Join award winning artist Mathew Lynn as he introduces you to the fundamentals of Still Life. For beginners, this will be a workshop designed to give you a very strong grounding in what you need to make still life drawing and painting not just completely comprehensible, but also fun! - with step-by-step processes to help you build your understanding and your confidence at a pace that suites you. For those with some experience, Mathew can help you to consolidate your existing still life practice, with strategies to expand your understanding and insight with what is possible with the still life form.
Mathew will start by encouraging a lively discussion on the history of still life, from Egypt to Pompeii, all the way to Morandi and the contemporary. This will give everyone a chance to share their experience and discoveries.
He will then go over a basic review of the importance of composition and lighting, creating harmonious or dynamic compositions, the use of colour and tone when you are conceiving your composition, and so on. Further, he will discuss more sophisticated approaches and challenges you can try when creating your still life compositions. Importantly, some people may wish to use still life as a springboard or primary inspiration for more abstract exploration, or partially abstract compositions.
Mathew will encourage (especially for beginners) the use of a ‘Still Life Shadow Box’ for arranging compositions for those that haven’t tried it. Others may have very specific ways they want to set up their still life, or think about their still life process. You will be encouraged to challenge yourself.
For beginners, please bring in anything you’d like to try painting, but preferably fruit, vegetables and a small bowl or something interesting for them to sit in or on. You could also bring simple flowers or a small plant. Also, bring in some plain and patterned tea towels or fabrics to use in your compositions. It’s always best to start with simple volumes and compositions, and then move on to more complex shapes and ideas after you’ve mastered those.
Mathew will discuss traditional still life subject matter, such as flowers and plants, fruit, glass, metals, natural and synthetic textures, textiles, reflective surfaces, and how to understand and achieve the quality of these objects and effects in drawing and painting.
For experienced people, please bring in anything you would like to try painting (which could be any of the above), and bring in your preferred set up and lighting if you need it.
Time will be spent talking about observation and the fundamental importance of preliminary drawing to help you understand your composition, including proportion, perspective, and understanding volumes and shapes - and shading and texture to help you understand tones, surfaces and shadows. He will then discuss methods to transfer this work to your painting surface.
Mathew will then cover colour mixing and colour theory, colour temperature, colour tones and use of saturation, and ways to help you evaluate the colours and tones you are observing and to set them up on your palette. He will also discuss painting techniques, such as the importance of a variety of mark making dynamics and brush effects, underpainting, blocking in and removal, dry brushing, impasto, layers and glazing. For expressive painters or those who wish to transform their existing practice, Mathew will discuss strategies and processes to help you use the still life form for your exploration.
In the afternoon he will give a brief demonstration of how to block in a basic still life composition in oils.
This workshop will be a great chance for you to establish as strong set of basic tools (or build on your existing set of tools) to give you confidence to try something more challenging, and Mathew’s workshops are always a place for lively conversation and encouragement from fellow students!
Still Life Shadow Box:
A Still Life Shadow Box is like your personal stage in which you can arrange your still life compositions, and have control over the lighting of your objects. If you want to try this, Mathew suggests you buy these inexpensive things from IKEA. You may already have your own table lamp to bring along, or you might like to make your own box in a similar size, or whatever size you need relative to your objects.
Mathew will also make the DRÖNA boxes in white and black available on the day for purchase at cost.
• DRÖNA Box 25x35x25cm in white and black (904.670.70 $4.50 each). Get both colours so you can see how different backgrounds and shadow areas work.
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/droena-box-white-90467070/
• NÄVLINGE LED work lamp (304.049.19 $29.00)
https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/naevlinge-led-work-lamp-white-30404919/
• Power cord and a power board.
• Some tea towels or pieces or fabric, plain and in patterns to use inside the box.
Painting and Drawing with Mathew Lynn
Materials List – Portraits, Figures, Still Life, Seascapes, Abstraction
If you haven’t painted before (or not very much), start by choosing a particular medium and work your way through each detailed list. The main colours below are crucial for portraits and flesh, but are also good for basic rendering of most things, and you can augment with your own favourites.
Drawing & Studies
Mathew likes his students to always have sketching materials on hand to make initial studies and to help when a work gets stuck, it’s usually the first thing he’ll ask you to do. Try at the very least to have a sketchbook and pencils, but colour studies are sometimes a better way to resolve something, so a small gouache or watercolour set and a cheap water media pad can be great to have on hand. You can also just do small colour studies with your oils or acrylics on oil sketch paper or cheaper water media paper. You may also be a dedicated drawer, so just bring in all your normal equipment.
Follow this guide below (you don’t need everything!), sketchbook and pencils being the most important.
• A4 Sketchbook or paper
• Pencils - bring in a range such as H, B, 2B, 6B
• Staedtler rubber (we will also trim this into wedges for precision removals)
• Knife for sharpening
• 30cm Ruler (only if you think you’d like to use a grid)
• Any other drawing materials you like, such as charcoal, Conte Crayon etc.
• Gouache or Watercolour set (or just your oils or acrylics)
• Water media pad such as Art Spectrum Draw & Wash Pad 210gsm
• Oil sketch pad such as Canson Figueras 290gsm
• A larger cheap Cartridge Pad can also be great for big loose process sketches and practicing marks, particularly for abstraction.
Oil Painting
Note: you must use an odourless system for oil mediums and solvents!
Colours: (essential for rendering basic skin tones, but also most things)
• Titanium White
• Ivory Black
• Ultramarine Blue (make sure you have standard Ultramarine)
• Yellow Ochre (Yellow Oxide)
• Indian Red (Red Oxide that has a purple hue, Red Oxide is a better option for acrylics)
• Burnt Umber
• Alizarin Crimson (or cheaper equivalent)
• Cadmium Red (or cheaper equivalent)
• Cadmium Yellow Light (or cheaper equivalent – if in doubt bring Lemon Yellow)
• Phthalo Blue
• Phthalo Green
Also, these additions can be very useful (or any other colours you like):
• Cadmium Orange (or cheaper equivalent)
• Cobalt Blue (or cheaper equivalent)
• Magenta
Art Spectrum is a good basic artist quality range.
You don’t need to buy the expensive version of a particular colour, but you will notice the difference in terms of colour strength. Also, the more expensive artist quality brands will go further, because there is more pure pigment ground into the oil and packed into each tube.
Oil Brushes:
It is crucial to have a good range of brushes for a variety of marks and purposes. Oil painters need more brushes because it’s best to keep each colour you use on a separate brush, especially for the areas that require more detailed work where you are painting multiple colours and tones. It’s important to avoid the habit of cleaning one brush each time you want to change colour.
You will also use different brushes at different stages of the painting. For example, when ‘blocking in’ at the start of a painting, you will use large brushes (cheap ones are better) that will help you sketch the composition in quickly, and that you can be a bit rough with. Later on, you will move on to more precise brushes to paint details, these ones you can spend a bit more money on.
As a guide you should always try to use the biggest brush possible for a particular passage of painting, this will build your fluency and sense of energy and mark making in your work, and will stop you from getting bogged down unnecessarily. In time you will develop your favourite range, and specific types for specific things!
Brush Range:
In general, it’s good to have this range of sizes and numbers which you can spread across the various types of hog bristle brush, described below.
• #12 x 1
• #10 x 1
• #8 x 2
• #6 x 2
• #4 x 2
• #2 x 2
• #1 x 2
As a simple guide, the big brushes (#12 & #10) can be Cheap Hog Bristle ROUND (also great for dry blending), and the remainder can be a mixture of cheap and better quality Hog Bristle ROUND and Hog Bristle FILBERT.
Brushes are a big investment - you will probably do most of your general to detailed painting with #6, #4 and #2, so as long as you can keep colours separate in this range, washing other brushes as you go in class can work, and you can keep your costs down.
For Still Life, Hog Bristle FILBERTS will give you more control and mark variety than anything else for this ‘detail’ range (#6, #4, #2). You may like them for Portraits also.
As extras, I always have a dry #12, #10, #8 & #6 Cheap Hog Bristle ROUND (based on the Eterna 582 shape) on hand for dry blending. They are so inexpensive, and so useful!
Brush Types:
Cheap Hog Bristle ROUND (Eterna 582 shape) – you can actually paint most things with this type predominantly in your range, but they can be very difficult with details, and it depends on the marks you like to make. A round brush is much more versatile generally, and these cheaper ones can be used for most of your blocking-in and preliminary work, which can be more punishing on brushes. They also have a very rounded shape, so can be excellent later on as a dry brush and cheap blender for manipulating the wet paint surface.
Good Quality Hog Bristle ROUND – the most versatile brush, because the better quality ones come with a pronounced point. They can be very gestural and expansive, and then very accurate for finer marks from moment to moment, which will help you with your fluency and speed. Sometimes on good days you may find yourself using very few brushes, helped by the versatility of your brush.
Good Quality Hog Bristle FILBERT – this is a fantastic brush combining a rounded shape with a chisel profile like flat brushes. It’s good to have a some of these in your medium to small sizes. They can make nice sharp points and lines, as well as soft shapes. Some people might like to use them exclusively for details, and even large ones for blocking in.
Cheap or Good Quality Hog Bristle FLAT – flat brushes can be very difficult, because you will always be fighting with the pronounced sharp chisel shape that they make, nevertheless it’s nice to have some of them for particular uses and tight corners, particularly the smaller ones in the range above. Some people like to paint exclusively with these types of marks, so it’s no problem if that’s your preference!
Synthetic Hog Bristle ROUND, FLAT or FILBERT – there are some extremely good brushes available made from a kind of synthetic hog bristle, you may like to try some of these also. They tend to be more expensive so you’ll want to look after them and keep them clean.
Water Media Synthetics in a variety of shapes – can be great for particular uses and types of oil painting, especially if you are working small, or your work is extremely fine, but they’re generally too soft to use with oil paint and will be VERY frustrating!
Please also bring any other brushes that you like to use! People working expressively and in abstraction will have their favourite brushes and implements for their personal mark-making.
Oil Mediums & Solvents:
Working in a class situation, we always need to use an odourless system when oil painting.
Quick-drying odourless medium and artist quality odourless solvent is often the easiest option, my personal favourite being Galkyd medium and Gamsol solvent by Gamblin.
You can simply use Artists Refined Linseed Oil as a medium (nearly every oil colour is ground in it), but the drying time is much slower, and it may hold you up while you’re waiting for it to dry. Also, whites will yellow when Linseed Oil is added to them, and mediums are constructed for minimal yellowing.
Or, you may simply be a painter that just uses the paint as is, with an impasto technique.
Other Oil Painting Materials:
• Palette - could be disposable, but it’s better and far less frustrating if it’s a modern rectangular board shape (roughly A3) or the traditional kidney shape - make sure your palette has plenty of mixing space. Two cheap pieces of prepared board in A3 size sitting on a table is just as good, the spare one can be handy when you run out of space but want to keep those colours on the first board going.
• Double Dipper - for separate medium and solvent. Get the open style with the widest openings so you can get your brushes easily in and out.
• Rags, paper towels - plenty of these
• Cotton buds - extremely helpful for subtle removal of paint in tight spots
• Spare containers - for solvent, or mixing things on the go.
• Palette knife - you may like to have couple of these in different shapes.
• Anything else you like to make marks with or push paint around, such as spatulas, scrapers etc.
• A canvas or canvas board (or a few of them) - oil painting paper is also fine, but can be more difficult to work on and transport.
• It is always a good idea to wear disposable Nitrile gloves (non-latex and tougher) when painting and handling oil paint and mediums, they’re at most supermarkets.
• Use your GAMSOL or odourless solvent for clean-up in class.
• You may also want to bring in a proper stainless steel style oil brush washer with strainer and a sealable lid. They can be found for less than $30 on eBay, and it means (if necessary) you can wash some of your brushes on the go properly, and also carry it home without spills.
• You can also take your brushes home wrapped in glad wrap to clean and then wash with soap.
Acrylic Painting
Colours - same advice as the oil colours above, but be aware that Acrylics sometimes don’t come in exactly the same colour names, such as the earth oxides. Matisse (Flow or Structure) are good artist quality options. Bring in your normal range and your favourites also!
Brushes - follow the basic range and advice above, but you’ll only need one of each size because you are constantly washing your brush. Stiffer bristle brushes are fine with acrylics, but you may prefer to have predominantly synthetic brushes for more control (in long handle), at least for the brushes you use most. I find the Neef Stiff Synthetic Hog Bristle Brushes in Filbert shape particularly wonderful for acrylic!
Watercolour style brushes can work well for certain types of acrylic painting, for finer details, but you will still want brushes that have a certain stiffness so you can push your paint around and work with freedom and flow.
Bring any acrylic style brushes you like.
Medium – can be a basic Acrylic Painting Medium, Gel Medium, Impasto Medium etc. I personally like to use just water.
• Acrylic palette/s with a flat surface, or just an A3 piece of Perspex (and perhaps a second one), plenty of mixing space is always better.
• Spare containers and a water container
• Rags, sponges, paper towels, cotton buds, scraper, or anything else you like to use.
• A canvas or canvas board (or a few of them), you can also use heavy water medium paper
• I always like to have a cheaper water media pad (at least 210gsm) with me for quick colour studies and problem solving.
• You can also have an even cheaper Cartridge Paper Pad for fast process sketches and practicing marks you might want to make in your main painting.
Important! In class we need to discard the bulk of unwanted acrylic paint by scraping onto paper towel, not washing everything down the sink.
Watercolours & Gouache
• Gouache may have some different colour names but refer to the oil colour above for reference. I find Gouache wonderful for studies.
• Watercolour colours follow a different system and can be quite specific, favouring particular transparent pigments, but you can use any that you have, and Mathew can give you advice on this, or simply use a basic watercolour set and you should be covered.
• Appropriate palettes for colours and mixing
• Water container and extra containers for mixing
• Rags, paper towels, cotton buds
• Synthetic watercolour brushes in a range of sizes: fine, medium and a large.
Also a Mop type brush and a larger squirrel brush can be wonderful, and other water media brushes such as a wide flat brush. Bring all your favourites!
Remember that you are making a variety of marks - sometimes you are covering a large flat area, sometimes you’re working on fine details, at other times it’s nice to have a brush that is loaded up but with a very fine point to work expansively and with details at the same time.
• Watercolour paper or watercolour pad.
• Cheaper water media pads are also great to have around for experiments and to practice marks. Try an Art Spectrum Draw & Wash Pad 210gsm for studies, or an even cheaper Cartridge Paper Pad for fast process sketches and to practice marks.
Please choose carefully as fees are non-refundable. Refunds of course fees will only be given if the course is cancelled or a place is not available in the course.
Payment of course fees implies that you have read and agree to the WAC Terms & Conditions.
