Brian Schumacher

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Brian Schumacher

Brian Schumacher Open Grisaille

Course Description

Open grisaille is one of the earliest of traditional methods used to lay-in the groundwork for fine oil painting. This class will explore the potential of open grisaille as a means towards creating a living image on a canvas or panel.

Many degrees of finish can be brought to an open grisaille, depending on how much information is needed to successfully move forward with a final painting. Through the process of applying thin, semi-transparent washes of monochromatic oil paint and turpentine (or equivalent) onto a white or lightly toned canvas, a simplified and foreshortened tonal range is used to establish the large movement of light across the canvas. No white or opaque paint is used, the white of the canvas serving as the lightest tonal note.

Working directly on the canvas from the model, emphasis in this class will be placed on the importance of one's first marks, seeing in simple, flat, interlocking shapes of light and shadows. What exactly is the nature of light and shadow? Where and why does one begin and the other end? These questions, as well as the process of seeking both a better understanding of the nature of the limited tonal range inherent to open grisaille, and a truer feeling for the large movement of light across the canvas -- seeing and executing proportions and composition through comparing the relationship of tonal shapes -- will serve as the emphasis for discussions and critiques.

Supply List one 12" x 16" canvas or panel, medium to smooth finish, preferably oil, alkyd, or lead ground palette, panel, or glass for mixing paint on assortment of brushes: synthetic rounds and filberts, #6/8/10/12 bristle filberts #6/8/10/12 optional: (1) larger synthetic filbert, #16 or #18 misc. painting supplies: metal cup or jar for solvent paint rag (old cotton t-shirt works well) VIVA paper towels "Turpenoid" solvent or equivalent (no turps) palette knife paint: burnt umber ivory black

Biography

Brian Schumacher is a former student of Jacob Collins and Michael Grimaldi. He also studied with Seth Ted Jacobs at the Ecole Albert de Fois in France, and at the Florence Academy of Art.

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