too much hassle. See if you can unfold the easel, open a tackle box, and presto, everything is there waiting for you.

Your initial meeting is free, with no obligation. Each half-hour class cost $30, including printed materials and preparation. Supplies are additional.

First, we will see what you have around the house that we may be able to adapt. For those supplies that you don't have already, here are The Official Supplies.

For Drawing

Drawing pencils: 4H, 2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 7B. Drawing pencils go from higher number H's (lightest) to higher number B's (darkest).

Erasers: art gum and regular (art gum is gentler on paper but doesn't erase as well.)

Ruler

14"x 17" (or thereabouts) archival quality (acid free) sketch pad

Pencil sharpener

One small and one large stub. These are blending tools, usually white, with points on the ends, and are sold near the drawing pencils.

Clear acetate, 9" x 12" or thereabouts, for tracing. Pearl and Dick Blick will have this. Other stores might.

Fine line marker, preferably black, to use on acetate

White and black transfer paper. These are rolls of paper with pencil-like carbon on them, and perfect for transferring images to the watercolor block or canvas.

Materials for Idea Book. These will depend on the type of changeable book you choose. You will probably need old magazines for photos and artwork ideas.

For Painting

14" x 17" (or thereabouts) archival quality (acid free) watercolor block. A watercolor block is watercolor paper attached almost completely on all sides. This keeps it from warping when it's wet. These may be at Total Crafts or Michaels, but are definitely at Pearl Art and Crafts and at www.dickblick.com.

Ceramcoat paint: White, Black, Hippo Gray, Dark Burnt Umber, Dark Brown, Cardinal Red, Poppy Orange, Opaque Yellow, Jubilee Green, Vibrant Green, Ultra Blue, Liberty Blue, Purple. You easily may want to add colors later. Found at Total Crafts, Joann's, Michaels, and Pearls. If you have trouble finding a color, let me know and we may find a substitute. Total Crafts sometimes has sales on this paint.

Small round brushes: quality sable ONLY--nothing else works. The best source that I have found is Dick Blick's house brand (www.dickblick.com). I can't kill these things. They are great brushes that last a long time and hold a point. Even Blick's lower line "academic" brushes are very good. Synthetic brushes and poor quality sable brushes will not come to a point for more than a week of use, and are useless for painting detail. Get three sizes of round, probably 0, 2, and 4. Do not get brushes at Total Crafts or Michaels. Most of their brushes are poor quality. If you want to go to a store, go to Pearl Art and Craft.

Larger flat or "bright" brushes: sable or hog bristle (a stiffer, off-white bristle), sizes 10 and 16, or something similar. Same purchasing instructions as above. You have more flexibility with these, since larger brushes do not require the same precision as small rounds, and you may get away with a quality synthetic if you already have one. Make sure all brushes have bristles that do not pull out.

One-inch house painting brush. This can be synthetic or bristle, but make sure the bristles do not come out.

Ceramic palette with six to eight reservoirs. Nothing works better for acrylic. Pearl and Dick Blick should have this. Other stores might.

Palette knife. This is for mixing paint on the palette. It is flat, and a different creature than a painting knife.

Airtight plastic container that palette fits into.

Paint shirt

Squirt bottle for water

Rags

Water container

Master's brush cleaner (a very small container of this is fine)

Markers or pastels for preliminary drawings (whatever you have on hand is probably fine)

Stretched canvases, when you are ready. Best ones are Vincent Masterwrap, available from Dick Blick or Nasco mail order suppliers.

There may be other supplies in the future, such as wood and glass items to paint, T-shirts and cloth paint, materials for your idea books, and more. You may already have many suitable items.

Be forewarned: art is stuff-intensive. Paints run out. Certain objects are intriguing to artists. There may be more supplies needed.

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