A Deep Dive Into Color
Join Debra Keirce for a three day oil painting workshop!
We will explore the three main attributes of oil color. This class will be a wonderful experience for students at any skill level. While color can be extremely complicated, it's also one of the basics and artists at all skill levels, working with varied media apply these principles.
Day 1
Let's talk about value and all its nuances. Surprisingly, we'll walk away with two finished monochromatic paintings this day, created using different techniques. We'll learn about nailing a likeness, and how sometimes we need to make changes to strengthen the realism of an artwork. For example, when we have multiple light sources on a subject, we may want to use a value pattern that creates a more dramatic painting than our reference.
Day 2
Hue is a characteristic of color that we can use to add life to a scene. We'll discuss some color theory and talk about color harmonies, using discords effectively, and ways of pushing color to achieve a higher level of realism. I'll show you how to create paintings that sing louder than the photo references you work from.
Day 3
Chroma, or saturation is a very powerful color trait. We can use it to foster an aesthetic of bold or subdued. We can direct a viewer to certain parts of our painting with it. We can even use it as a cornerstone of our signature style or brand. On this day, we will combine value and hue along with chroma, to paint eye popping art that demands your attention.
Supply List:
https://www.dickblick.com has all of these supplies available online. These are the supplies I personally use, and I am not as familiar with the thousands of other products on the market. You are welcome to bring your own supplies, as long as they do not have an odor that will distract the rest of the class. Please, only bring non volatile products.
Support:
***Gessobord by Ampersand Flat, 1/8" thick, approx size 5"x5" LINK to purchase at least four panels this size or bigger. So that the class can see, I myself will be working on larger panels - probably around 11" x 14" and you are welcome to buy larger ones if you prefer.
Please note that if you bring a different support such as canvas or a different type of panel, you may struggle as the absorbance and adherence of paint varies quite a bit between products.
Medium: Solvent Free Gel medium by Gamblin - LINK to purchase a tube
Brushes: A set of synthetic brushes - There are a lot of student grade brush sets available on Amazon dot com that work just fine. If you really want to spend more money on brushes, a brand I like are the Select 3750 line by Princeton, and they are available online at Dick Blick Art supplies. The main thing is to have several flat and round shapes, 1/8" or smaller, and rounds with good points on them. This set with links below should be all you need:
Size 2 Chisel Blender - LINK to purchase
Size 2 Filbert - LINK to purchase
Size 6 Filbert - LINK to purchase
10/0 Liner - LINK to purchase
Size 2 Liner - LINK to purchase
3/0 Round - LINK to purchase
Size 3 Round - LINK to purchase
Cleanup: You can just use a mild soap like Dawn dishwashing detergent that the museum will have available. Please do not bring any solvents that have an odor, like lavender spike oil or maroger.
Paper towels for wiping your brushes. I like the blue shop towels.
A palette. A styrofoam plate works too.
Palette knife for mixing
Sharpened graphite pencil with good eraser for drawing
Ballpoint pen and notepad for taking notes!
Paints: For the oil paints, I like Gamblin artists colors. You can create pretty much any color using these:
- Phthalo blue
- Quinocradone magenta
- Hansa yellow light
- Titanium white
- Burnt umber
A zoom option to take this class is now available! To receive your link to the zoom call, please contact Alex Asher at aasher@albrecht-kemper.org
How to participate:
June 25-27, 2025
10am-4pm
$300 for three day workshop (lunches included)
PLEASE NOTE: Deadline to sign up is Friday, June 20. We ask that you sign up ahead of this deadline so we can ensure that we meet our minimum requirement for attendance and so we can make lunch reservations.
