Blog

Yesterday I held a little workshop in acrylic painting with this lovely little group! This course was a beginners course with the intention of introducing new creativity desiring people to painting, or freshening up memories with the very basics of the color studies!

While sipping on our tea and coffee, I started the workshop with an introduction about acrylics, what reasons to choose this medium and some technical and practical advice about it. We studied the color wheel, talked about the different colors and values and how they affect each other, and took a bit of time to explore to blend new colors with only the primary ones and white. To some of the students this was completely new while others had the opportunity to refresh their memories in practice.

workshop acrylics beginner

Why did I only give the beginner students the primary colors, why not making it easier and give them ready mixed colors, you may ask? Let me tell you! Blending your own colors is preferable for a number of reasons. For starters, learning from the beginning how to mix whatever color you want gives you an enormous freedom with possibilities when creating an artwork. It’d very freeing to know how to achieve first of all the color that you want, but also the feeling you want to deliver with your painting. Secondly, mixing for example your own green for a tree gives the tree so much more life than using one ready-mixed green adding black or white, which easily gives the impression of a very flat image. When mixing a green with yellow, cyan (blue), and maybe even a drop of magenta (red) you’ll find traces of all of the above, which will give your painting more depth and movement. So! Challenge yourself to mix your own colors! If not with the primary colors, at least try to limit your palette to a certain number of colors and see what happens!

After doing these studies, we went through the grid method to transfer a photo to a canvas. Everybody brought their own reference photo they were curious to paint, and planned their paintings accordingly. It was fun to see so many different styles and images coming to life!

acrylic workshop beginner

But even in all ofthis fun, it’s necessary to take a break sometimes every now and then and refill on energy, so I came prepared with a creamy butternut soup to lure them away from their productivity for a little while. This really is a great opportunity to take a little bit of distance from an image you’ve been staring at for hours, discuss the process with the others, and come back to it with fresh eyes!

The following two hours everybody really found their flow, and their way of working. Which were all so different, and that’s wonderful to see! I’m very proud to see what they accomplished and I’m so happy to be part of their painting journey!

workshop acrylics beginner

workshop acrylics beginner

workshop acrylics beginner

workshop acrylics beginner

workshop acrylics beginner

Are you also interested in having a painting workshop with me? Don’t hesitate to reach out and we will see what is in the planning, or can be planned! I aim to regularly hold private workshops and courses, and also to come to schools and companies to break the day with some necessary creativity! If that sounds like something you would – art is a perfect solution!