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Bonus Artist talk, learn about my journey of becoming the artist I am today.  I normally give this talk at the beginning of all my workshops.  I recommend watching this video before starting the painting videos of the workshop. 

Supplies 

Wood panel or other surface (paper, canvas)

Black and white blick acrylic paint

White oil pastel cray pas

Black colored pencil 

Fan brush

Water cup or tray

Here is a link with more information about the supplies
https://jessereno.podia.com/supply-list

Before getting started. Know there is no true order to the ideas and concepts I am presenting. I choose to present them in this order in this class to make the ideas easier to identify and understand. Once you have a handle and understand each idea you can feel free to move out of order.

 The idea is to learn to do what ever you want and to respond to what you are doing. If you get an impulse or inspiration follow it. If you are unsure ask yourself 3 times and if you still think its a good idea do it. This builds instinct and a willingness to listen to your intuition. This is key to learning from your work experimenting and accessing how your work makes you feel. 

Feeling should be your guide towards what is valid or correct. Imagery is part of this as it is what you respond to but be aware that feeling good about something you don't understand is just as valid as creating something with a clear meaning. In my opinion even more important when you don't understand you are learning something new. 

This class is broken into pieces to isolate particular ideas into groups and also to force a stop at points when I myself would stop to assess my work. At these breaks you might want to start a second or third painting so you can practice what you are learning and reinforce the ideas, and you will then have multiple pieces to move between as you go forward throughout the process.

In this first section we begin by applying paint with our hands. We will make marks with various line tools. Thinking about the size of elements and there placement to create flow and composition while learning a variety of techniques to get us started. This will start our process quickly getting rid of the blank canvas and setting the stage for further exploration.

In this second section we will introduce brush techniques. Creating antagonistic elements to push the work forward. Followed by using dry brush techniques to create unexpected marks using the fan brush. We also introduce the idea of grabbing using a face as the catalyst to re-purpose elements that were previously created into a new direction. 

We will start by identifying what we like and what we don't. From here we will decide what to build on and what to remove. Using attraction to guide you through abstraction. Subtracting and eliminating sections that are not our favorites we grab and identify the section we like best. Giving new purpose to previous marks and ideas. This creates new shapes and forms as well as shifting the piece into a new composition.

We also begin to increase the difference between the tones within our piece, filling in variations between the contrasting white and black. At the end of our session we will re-assess what has happened through our elimination and grabbing, learning to see the remaining suggested forms and what they could be and what they make us imagine.

In this lesson we go even further into grabbing. By continually using subtraction we define new shapes allowing all our previous marks and actions to become the inner detail. By grabbing and re-grabbing we find our shape and form rather than trying to imagine and create it tied to an image in our heads. We watch and shape it in response to how we feel about it and what we see. Each new shape refines our form and increases our tones and contrast. We will learn to create new pieces we can refine and then connect. A mix of grabbing and lining techniques are introduced to help us find form and shape.

We begin to find a form that we can assess and ask questions about. What does this feel like what could it mean. Questions begin to move us forward and further define our forms identity and meaning.

In this lesson we ask our self what and who could this be? What is the feeling being emitted from the piece? We explore more dry paint and line tool techniques, adding supporting elements to guide the composition and set the stage of where our creation might exist. Letting new elements emerge through brush printing and finding imagery from new marks. Using expressive applications to engage us and give a natural quality to our painting. Enhancing composition and meaning throughout the process. Finding symbols to add further questions and answers in regards to the meaning of your painting.

Its always worth pushing yourself a little further. Because its easy to get scared of messing things up and stopping short. If you have an idea its best to push it because you never know what might happen next. We don't want to stop out of fear this can hold us back from getting to the next level. So we push and access to find a real sense of experimentation and finality.

It takes a break and a clear head to put on the finalist of details. We begin to take more breaks between our assessments.

You want to be sure any background elements support your form rather than distract from it. 

You want all the elements to work in a way that enhances the composition giving flow and highlighting areas of importance with hints of contrast or by toning down distractions that pull you from the flow. Finding missing tones will fill in the spaces between to give a full spectrum of contrast and scale leaving us with a full range of tones.

Once the piece is in balance we can truly see if anything is missing. Often this is when some later meaning comes in because all is in order and ready for you to really see it. A great space to add any last elements texts symbols or the finest of details to clarify your paintings meaning. This is the time for the finest refinements. Using elements to balance and pull composition and again eliminating anything that is not supporting the painting or distracting you from other important elements. 

This is the time to find out if your done.

How do we know its finished. We access from all the raw angles of art. Shape, composition, variation, expression, meaning, contrast and tonal range, and ultimately feeling emitted by the piece. 

These are recorded video's  from the Live Q&A sessions in August and October 2020.  The August session covers more basic questions and the October session has more in depth questions.