composing with thumbnails with cristian mora

Saturday July 18th // 10am - 1 pm // $90

This class is about learning to do small compositional studies - the kind of thumbnails a lot of artists skip, but that make everything after them easier when working on a painting. We’ll work from still life, doing quick value studies in charcoal: just shapes of dark and light, no detail. Charcoal is fast so you can try several ideas before settling on one.

By the end, you’ll pick a final composition from your studies. The goal is that you can do this on your own next time, so you walk into your studio paintings with a solid composition already worked out, instead of guessing or skipping the step entirely.

Materials:

• vine charcoal

• compressed charcoal pencils (soft and medium)

• white charcoal pencil

• kneadable eraser and blending stump

• toned paper no smaller than 9x12 and drawing board