Light & Color Composition with Justine Thibault

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Learn the fundamentals of composing with light & color with Justine Thibault! Join Justine in this 5-week class and learn everything that goes into making eye-catching paintings with a beautifully designed sense of light. If you are interested in using color creatively in your work, this class is for you! There will be a combination of demos, lectures and homework assignments that we’ll review in class.

Duration: 5 weeks
Date & Time: Sundays, starting June 29th at 10:00 AM Eastern
Skill level: All skill levels welcome
Tiers: 12 Critique spots – Receive feedback or spectate without homework feedback
Format: 4-5 hour live class with combination of lectures, demos, and feedback. Recordings will be provided within 24 hours of each class.
Materials: Any digital or traditional mediums. Paintovers will be done digitally.

All weeks will be a combination of lecture, demos and feedback.

Week 1: Intro to composition

• Grids, directions, details repartition, abstract structure.
• What is composition? How do we plan a painting? How do we analyze the plans others made? What are relationships ? visual weight? contrast? design?
• Illustrative/realistic symbol/observed abstract/true
• We will go through a series of visual examples and analyze Master Painters work such as Caravaggio, Poussin, Manet, Sorolla, Ingres, Sargent, Payne etc

Week 2: Intro to value & edges

• Value is the link between colors/composition/design
• How do we integrate that in a painting process ? how do we use ? What is that step for ? decision making. Starting big to small. Designing in value, making a plan.
• Seeing the world in value & thinking light ahead.
• We will study the value structure of different movies, Master’s Paintings, and photography.

Week 3: Intro to color theory

• Types of lighting, color compositions, bouncing light. We will first study what is a color, and how it relates to other colors around it. Then through a series of visual examples (pictures, and Master’s painting) we will study how light reacts in different situations and how it affects objects and how we can render that in a realistic way in our paintings.

Week 4: How do we use color theory as a composition tool?

• Relationships, restricted palettes, designs, exposure.
• Through a series of visual examples with Master Painters study and demos, we will analyze their composition and design choices with colors and how we can integrate that in our own work.

Week 5: How do we integrate our knowledges to our work ? How do we go from a 2 value sketch to a final painted piece ?

• Developing your own painting method by understanding theory. Leaving space for instinct painting, trusting your eye, making mistakes, exploring
• Through demos and reacting on students work we will discuss how to organize the different steps for a successful painting.