New! Start to Finish Figure Painting

New! Start to Finish Figure Painting

Adult Course | Available

200 Grant St Denver, CO 80203 United States

A-01

Intermediate, Advanced, Professional

6/25/2024-7/30/2024

9:30 AM-12:30 PM MDT on Tue

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$387.00

$328.95

The human form is one of the most complex subjects to paint, but also, and only partially because of this, the most satisfying. In this class you will learn how to break down the complex task of painting the figure, all in one go, into manageable chunks, through a well-defined process that really works.

We’ll start by stringing out the process over the course of the first 3 sessions, not to layer paint and build a highly rendered figure, but to create a solid foundation that will later be compressed into single session sittings for the final three sessions.

Watch as I demo the steps, get hands on help as you work, and learn to paint generally to specifically in this class that will take your skills to the next level, from wherever you are.

*Students registering for this course should have drawing experience.

  • The Thumbnail Study - a 1,000 foot view
    They've Got Good Bones - drawing just enough, before you paint
    Our Hero: Value - Organizing your palette and painting for success
    Check the Thermostat - learning to find subtle differences in color temperature
    Let it Shine - Turning on the light to build form
    Here (n)or There - Selectively defining edges
    Restating the Obvious - Finishing touches before signing wet paint

  • For studies, you can use any 5X7" panel, canvas or paper, your choice. If you're using paper, I prefer watercolor paper, cold pressed paper, or thick paper of any kind, coated in acrylic gel medium, shellac or gesso. If you use anything without edges that are 5X7" you must tape it off. Black gaffer’s tape is ideal. You can get this on Amazon for cheap.

    For our larger painting surfaces (hardboard, panel or canvas) have at least four surfaces that are a surface area with the range of 8”X10” and 12X16. These surfaces need to be primed with gesso.

    Oil Media paint brushes:
    A variety of long handled rectangular or filberts ranging from 1/4“ to 1”.
    At least two small round brushes, which can be long or short handled. For every brush you get, get two of the same.

    Odorless spirits, ideally "Gamsol" in a sealable brush washing container

    Pick up 37 ml tubes of the following colors of oil paint*:

    • titanium white
    • cadmium yellow light
    • cadmium green light
    • cadmium red light
    • burnt sienna or transparent red oxide
    • permanent alizarin crimson
    • ultramarine blue (not french)
    • king’s blue
    • burnt umber
    • raw umber
    • yellow ochre
    • ivory black

    * Only purchase professional, not student grade or knock offs! This is very important, as poor quality paint is not effective in mixing the amount of pigment to paint ratio required in this class.

    Glass or wood palette.

    Paper towels - Viva brand or Blue Shop Towels

    At least one diamond-shaped or rectangular-shaped, flexible palette knife.

    Vine Charcoal and a #2 Pencil

Denise Dambrackas is a contemporary realist oil painter and mixed media artist living and working in Denver, Colorado.

After earning a BFA in 1995, she slowly, and income-willing, transitioned to a long professional career in graphic design. It wasn’t until 2018 that she returned her attention back to expanding her skill set in the fine art of oil painting, through study with some of the profession’s master teachers. She continues to study, hungry for knowledge and ideas on how to better facilitate her most unique expression as an artist.

For the love of oil painting, she dabbles in most all subject matters, but continues to return to the figure. In her current series of work, "Future Feminine" she ventures to smash gender-based limitations and inspire the girls of today. She says, “I’m dedicated to upholding the current trend of positive change in gender roles, I hope that my paintings will help the females of the future avoid the pernicious sense of doubt that has undermined their predecessor’s full potentials, for centuries. In the process, I’m finding my way through the same.”

Denise began teaching at the Art Students League of Denver in early 2023.