Art Boot Camp

The theory behind the Art Boot Camp is as simple as it is effective - learning in a high-intensity atmosphere where you cannot rely on old tricks that are often limiting. The first Art Boot Camp was done in 1998 with two volunteers who helped me work out what works and what doesn’t. It’s come a long way since then.

Over the past eight years the course has been modified and tightened up to a four day, high-intensity course that will instill new habits and a systematic way of approaching your painting. It will also sharpen your eyes like nothing else. Most people don’t learn this in four years of art school. You’ll do it in four days (as I said…it is intense).

Through the four days, we will concentrate on a very narrow aspect of art - painting technique, control of Values and color temperatures. This lies at the basis of good representational painting (it’s Sargent’s main claim to fame). Although they are discussed, composition, drawing and other aspects of painting are peripheral to the main thrust of this course…which is how to get the images inside your head to go through your arm to your hand and into the brush. The course is arranged with an eye toward imparting the maximum amount of knowledge in the shortest time…not just imparting it, but imbedding it.

Friday

Unlike military boot camp, Friday morning does not begin with reveille played on a bugle, but with a demonstration of the basics that are seldom taught in art schools.

The first thing you did not learn in art school was what the different shape brushes are designed to do. Here you learn the properties of the different shapes of brushes, when to use a particular brush and why one chooses one shape over the other.

Most of us hold a brush as we hold a writing implement, gripping it close to the bristles. You will learn several ways to get the most out of the brush by holding it in the appropriate manner for particular effects.

There is an abbreviated introduction to the Munsell color system (the standard of the paint industry). You will learn the correct terminology to familiarize you the three elements of color notation.

Much is based on the use of a Grey Scale to help us identify the correct Values for masstones, highlights and shadows and how those Value ratios are carried over to all of the objects on the model stand and in nature.

There will be a demonstration on how to view each object as a simple silhouette, lay in its masstone and then apply shadows and highlights, as well as the emotional effects of different lighting (there's much more to life than north light). You will learn the anatomy of light and shade and receive a set of Grey Scales and a CD course on how to determine Values, contrast and shadow qualities. This approach makes the most complicated objects simple to paint. It carries over into more complex areas such as portraiture and figure painting.

Then we move onto paint and its properties. How to mix our colors and how the physical qualities of the paint are changed by over-mixing, making the colors duller. Always looking at the white on our palette as a signal of a dirty brush. There will be a discussion of painting mediums and their uses.

There will be a demonstration of the different painting mediums and why to choose one over the other for a given task. You will be using various mediums such as Underpainting Medium, Maroger’s as well as Glazing Medium.

Then we discuss Palettes - the use of glass palettes over grey scales for accurate mixing, and arm palettes for ease at the easel.

• Mixing practice.
• Stroke practice.
• Blending practice

And that’s just the morning…how’s that for jam-packed morning?

In the afternoon, we assemble what looks like a random pile of objects and fabrics along with a few apples. The setup contains a full range of values (some in color) that requires translation into a grisaille, or grey painting.

The students are given a canvas divided into three areas. The top part is white, the center is a mid-grey and the bottom is black. Using a mix of half Ivory Black and Raw Umber, you will mix the resulting neutral black with a specially formulated Titanium/Zinc White blend (yes, we make our own paint) to produce a series of evenly spaced greys, made to match the grey cards under the glass palette.

You will use those greys to paint the same scene into the white, the grey and the black. You will have less and less time for each evolution. From working this way you will understand why the masters always worked on a toned surface. You will have painted three still life paintings in a single afternoon (yes, you can do it).

Thus ends the first day.

Saturday

Saturday is devoted to painting two monochromatic still lifes using a single color for each. The first color is a dark purple-blue that will provide you with an almost full tonal range from dark to light. The color is fairly dull, so this is not much different from a grisaille or verdaccio. The second version of this still life will be done with a bright red, which has a middle Value. Although higher in Chroma and Value, you will be amazed at how you can compress a tonal range to be believable. This is an important exercise that cannot be appreciated unless you do it. This is a transformational lesson that you will carry with you whenever you paint.

Sunday Morning

You will take the grisaille painting done on the first day and apply glazes…true glazes, something few artists understand or teach, but full-bodied paint which is reduced with brushes, fingers and rags to produce a convincing painting. You will be amazed by this classical method of glazing (as opposed to thin tints) and how it brings solidity to your painting.

Sunday Afternoon

Taking the knowledge you’ve gained, you will make a palette consisting of French Ultramarine, Raw Sienna and Zinc/Titanium White and paint a still life that has green and red areas as well as blue and tan. The blue and sienna will produce greens but the red must be gotten by implication. You will be amazed at how this can be done and even more amazed that you are doing it.

Monday

A simple still life is set up. Between the modeling light and the still life, we place a cucolaris -- a piece of opaque board with randomly shaped openings cut in it. The result is dappled light, much like you would get under a tree. This is a deceptively difficult project, but armed with the skills you’ve developed in the previous three days, you will be able to give a good account of yourself.

Critique in the Afternoon (until however long it takes)

This is a new feature to the Boot Camps and has proved to be quite useful. Students are encouraged to bring examples of their paintings which are then critiqued through the lens of what you have just learned. This is a high point of the course and a fitting way to bring it to a close.

The pace and the logical progressions produce lasting improvements that will have a powerful effect on your future work.

Art Boot Camp Details

Tuition for the four-day course is $600. We supply easels, tabourets and hand palettes. There are a few brushes that we will want you to purchase previous to the course, Jerry’s, Daniel Smith and Utrecht will all have them. A lab fee of $62 covers canvases, paints, mediums, solvents and studio necessities. We will supply maps and a list of lodgings.

Boston’s Logan airport connects to all corners of the globe. However, we urge you to consider the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire, just over the border and very convenient to Haverhill.

We routinely open a private section of the Cennini Forum for bootcampers to introduce themselves and often make arrangements for sharing rides and rooms. All Boot Camp-specific questions are answered in that section.

For more information, contact Rob at mentor@artbootcamp.com.