RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) is an accredited school established in 1887 (149 years!). In addition to all of their regular degrees—they started with fashion and textiles—they now have six online certificate programs with excellent online capabilities. I’m working on Painting Studies. Painting Studies requires eighteen 6-week courses. I have completed six of the eighteen courses. I’m impressed with the artists/professors. A gallery owner told me the school is known for graduates with excellent technique. Thanks to the online capabilities, each course is well structured. There are video intros by each student with weekly teaching videos from the professors, followed by weekly assignments, critiques by all and grades. I like the ability to review the teaching videos, to watch the professor’s demos, to communicate with classmates, and to creatively come up with ideas to meet assignments—all from my easel and laptop across the country.
The class I finished in December was “Painting Studies: Introduction to Oil.” We learned old/new techniques and it seems I focused on fruits. I am painting darker now, I learned exactly how to best start out, with gesso, grounds, sanding, about Liquin and Gamsol mediums, Grissaile (greyness), and other painting modes. I include here a couple paintings from my assignments.
Roses
persimmons