Acadia Workshop Center
Please check back often as we add more artists to the schedule...
Workshops run 5 days, M-F, unless noted otherwise.
Neill Slaughter
All Media Workshop
August 6 - 10, 2012
Award winning artist and university professor Neill Slaughter has been teaching fine arts courses at the university level as well as exhibiting his drawings and paintings nationally and internationally for the past 34 years. Having also lived and taught abroad as well as traveling extensively throughout the world, Slaughter’s paintings often reflect the social conditions of his surroundings. Among his awards and honors, Professor Slaughter has received a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Scottish Arts Council Grant, an LMU Research Grant to Africa and a Fulbright Fellowship to India. In 2003 Professor Slaughter was presented the David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching granted by Long Island University and in 2008 mounted a thirty-year retrospective, which included a full color catalogue. In 2011 Professor Slaughter exhibited 33 paintings, all of a nautical nature, (some paintings specifically sited in Acadia Maine) at the Maritime Museum in Annapolis Maryland. Additional examples of Neill Slaughter’s art can be viewed on-line at his website.
Workshop Course Description:
This interdisciplinary drawing and painting workshop is structured for both the beginner as well as the more experienced artist. Working in the medium which best suits the student (drawing, water-based painting such as watercolor and acrylic or oil) provides an opportunity for guided exploration through a series of various drawing or painting studies designed to improve disciplined observation, while learning to develop a practical knowledge and empathy with materials as well as fundamental methods of procedure. While woking on location each session will focus on particular areas of study, ranging from composition to color, with much of the assessment of the work conducted on a one-to-one basis thereby encouraging individual growth. However, valuable feedback can also be gained during group critiques while viewing the work of ones peers.
Max # of students: 10
Student fee: $450
Artist website: www.neillslaughter.com
SUPPLY LIST:
DRAWING MATERIALS:
Charcoal – Vine and Compressed, Soft to Medium soft variety
Charcoal pencils –approximately two, soft to medium dark variety
Conte pencils – 1 black, 1 white and 1 sepia or sanguine
Conte sticks- medium soft variety; black, white and sepia or sanguine
Graphite pencils- H, HB, 2B, 6B and pencil sharpener
Erasures – Kneaded and white plastic
Drawing Board approximately 18x24 inches with two or more drawing board clips
White paper as well toned paper- gray, tan or blue gray for conte drawings,
5-10 sheets of each.
OPTIONAL Materials
Black watercolor tube - one medium round pointed and one inch flat W.C. brush
Note; sable is the best quality but sabline or squirrel or camel hair will suffice
Watercolor paper-150 lb. – 300lb. (heavier weight the better) Several sheets for wash drawings
Tin cans or cups for wash drawing
Portfolio
A set of Pastels: 12-24;can buy additional colors individually to expand palette
Variety of other colored drawing papers for pastels or conte crayons
Spray fixitive
Stomps; variety of sizes for blending charcoal, conte or pastels
Chamois cloth
Straight edge or ruler
Sandpaper block and or razor blade for sharpening charcoal pencils or conte
Crowquill pen & variety of points
India ink
Plastic tray for wash mixing
Small package of tissues
OIL PAINTING MATERIALS:
Paint:
White: Titanium or Weber Permalba White
Ivory Black
Brown: Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Raw Umber
Red: Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Orange, Alizarin Crimson
Yellow: Cadmium Light, Medium and Yellow Ochre
Blue: Cobalt Blue or Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine
Green: Viridian, Hookers or Sap Green (optional; Chromium Green Oxide,Turquoise)
Medium:
Liquin (8or 16 oz. jar)
Turpenoid (medium size can)
Brushes:
#1 Round, # 4 Round
#2 Filbert, #4 Filbert, # 6 Filbert #8 Filbert, #12 Filbert
Any other brushes you want . Personally I prefer hog hair bristle brushes for oil and sable or sabline for watercolor.
Painting Surfaces:
A variety of gessoed canvas boards or stretched canvases; suggested sizes; 12x16, 16x20 or 20x24". You may want to consider a couple square format as well if it suits you.
Palette:
Tear off paper palette or wooden palette
Easel:
Lightweight portable folding easel is best when working out of doors.
Miscellaneous Materials:
Rags or paper towels, palette knives, tin cans or jars with lids and tackle box for supplies.
WATERCOLOR MATERIALS:
Recommended Colors
Generally speaking, an artist’s palette of colors is a highly personal collection, which can be a wide array of warm and cool as well as bright and dull colors. For the beginner there is an appropriate range of colors that will serve the student well. I suggest the following tube watercolors for the palette:
1 Gray: Payne’s Gray, Davy’s Gray, or Neutral Gray. Payne’s is cool while Davy’s is warm and Neutral is a balanced of the two.
1 Violet: Cobalt Violet or Thalo Violet (short for Phathalocyanine) is a rather intense transparent dark tone of purple whereas Cobalt is a milder violet.
2 Blues: Cerulean and Ultramarine Light. Cerulean is like sky blue while all the ultramarines are darker, inkier and mixes well with alizarin crimson and other cool colors.
2 Greens: Virdian or Thalo (Winsor) plus Sap Green, Hooker’s Green or Winsor Emerald. Viridian and Thalo are darker cool bluish while Sap and Hooker’s are lighter and warmer
2 Yellows: Cadmium Yellow and Yellow Ochre. Cadmium is bright and mixes well with reds to makeorange or ultramarine blue for green, whereas ochre is darker and more of an earth tone. Another yellow to consider is Naples yellow, which has white mixed in to create a sort of tan tone.
1 Orange: One can create orange but it is convenient to have Cadmium Orange already mixed on the palette.
2 Reds: Alizarin Crimson is cool and darker than the bright, warm Cadmium Red or Cadmium Light. Alizarin is perfect for creating purple mixed with Ultramarine Blue or Thalo as well as a pink when thinned out. Cadmium Red Light mixes well with yellows and other warm tones.
2 Earth Colors: Burnt Sienna, and Raw Sienna. Reddish Burnt and Leather-Tan are the most transparent “earth” colors, although Venetian red is another option.
Palette:
A metal butchers tray or plastic watercolor palette with dividers.
Brushes:
You will need at least THREE brushes: a #12 or 14 round brush, a # 4or 5 round brush with a fine point, and a 1or 2 inch broad, flat, wash brush. While I would hope you could afford expensive Kolinsky Sables, the beginner can get by with the less expensive alternative.
Paper:
“Student” grade paper will do, if one simply can not afford anything else, however, I really think one should purchase professional watercolor paper, such as the Arches or Fabriano or Whatman varieties, which are 100% rag fiber. When held up to the light, the logo is visible, which indicates the correct side to be used. Manufactures offer a choice of three standard finishes.
1. Hot Press: A smooth surface polished by a hot iron. It is designed for detailed rendering and fine brushwork. It buckles fairly easily and lacks the tooth needed for broad washes. Additionally, it leaves stain rings when wet.
2. Rough: A heavy textured paper, which is primarily used with a dry brush technique that can be tough for the beginner to use properly.
3. Cold Press: The all-purpose paper that is best suited for the beginner. It is fairly smooth, yet there is sufficient tooth to hold wet passages attractively.
The traditional manner for preparing watercolor paper is to soak it in water and then stretch it over a board, generally held in place by paper tape, which has glue on one side. Sometimes staples or tacks are also used. When the paper dries it shrinks and becomes quite taut. When re-wetted for washes it won’t buckle. One alternative is to purchase a watercolor “block,” which actually is a pad of paper that already has each piece of paper fixed in place with a special sizing running around all the edges. Another alternative is simply to use masking tape to hold down the paper. The tape helps prevent buckling and when carefully removed produces a cleanborder around the watercolor. Paper comes in varying thickness known as “weights”. A medium weight 140-lb. Cold Press paper is recommended for the beginner although 200 -300 lb. is better. The standard size of a sheet of watercolor paper measures 22 inches x 30 inches. These can then be cut or torn down to smaller sizes if desired.
Additional Materials:
1.tin can or plastic cup to hold water for washes and cleaning brushes while working.
2. pencil (H or HB lead) and non-staining white vinyl erasure. It is important when sketching out the composition to not use a leadthat is too dark or to press too hard, thereby leaving an indention in the paper.
3.pencil sharpener
4.masking tape
5.sponges
6.box of tissues
Useful Extras:
1. ruler
2. masking fluid to save highlights
3. Turkish towel or dish towel used to blot water from brush
4. atomizer used to spray mist on palette or paper to keep an area damp
5. gummed tape 2 inch brown wrapping tape
6. single edge razor blade or mat knife sometimes used to scratch out an area in the watercolor or to trim tape or paper border
7. paper flattener such as two matching sheets of plexiglass or particle board
portfolio to protect and store artwork
