Acrylic Painting Course

Tutor:  Jenny Cleary is an artist and illustrator based in Dublin, Ireland.

Painting is one of the most rewarding ways to express yourself, it develops your creativity and supports your emotional well-being.  This class is suited for people who are beginners and people who have some experience in painting.

This 12 week course will explore the medium of acrylic paint, a medium which is both flexible and durable.

We will focus on different skills, methods and techniques as well as colour mixing and paint application.

Some of our subject matters will include landscapes, still life and portraiture and we will look at other famous artists’ work for inspiration and ideas.

Participants in the class will benefit and grow from getting individual support and attention.

Materials list for Acrylic Painting

Paint
This is a list of a few colours I recommend. You can get more if you need to, but it is not necessary. I would advise you to look out for ready-made sets in shops like Easons, Evans and Reads, which are often cheaper than buying individual tubes. Look for makes like Galeria and System3 which are both reasonable priced student paints.
Try not to get tubes any smaller than 60ml and I would always get a bigger white tube, since this will be the colour you will use the most of.
-Cadmium yellow
-Raw Sienna
-Ultramarine
-Cadmium red
-Burnt umber or Raw umber
-Crimson Lake (sometimes called Alizarin Crimson)
-Sap green or Phthalo green
-Titanium white
-Mars black
Optional: Cobalt blue, Yellow ochre, Lemon yellow

Brushes
We are trying to keep things simple to start off with so all we need are one large, one medium and one small.
There are round and flat brushes, so try at least one of each to see which one you prefer. Make sure that they are suitable for acrylics (ask someone in the art shop if you’re not sure)
You can get good quality expensive brushes but I would go for something medium priced. Try not to get the cheapest brushes as the hairs often fall out of these while painting.

Ground
The advantage of acrylic paint is that you can paint on most supports. It can be anything from canvas, canvas board, acrylic paper, wood, glass and metal.  I would suggest you start off with Acrylic paper and then later when we get to your personal projects you can use canvas or canvas board.