I'm not saying its easy, but it doesn't have to be a nightmare. This workshop is designed to demystify the process of painting a portrait. There are no tricks, no "specially formulated, fool proof, patent pending techniques guaranteed to make you a portrait painter in three easy lessons". Instead, this is the time honored method artists have used for hundreds of years, which if you learn will enable you to paint better than you ever thought you could.

Any canvas or surface you're used to working on will be fine.  I do a demo on an 11x14 canvas just to keep things small and quick.  I don't suggest really going over about a 16 x 20 canvas for just a head anyway.

For brushes, I predominantly use brights and flats ranging from 2, 4, 6, 8 , 10.  Either nylon or hogs hair bristle.

A short list of paints I use are cad. yellow light, yellow ochre, cad. orange, cad red light, cad red dark, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, terra rosa, ultramarine blue, viridian green, raw umber, burnt umber and ivory black.  You don't need them all, but whatever you get is good.

I use odorless mineral spirits from Home Depot. If you want to use something like Gamsol, that’s fine, it’s just very expensive. I do request that whatever you use, it be odorless, because we don’t want to smell up whatever facilities we’re using.

The one thing I do strongly suggest is that whatever size you're going to paint the head, let your photograph be the same size.  It's very difficult, if not impossible to paint a life sized portrait from a head the size of a dime.

The main thing is to just come and have fun.  You're going to learn a lot and I'm here to help you with whatever problems you've been struggling with or tackling whatever problems you've been afraid of. You are also not restricted to working only in oils. I am experienced with and totally comfortable with teaching you in pastels, water color, or acrylics.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

The basic supplies will be newsprint paper and some charcoal.  Big and cheap newsprint paper.  I'm going to cover a lot of basic stuff which may seem easy, but is vital and fundamental to doing a good painting.  I'll be demoing during my lectures and covering a number of different aspects of drawing in general and figure drawing in particular.  One thing I recommend more than anything else is a ball point pen and a note book, because I'm going to be giving out a lot of information.  It's really good stuff and you'll want to keep good notes to refer back to.  The stuff I go over in this class is what will make you a good painter more than anything else you'll ever learn.  Below are just a few things I'm thinking about.  We'll never cover them all.  Each one is a course in and of itself.  But, I believe that if I can give everyone a cursory understanding of the principles behind these fundamentals of drawing, then perhaps you can take it further by studying with me again and by studying on your own.

Thinking in terms of shapes.

* Size and proportion.  How to get them accurately.

* Angles.  Keeping the world from becoming askew.

* How to make people and animals anatomically correct from any position.

* Putting movement into a drawing.

* Shading and values.  Making things look three dimensional.  

*Translating color into value.

* The laws of perspective.

* Using aritistic license.  Tasteful editing.

* Composition and balance in a picture.

If you're not overwhelmed by all that, you should be.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

Take your easel, hike around until you find the most pristine, gorgeous spot that simply screams to be painted where every tree is in the extract right spot and the sun and shadows never move. That's the landscape painters fantasy, reality is very different. As with all my seminars, I always say the same thing, painting is painting. The same rules of composition, color theory, drawing, etc. apply across the board, but there are things peculiar to landscape painting, especially if you're doing them from life. In this seminar we'll cover the pros and cons and the ins and outs of painting the landscape from both life and photographs. This seminar will vary a bit depending on the needs of the class. We may paint strictly from life in some, but with others it will be done in the studio from photographs. If we paint from photographs, we'll cover a lot of photography and digital manipulation of those photographs. We'll cover what camera, computer and software you need and how to use them.

The supplies you'll need are: any canvas or surface you're used to working on will be fine.  I do a demo on an 11x14 canvas just to keep things small and quick.

For brushes, I predominantly use brights and flats ranging from 2, 4, 6, 8 , 10.  Either nylon or hogs hair bristle.

A short list of paints I use are cad. yellow light, yellow ochre, cad. orange, cad red light, cad red dark, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, terra rosa, ultramarine blue, viridian green, raw umber, burnt umber and ivory black.  You don't need them all, but whatever you get is good.

I use odorless mineral spirits from Home Depot. If you want to use something like Gamsol, that’s fine, it’s just very expensive. I do request that whatever you use, it be odorless, because we don’t want to smell up whatever facilities we’re using.

Also, bring your camera and laptop if you've got one.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

Grab a couple of objects that look really nifty and set them on a table. Now, put in a flower or two and voila, instant still life. The problem is that that's not always very interesting. In this seminar we'll cover not just the nuts and bolts of painting, but also the problems of how to set up a still life. This is the step that will make or break the painting right from the beginning. And we'll also cover lighting, probably the most misunderstood and under appreciated of all the elements of still life painting.

The supplies you'll need for this seminar are: any canvas or surface you're used to working on will be fine.  I do a demo on an 11x14 canvas just to keep things small and quick.

For brushes, I predominantly use brights and flats ranging from 2, 4, 6, 8 , 10.  Either nylon or hogs hair bristle.

I use odorless mineral spirits from Home Depot. If you want to use something like Gamsol, that’s fine, it’s justvery expensive. I do request that whatever you use, it be odorless, because we don’t want to smell up whatever facilities we’re using.

A short list of paints I use are cad. yellow light, yellow ochre, cad. orange, cad red light, cad red dark, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, terra rosa, ultramarine blue, viridian green, raw umber, burnt umber and ivory black.  You don't need them all, but whatever you get is good.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

Painting is painting; it doesn't matter if you're using pastels, oils, watercolors, or acrylics. I've worked in them all and while each has it's own peculiar quirks about them, they all depend on the same fundamentals: accurate drawing, color harmony and color theory, light, movement and composition. In my twenty years of painting, I've used all of these mediums at one time or another and will help you take whichever one you choose to the next level. It's been my experience that most of the problems artists have have little to do with any of the tricks, buzzers and whistles one medium has over another, but a lack of understanding of the basic fundamentals of creating a good painting.

The basic supplies you'll need will vary. You're welcome to use whatever you've got. I will tell you what I own, but it's certainly not required.

In oils I recommend: Any canvas or surface you're used to working on will be fine.  I do a demo on an 11x14 canvas just to keep things small and quick, but you can work on any size you feel comfortable with.

For brushes, I predominantly use brights and flats ranging from 2, 4, 6, 8 , 10.  Either nylon or hogs hair bristle.

A short list of paints I use are cad. yellow light, yellow ochre, cad. orange, cad red light, cad red dark, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, terra rosa, ultramarine blue, viridian green, raw umber, burnt umber and ivory black.  You don't need them all, but whatever you get is good.

I use odorless mineral spirits from Home Depot. If you want to use something like Gamsol, that’s fine, it’s just very expensive. I do request that whatever you use, it be odorless, because we don’t want to smell up whatever facilities we’re using.

In pastels I have the Rembrandt soft pastel of 225 colors and the Prismacolor 72 set of hard pastels. I use Canson Mi-Teintes 19" x 25" paper. I recommend the lighter more neutral tones to begin with: Steel Grey, sand, felt grey, etc.

In watercolors you're welcome to use pan or tube colors, whatever colors you're used to. I use the tubes myself. I have the John Pike palette, but anything with lots of mixing room will do. I have a 2" Polar-Flo wash mate and a set of the Polar-Flo 700Rs, numbers 30, 8, 2. A round sable #6 is nice. The Isabey Series 6235 Squirrel Oval #8 works well too. I paint on Canson Montval watercolor paper and illustration board.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

Although I'd be happy to teach this course to anyone, its primary focus is on junior high and high school. Boys and girls love to draw their favorite characters, but find it maddeningly frustrating. They're seldom taught the fundamentals of drawing, which is in fact surprisingly simple, but are instead shown confusing, convoluted ways of reproducing Manga and Anime figures which don't seem to translate into being able to draw either other things or even the figures themselves in different poses and settings. We get past all that and cover how to really draw whatever they want to draw. Plus, we cover writing. Not only the peculiar needs of writing for comic strips and graphic novels, but the importance of being highly literate and educated in order to write convincing and exciting stories.

The supplies you'll need would be an 81/2" x 11" sketchbook, or bigger, 2b pencils and a kneaded eraser, a notebook for taking notes and a pen.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.

Since its inception, photography has been both a blessing and a bane on the artist. It's the same with the advent of the digital age and the ubiquitous computer. Many artists sing the praises of these technological marvels, while others simply despair of the seemingly mind bending complexities they're faced with. If you're part of the latter, then this seminar is for you. In simple, easy to understand terminology, we'll cover both basic and advanced photographic and computer skills. You don't have to be a geek to understand how to use these tools to get all you'll ever want or need for your artistic endeavors.

The supplies you'll need for this seminar are your camera, and laptop if you've got one, and whatever photo editing software you have, and an empty notebook which you will fill with copious amounts of information. I use photoshop in my daily life, but you can use photoshop elements or Picasa or any inexpensive digital manipulation software you're used to.

For current schedule check the Calendar of Events.
To schedule a speech or seminar in your town contact us.
To find out how to go to a seminar free click here.