Practicing their shades of gray with Nils Johnson (left to right): Maryan Hopkins, Connie Wiletzky, Laurie Laramie, Mary Hogan, Mary Beth Fisher, Fran Fowler, Concepta Savage, and Margie Thompson
Nancy Friedman, Co-Education Chair
Once again, Nils Johnson teaches his shades of gray class, otherwise known as the value scale from black to white. Nils starts this class with a word warmup. Everyone paints what comes to mind with a couple of words of Nils’ choosing.
What is great about this class is you learn more than one skill. In this class, Nils adds some skills of drawing by demonstrating how a pear is just a circle with a triangle on top and a bottle is two different-sized rectangles with an oval for an opening. Then comes the hard part when you make about eight to 10 shades of gray using only black and white paint. These shades are then used to make a black and white painting on a 2-D canvas. With shadows and highlights, the 2-D painting will appear to be 3-D. The final touch is to paint over the monochromatic painting with a transparent acrylic paint to give the painting color. Not everyone got to the color part of this project, but did the more important parts of drawing and doing their value scales.
This class is a great learning project for the beginning painter in any medium and a great refresher for those who have not painted for a while and feel a bit rusty. Nils teaches this class at least once a year. Along with teaching palette knife painting and many other classes, Nils is also our treasurer, our woodworker, and all-around fix-it man.
If you are interested in art, stop by Studio II of the Creative Art Center (CAC). Studio II is the last one on the east end of the CAC. Our open hours are posted by the door monthly and change with the seasons.