Week One of the Mastery Program: A Journey Begins!

This first week was all about diving into the fundamentals. I started by gathering supplies and assembling an easel, which really set the stage.

Building the easel using the instructions was straightforward and easy. — Building the easel using the instructions was straightforward and easy when my husband lended a hand!

DIY Large art easel — Once we attached the lighting it looked quite impressive in the studio!

Then, I jumped into some basic sketching exercises, focusing on different shapes, using basic lines, and learning how to use varying pressure with my pencils. It felt really good to get into the flow of things!

hand and brush sketch — Learning how to draw proportions by drawing a paint brush in your hand.

using a scale tool to draw a shoe — This exercise teaches students how to capture proportions using a scale tool.

An oil painting assignment in week one!

I tried oil painting for the first time, which was both exciting and a little intimidating. This was a three phase process:

Paint by Subtraction:

blue jay oil painting in progress. — The subtractive method we learned was fascinating and felt like a unique way to add depth to our paintings.

It turns out, since we live in a high-humitity area, we shouldn’t have used the recommended amount of linseed oil, so it took several days for the painting to dry. It took so long, I decided to do an extra painting while this was drying.