Course Description

It’s so easy to be wooed by the wide array of paint colors available on the market, but there is beauty and harmony to be discovered in creating paintings with a limited palette.

In this class, Marian Parsons, a paint enthusiast and lover of color, will show you how to mix beautiful shades for landscapes, still lifes, and portraits with just four colors. Together, we’ll create color studies, sketches, and finished, frameable works in several paint mediums – oils, water-soluble oils, acrylics, and watercolors/gouache to discover harmony in your work when transitioning from one medium to another (or working in your favorite mediums.) This class is about the discovery and exploration of mediums and limited colors to include in your palette for the purpose of clarifying your aesthetic as an artist.

Techniques Taught in this Course

• Introduction to color theory
• Learn to mix colors with confidence
• Understand how your color palette informs the style of your art
• Create color wheels in different mediums with a limited palette
• Explore your color palette in an art journal with sketches and studies
• Paint watercolor landscape studies
• Complete landscape studies in acrylics
• Learn to mix natural greens and beautiful sky blues
• Paint a still life in water-soluble oils
• Establish your drawing, composition, and values with an underpainting
• Use oil paints to finish a portrait study, learning how to mix flesh tones
• Explore the palette you’re drawn to