Painting & Drawing Workshops

Figure Drawing
1-Day Workshop

LIMITED TO 9 STUDENTS

Join Shane this December for an in-depth Figure Drawing workshop designed to refine your approach to drawing the human figure from a live model. The session will kick off with exercises and demonstrations on general human proportions, followed by dynamic gesture drawings to explore movement, scale, and balance. You’ll then work through several 10-minute drawings, focusing on armature angles, positive/negative space, and contour lines. Shane will guide you through longer 20-minute sessions to help you tackle light and shadow, depth, foreshortening, and the complexities of the head, hands and feet. The workshop will conclude with a 50-minute drawing that ties together everything you'll have learned. Don’t miss this opportunity to sharpen your figure drawing skills in Shane's art studio!

Students will be need to bring:

• vine charcoal sticks
• soft and extra soft charcoal pencils
• compressed charcoal sticks
• light pastel/conté crayon
• assortment of blending stumps (tortillons)
• kneaded eraser
• 18 x 24 inches newsprint pad (smooth finish preferred)
• 18 x 24 inches white drawing paper/pad

Payment and Registration

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.

Plein Air Oil Painting
1-day Workshop

LIMITED TO 7 STUDENTS

Oil painting experience required.

Step-by-step guidance painting the landscape from life using oils

Cobb County students can meet at the Artisan Resource Center at 8 a.m. We’ll carpool to the Adairsville, GA cattle farm location (enrollees will receive the address and directions). Shane will demonstrate core plein air painting concepts while students sketch and take notes. Students are encouraged to paint a thumbnail study and then begin painting with a limited palette on a toned canvas. Shane will work individually with each student, providing suggestions to enhance their painting. A group critique of participants’ works will take place during the last 20 minutes.

The painting location will be away from our vehicles, so please arrive promptly at 9 a.m. to ride a gator terrain vehicle. Students must bring their own easels, supplies, and a sack lunch.

A second open session is planned at 2 p.m. with a live male model costumed as a cowboy. This will be another opportunity to paint another painting during the day until 7 p.m. Pre-registration and payment required: $25.

Required Art Supplies

• your easel (light-weight tripod easel, a half-size or full size French easel, or a pochade box easel is recommended)
• a small sketchbook, a couple of dark charcoal or graphite pencils for notes and thumbnail compositional studies
• at least two of the following sized painting grounds: 8x10, 9x12, 11x14, or 12x16 inches canvas board, painting panel, canvas pad/oil paper, or loose canvas on a drawing board
• a disposable 12 x 16 paper palette pad, a hand-held wooden palette, (or a glass palette you may already own and have successfully used before en plein air)
• four or five clean filbert, flat and round brushes that you already use for your oil painting (long-handled, long-bristled recommended with brush heads ranging between a "0" round and 1/8-inch to 1-inch)
• diamond-head metal palette knife
• metal or solvent-safe plastic container mineral spirits
• rags or paper towels
• Oil Colors (a simplified palette—but feel free to bring more colors):
  • Titanium White
  • Cadmium Yellow Light
  • Viridian Green
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Permanent Alizarin Crimson [or Alizarine Crimson hue]
• tote bag to carry all items you're not able to hold in your easel

Other Recommended Supplies

• wide-brimmed hat
• sunscreen
• sack lunch, snacks, and bottled water
• insect repellant
• umbrella for easel

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.

Portrait Oil Painting
2-day Workshop

LIMITED TO 6 STUDENTS

Experience painting with oils is highly suggested.

Step-by-step guidance painting a portrait from a live model

Shane will teach participants to draw and paint the human head from a live model with accurate proportions, tonal values, and color to depict a convincing three-dimensional illusion. Using Shane’s method of efficient palette mixing of flesh tones, students will map their drawings accurately and block in lights and shadows using a tonal "couche" layer before painting the model's subtle facial features. Lastly, students will refine and render the intricate forms of facial features, neck-line clothing, and hair.

Students will be need to bring:

• two 20 x 16 or 16 x 12 inches canvas, linen, or smooth wood panels for final portrait
• two sheets of white drawing paper or a drawing pad which is the same dimensions as your final portrait ground
• glass or wooden palette
• selection of 4-5 long-handled brushes (filberts, flats, and rounds) ranging in widths of 1/8th-inch to 1-inch
• metal or glass jar for Gamsol mineral spirits
• Oil colors:
  • Titanium White
  • Cadmium Yellow Light
  • Cadmium Red Medium
  • Permanent Alizarin Crimson [or Alizarine Crimson hue]
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Cerulean Blue
  • Permanent Sap Green [or Sap Green hue]

Pre-payment is required to register. Want to pay by cash or check? Email Shane McDonald or leave a voicemail at (770) 218-0676 to let him know you're stopping by to pay or that the check is in the mail.