This course introduces students to the basic principles of translating visual perception onto a two-dimensional painted surface. Students learn to paint what they see. The starting point of this enterprise is to consider the entire surface of the painting to be a group of interlocking flat shapes. They are given a simple limited palette. In the initial phase of the first painting students are limited to making pictures with a few flat shapes that cover the entire surface and have no color differentiation within them. As the painting progresses they are allowed to add some shapes. Soon it is apparent that the painting is fairly believable. Space and light have been created. This method prevents students from over rendering parts of the image (the eyes for example). Their paintings quickly become democratic compositions ("whole" paintings) with an overall sense of light

Topics