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7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
1/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
The Virtual Art Academy Reference Library
Overview
Barry John Raybould, MA (Cantab)2005-2013 Barry John Raybould. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified,these electronic materials are for your personal and non-commercial use, and youmay not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, reproduce, publish, license,create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information obtained from thesematerials without the written permission from the author.
The Virtual ArtAcademy Building Blocks
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
2/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 2
Table of ontentsAbout this Course Unit ...................................................................................................................3
Organization of the Virtual Art Academy Program .....................................................................4
Introduction to the Building Blocks................................................................................................ 6
Building Block: Brushwork .......................................................................................................... 11
Building Block: Color ...................................................................................................................11
Building Block: Composition .......................................................................................................12
Building Block: Concept .............................................................................................................. 12
Building Block: Drawing.............................................................................................................. 13
Building Block: Form ................................................................................................................... 13
Building Block: Notan ..................................................................................................................14
Building Block: Observation ........................................................................................................14
Building Block: Process & Materials & Equipment..................................................................... 15
History of the Virtual Art Academy ............................................................................................. 16
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................19
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
3/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 3
ABOUTTHISCOURSEUNIT
In this course unit The Virtual Art Academy is a highly structured and comprehensive program.The concept behind the Virtual Art Academy program is that you need to build
up your skills in nine key areas in order to paint well. Many students are
frustrated with their progress, and it is usually because they are lacking skills in
one of these nine areas. We call these areas the Virtual Art Academy Building
Blocks. The full program will build your skills in every one of these nine
Building Blocks.
This course unit contains an overview of the nine Virtual Art Academy Building
Blocks. In this course unit you will find:
the structure of the four major components of the program: the Reference
Library, the Assignments Library, the Video Library, and the Online Campus.
the contents of the nine Building Blocks.
how the visual music and poetry model relates to the Virtual Art Academy
curriculum.
a brief history of the creation of the Virtual Art Academy.
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
4/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 4
ORGANIZATIONOFTHEVIRTUALARTACADEMY PROGRAM
THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF THE VIRTUAL ART ACADEMYPROGRAM
WORLDWIDECOMMUNITY
THE ONLINECAMPUS
The Virtual Art Academy
Reference Library
The Virtual Art Academy
Assignment LibraryThe Virtual Art Academy
Video Library
The Virtual Art Academy Reference Library
consists of the course units organized into nine
Building Blocks. This is the background reading
material you need to read before doing the
assignments.
The Virtual Art Academy Assignment Library is
where the real learning actually takes place. Each
assignment is designed to build a particular skill that
is a necessary part of your foundation for learning
how to paint.
The Virtual Art Academy Reference Library
The Virtual Art Academy Assignment Library
The Virtual Art Academy Video Library
supplements the Reference Library by providing
extra information and explanation. It is based around
the lectures that Barry John Raybould gives to his
students in his live workshops.
The Virtual Art Academy Online Campus is an
online forum where students from all over the world
get together in the virtual world to share their
assignments, providing both motivation and
feedback on the assignments themselves. Students
who take an active part in this part of the program
learn the fastest.
The Virtual Art Academy Video Library
The Virtual Art Academy Online Campus
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
5/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 5
ORGANIZATIONOFTHEVIRTUALARTACADEMY PROGRAM(CONTINUED)
THE NINE BUILDING BLOCKS
Notes:
Materials & Equipment is a part of the Process Building Block.
Visual Music & Poetry is an overview of all nine Building Blocks.
The Virtual Art Academy Reference Library
comprises the nine Building Blocks shown in the
above diagram. Each Building Block is a major
skill area that you need to master in order to paint
well:
Process: step-by-step procedures for how to cre-
ate a painting.
Drawing: how to draw accurate shapes to repre-
sent nature accurately.
Form: how to make things look solid and three-
dimensional.
Observation: how to learn to see values and col-
ors accurately the critical skill you need to
make things look real and capture the true feel-
ing of your subject or of a specific place.
Notan: how to create a beautiful foundation of
dark, light, and gray shapes as the basis of your
composition.
Building Blocks
Composition: the key ideas in how to develop
the abstract design of your painting and make
your work interesting to look at.
Color: how to develop beautiful color harmony
in your paintings.
Brushwork: how to add a deeper layer of interest
and vitality to your paintings and make them far
more interesting for viewers to look at.
Concept: how to give your paintings meaning
and touch the emotions of your viewers.
Building Blocks (continued)
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
6/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 6
INTRODUCTIONTOTHEBUILDINGBLOCKS
Brushwork This building block concerns how you apply the paint to your working surface.If you look closely at a painting with good brushwork you see a small abstract
painting that is nothing like the painting when you look at it from a distance.
This is the wonderful thing about good brushwork - one painting becomes
dozens or even hundreds, depending on where you look! This is the near music
of a painting.
Brushwork is another of those aspects of painting (such as accurate observation
of hue changes on forms) that distinguishes the great masters. Exciting
brushwork adds interest and vitality to your painting, and is what makes a
painting a painting and not a photograph.
Color Color is what creates excitement in a painting. This Building Block is concernedwith the design aspect of color how to use it effectively in the abstract design
of a painting to create the musicin your work.
This course starts by giving you a review of all the basic knowledge you need toknow about color, including its attributes of hue, value, and saturation, the key
color wheels including the Munsell system, and the basic color harmony
strategies for simple analogous and complementary schemes to more advanced
schemes such as the double split complementary scheme and the adulterated
primary scheme.
Building on this knowledge you will learn more advanced principles used by the
master colorists, such as the principle of mouse colors, color vibration and
optical mixing, and value compression using constant saturation scales.
I have heard many people say that color is personal and that you need to
discover your own feeling for color. There is some truth to this but I am not sosure I believe this entirely. One of my earliest influences was one of the most
famous landscape painters in England, John Constable. I like this quote of his:
Painting is a science and should be pursued as an inquiry into the laws
of nature.
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
7/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 7
INTRODUCTIONTOTHEBUILDINGBLOCKS(CONTINUED)
Composition Composition is the key to successful painting. Without a strong composition,you can spend an enormous amount of time on crafting an accurate
representation of your subject, but you will never end up with a work of art.
It is the composition of a painting that makes it interesting to look at and keeps
the viewers attention. Composition is a major part of the music of a painting.Sometimes I find a painting in a museum that I can just sit and stare at for half
an hour and always find new things to look at and enjoy.
In fact, one of the criteria by which I judge the quality of a painting is how long
you can enjoy looking at it. A painting that you can enjoy looking at for a half an
hour to me has far more quality than a painting that you can only find interesting
for 30 seconds or so. Much of this quality is due to how you deal with focal
points and eye movement, two of the key units in this Building Block. Space
division plays a big part in eye movement, as does the use of line and contrast.
These topics are also covered in detail in this Building Block.
The second key element in the visual poetry and music modelis the music of apainting or its abstract design. Although your inspiration for a painting usually
(but not always) comes from nature, it is very rare that you find a perfect
composition in front of you. To make the painting interesting for your viewer
you need to design, or compose, the shapes and colors in front of you in order to
create an aesthetic arrangement that communicates the concept of your painting.
This Building Block describes the key principles of composition, including the
top level principle of unity and variety, one of the most important principles in
composition. You will also learn about the key ideas ofspace division, contrast,
focal areasand eye movementas well as how to use organizational structures to
give your paintings unity.
Composition is a convention founded upon wide principles. If it is notyet demonstrated why certain arrangements of form and color give
pleasure and other arrangements give pain, it is not a question for us, but
for the scientist. We know that it is so, and therefore, without going into
the origin of the pain or pleasure, we must accept the facts as we find
them.Sir Alfred East, R.A., P.R.B.A., R.E.
To say to the painter, that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to theplayer, that he may sit on the piano. That Nature is always right, is an
assertion, artistically, as untrue, as it is one whose truth is universally
taken for granted. Nature is very rarely right, to the extent even, that it
might also be said that Nature is usually wrong: that is to say, the
condition of things that shall bring about the perfection of harmony
worthy a picture is rare, and not common at all.James McNeill Whistler, Mr. Whistlers Ten OClock 1885.
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
8/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 8
INTRODUCTIONTOTHEBUILDINGBLOCKS(CONTINUED)
Concept In this Building Block I talk about those things that turn a painting into a workof art, and that make the difference between an ordinary painting and a
masterpiece. I will introduce you to a whole new way of looking at paintings,
and explain why you are learning all the individual skills that are included in
each of the other Building Blocks.
When you learn to become aware of thepoetryin a painting you will begin to
see paintings in a new light. You will also start to understand why certain master
paintings in museums are considered a masterpiece. It is this element of poetry
in addition to the musicof a painting that distinguishes a master painter. When
you master the ideas in this course unit, your paintings will start to communicate
much more emotion and feeling, and come to life. They will become much more
meaningful.
Drawing There are many different techniques for learning drawing gesture, contour,envelopes, scribble line, mass, and so on. But with all these techniques to
choose from, where do you start to learn how to draw? How do you decidewhich technique to choose? In these drawing course units you will learn all the
individual techniques, and will I explain how to put it them together so you will
learn how to draw better.
Although I've taken numerous drawing classes in my career over the years, I did
not find out about some of the most valuable techniques until much later on. If I
had known about some of these techniques earlier, it would have saved me a
great deal of frustration! So I've included all these for you in these course units.
This course will teach you a basic drawing procedure that you can use to draw
accurate shapes. The emphasis in this course is in getting the proportions
correct, in contrast with some other drawing courses that focus initially onexpression. I believe that unless you draw the shapes fairly accurately in the first
place, no amount of expression will result in good work. On the other hand, if
you have a solid foundation of accurate shapes, then you can build expression
on top of this foundation and produce truly powerful work.
Form Knowing how to make things look three-dimensional is fundamental to makingyour painting look real. Course unit 1 includes an important technique called the
two-value statement which is used for capturing the basics of form in a few
minutes.
Course unit 2 expands on this to include more detailed knowledge about thedifferent planes of the light and shade.
Course unit 3 contains some valuable information which was almost lost to art
schools, on the hue changes that occur on a form when light hits it - the secret to
beautiful color work.
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
9/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 9
INTRODUCTIONTOTHEBUILDINGBLOCKS(CONTINUED)
Materials &Equipment
Choosing the right equipment and materials is important to making your life
easy while painting. Painting is difficult enough without having to struggle with
your equipment. Therefore it is a good idea to spend some time to get yourself
organized with the right equipment. The effort will pay off in the long run. A lot
of the information in this building block is from my personal experience, and
tips that I have picked up from many experienced painters over the years.
Tip: buying materials and equipment
Where I am aware of a supplier for a particular item of equipment, or some
particular materials, I have put that information in the Glossary. You will see
that there is a glossary entry for an item, if you see the word italicizedin the
text. An italicized word means that there is a corresponding entry in the
Glossary.
Notan Why does a certain painting win first place in an art competition? The answerlies a lot in its notan structure. Of all the parts of a painting that enhance its
abstract design, the far music of a painting, the notan structure is the mostimportant.
I created this painting Sunset over Sand City
in the industrial district on the Monterey
Peninsula in California. This particular painting
took first place in a landscape painting
competition and won an award in the Carmel
Plein Air Art Festival in the same year. This
was about two years after I started to paint full
time. There was no magic to this I was just
lucky enough to have discovered someoneteaching a course in notan the year before, and I
applied the principles I had learned to create a
solid notan foundation for this painting.
A well organized arrangement of dark and light
shapes creates an impression of beauty,
regardless of either the colors used or of the subject matter. This is called
notan from the Japanese word that means dark light harmony. Just about
every successful master painting has a very strong notan structure. Notan is such
a powerful factor in the success of your painting that it is one of the first things
you should study.
The process may seem simple, but it takes a lot of practice to do well. In this
Building Block Ive put all of the tips and tricks Ive learned about this subject
over the years since I first learned about it, and I am continuing to learn more
each year. Most students have found that studying this Building Blocks pays off
very quickly in improving their paintings. That is as true for experienced
painters as it is for beginners.
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
10/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 10
INTRODUCTIONTOTHEBUILDINGBLOCKS(CONTINUED)
Observation This Building Block is all about accurate observation. The realism in yourpainting comes from accurately depicting in paint what you see in front of you.
You do not need to learn how to paint trees, skies, rocks, water, and so on. You
need to learn to see trees, skies, rocks and water. Once you see it, painting is
easy. When a student says I cant seem to mix the right color, the problem is
rarely in the mixing but nearly always in an inability to see the color. Not only is
realism affected by your ability to observe color accurately, but so too is color
harmony. The color of sunlight together with the effects of atmospheric
perspective and reflected light often (but not always) produce a natural color
harmony. If you can observe this harmony accurately, then your painting will
have automatic color harmony. The color problems in our paintings are often
our left brain taking over and telling us what the color should be as opposed to
what we are actually seeing.
Process The Process Building Block covers the step-by-step mechanical procedures of
creating a painting. I have put these course units into a separate Building Blockbecause, whereas all the other Building Blocks are mostly independent of the
medium you are using, this Building Block is specific to oils, acrylics, or
watercolors.
Visual Music& Poetry
In this section of the course I talk about those things that turn a painting into a
work of art and that make the difference between an ordinary painting and a
masterpiece. I will introduce you to a whole new way of looking at paintings,
and explain why all of the nine Building Blocks that comprise this program are
important to the creation of a true work of art.
In a sense, this discussion is at the highest level of painting and can only be
appreciated when you have a feel for each of the nine Building Blocks. However
I think if you are an absolute beginner you need to understand these main ideas
right away so that you know how to evaluate paintings when you see them in
galleries or on the internet. As you progress through the program, this topic will
become clearer and clearer.
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Overview 11
BUILDINGBLOCK: BRUSHWORK
The character and feeling of your brushwork goes
a long way to increasing the pleasure and delight
of the person viewing your work. How you apply
the paint also determines how much carryingpower and luminosity your painting will have.
Whatever your media, brushwork (or mark
making in the case of pastel painting), is what
makes a painting a painting and not a photograph.
BUILDINGBLOCK: COLOR
Color is why many people love painting. This
Building Block will help you understand your
pigments better, decide which palettes to use and
when, and create beautiful harmony in your
paintings.
Course Unit 1 - Techniques
variety thick & thin thin darks, thick lights impasto
large to small point, line, and mass glazes feathering
palette knife carving out contrast eye movement
Course Unit 2 - Descriptive Brushwork
directional brushstrokes texture movement
emotional mood perspective
Course Unit 3 - Focal Areas
focus & detail mop/rigger freehand vs. control hand
strokes
Course Unit 4 - Suggestion
suggestion selective rendering simulation of detail
pentimenti transparent pigments silhouette accurate
color spots
Course Unit 5 - Edges
hard and soft edges lost and found edges color
changes
Course Unit 6 - Optical Color Mixingoptical color mixing complementary, triadic, analogous
color mixing wet-in-wet adjacent brushstrokes
multicolored brushstrokes layered washes thick wet-
on-wet layering multi-layered wet over dry
Course Unit 1 - Key Concepts
color wheels complements triadic color wheel
munsell color wheel tints & shades secondary colors
vivid colors & biases
Course Unit 2 - Palettes
choosing a palette thirteen palettes from monochrome to
vivid full spectrum organizing your palette
Course Unit 3 - Grays
making grays low saturation fields complementary
contrast Godloves principle darks, lights, grays
middle value ranges
Course Unit 4 - Color Harmonies
balanced complementary analogous hybrid
Course Unit 5 - Poly-Isochromes &Spectrum Palettes
Birren color triangle mono-isochromes and chiaroscuro
poly-isochromes Ostwald/Munsell tone scales tonal
influence composing on the palette
Course Unit 6 - Advanced Color
luster iridescence luminosity color preferences
color threads color bridges nine-pile gradations
glowing whites keying whites camouflage
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
12/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 12
BUILDINGBLOCK: COMPOSITION
You can do a great copy of your subject, but
without a strong composition, your painting will
have no impact. All the key principles of
composition are covered in detail in this BuildingBlock. Principles are explained by using
examples of the authors own work to break down
how they are constructed, as well using example
of old master paintings. This is probably the most
comprehensive treatment of this important topic
you will see anywhere.
BUILDINGBLOCK: CONCEPT
Simply creating a good representation of a subject
is not the same thing as making art. Although
necessary, a good representation is not enough.
You need to communicate something to your
viewer some emotion or idea, or your painting
will be nothing more than an illustration. This is
what is called the Visual Poetry of a painting,
and is what distinguishes the great master painters.
Course Unit 1 - Unity & Variety
visual music principles of composition unity & variety
developing compositions harmony dominance
shape variety redesigning nature linear sketch
Course Unit 2 - Space Division
unequal space division informal subdivisions
inequality threes odd numbers negative space
boundary relationships tangent avoidance viewfinder cropping rabatment shape simplification baselines
foreground overlapping forms right angles
symmetry rhythm tie together
Course Unit 3 - Organizational structures
organizational structures
Course Unit 4 - Contrast
shape saturation value temperature line
brushwork texture size active & passive mix
Course Unit 5 - Focal Point
focal point secondary focal point directing lines
isolation one thirds
Course Unit 6 - Eye Movement
eye pathways repeating color spots guiding lights &
darks entering point density of space division
Course Unit 7 - Line
graceful line interrelationship transition
counterpoint
Course Unit 1 - Types of Concepts
emotional aesthetic descriptive narrative complex
message
Course Unit 2 - Creating a Concept
subordination relationship emphasis concept
simplification exaggeration choosing subject matter
developing a style creating a concept
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
13/24Edition 2.0 www.VirtualArtAcademy.com 2013 Barry John Raybould
Overview 13
BUILDINGBLOCK: DRAWING
The old saying goes that you can paint only as well
as you can draw. Here are some of the secrets the
author discovered along the way that will greatly
help your drawing. One of the course units willhelp to de-mystify the complex topic of perspective
and make it easier to understand, and another one
will teach you how to draw those things that are
very difficult, such as arches, wheels, and
complicated street scenes.
BUILDINGBLOCK: FORM
An understanding of form is essential for giving
your paintings a three-dimensional quality. If you
do not have a solid understanding of the material in
this Building Block, your still lifes will not appear
three-dimensional, and you will never be able to
make figures or portraits look real.
Course Unit 1 - Gesture
setting up your environment drawing hand position
quick sketch glancing scribble line gesture mass
gesture
Course Unit 2 - Accuracy
angular transfer triangulation envelope glass
drawing level & plumb lines comparative
measurement midpoint establishment
Course Unit 3 - Contour
right brain switching contour drawing straight line
approximation
Course Unit 4 - Putting It All Together
using the mass drawing approach step-by-step using the
linear drawing approach step-by-step
Course Unit 5 - Basic Perspective
horizon lines vanishing points perspective center
drawing ellipses drawing cylinders hemispheres &
umbrellas fixing a complex drawing
Course Unit 6 - Advanced Perspective
streets upright objects tiles dividing spaces centers
of circles & ellipses drawing cylinders accurately
drawing ellipses accurately
Course Unit 1 - Two-Value Statement
light & shade two-value statement selecting a
viewpoint geometric forms general to specific
simplifying complex forms
Course Unit 2 - Planes of the Light & Shade
how to paint the form shadow & cast shadow light
half tone center light reflected light highlight dark
accents and edge planes squaring off forms painting
trees as geometrical forms middle value shadows
Course Unit 3 - Hue Changes on the Form
cool light warm shadows warm light cool shadows
hue changes in the light saturation changes in the light
adding color to half tones color changes from colored
light sources modeling the form with color
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
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Overview 14
BUILDINGBLOCK: NOTAN
This is the structure of the dark and light shapes in
your painting. A good notan structure is the
hallmark of all great masterpieces. In this Building
Block you will learn all the skills you need to buildthe value structure of a painting, in order to give
the design a solid foundation. This is the aspect of
painting that most beginners, and even more
experienced painters, do not understand well.
BUILDINGBLOCK: OBSERVATION
Much of painting is not about how you put paint on
the canvas but about how to see. This Building
Block will teach you the critical skills of how to
see color and values. With this knowledge your
paintings will automatically become more realistic.
You will also learn how to give your landscapes
depth and mood using atmospheric perspective, as
well as tips to make your trees, rocks, water, and
skies, look much more realistic.
Course Unit 1 - What Is Notan
two value notan three value notan four value notan
notan design planning your notan mass notan notan
sketch transfer notan pens notan pastels exploratory
scribbles
Course Unit 2 - Basic Notan Design
dominant values shape distinction linking lights
linking darks
Course Unit 3 - Advanced Notan Design
flattening values analyzing values four-value study
middle values counterchange alternating lights &
darks spotting keys high key paintings
Course Unit 4 - Contour Notan
mass versus contour notan interesting silhouette
creating a contour notan in ink
Course Unit 5 - Gradation and Edge Notans
gradation edge notan
Course Unit 6 - Notan Sketchbooksexamples of two-value, three-value, four-value and edge
notan sketches
Course Unit 1 - Values
value scale comparing values value finder black
mirror limited value study seven-value study
reference values black & white images posterizingimages exploratory scribbles
Course Unit 2 - Color
saturation hue & temperature Munsell notation
matching colors matching values color maps color
studies color dragging colored light sources block
studies
Course Unit 3 - Atmospheric Perspective
depth & atmospheric perspective diminishing size
baseline receding lines overlapping forms dark
accents changes in value changes in saturation
changes in hue
Course Unit 4 - Land & Sky
dome of the sky clouds fog moonlight reflected
light cast shadows
Course Unit 5 - Water
oceans & lakes reflections waves
Course Unit 6 - Itness
what is itness observing the itness of different objects
trees rocks buildings
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Overview 15
BUILDINGBLOCK: PROCESS&
MATERIALS& EQUIPMENT
This Building Block gives you detailed step-by-
step process for how to create a painting. It will
show you how to paint in the alla prima or directstyle, using oils, acrylics or watercolors. An alla
prima painting is one that is created in one session.
In the Materials & Equipment part of this BuildingBlock, learn all about how to organize yourself and
your equipment. It includes information on paints,
pigments, easels, painting supports, and all the
other materials and equipment you need for
painting. Another section covers everything you
need to know about how to set up your studio and
also how to work outdoors or en plein air in
comfort. Organization is key to becoming a
successful artist.
Process:
Course Unit 1 - Alla Prima Painting
nine step alla prima process notan painting oil and
acrylic quick color sketch
Course Unit 2 - Watercolor Step-by-Step
eight step watercolor process watercolor quick color
sketchCourse Unit 3 - Working from Photographic Reference
Materials & Equipment:
Course Unit 1 - Paints and Pigments
properties and types of pigments choosing acrylic paints
choosing watercolor paints tube wringer
Course Unit 2 - Mediums and Varnishes
oil mediums solvents varnishes reworking paintings
oiling out retouch varnish
Course Unit 3 - Oil/Acrylic Painting Supports - Studio
types of painting supports stretching canvas gluingsupports to mounting boards preparing supports sizes
primers grounds cutting panels old painting suppor drying racks
Course Unit 4 - Oil/Acrylic Painting Supports - Plein A
lightweight painting supports loose canvas masking tap
drying paintings quickly drying boxes painting suppo
carriers stretched canvas carrier brackets
Course Unit 5 - Watercolor Painting Supports
watercolor paper preparing canvas and linen for
watercolor stretching paper
Course Unit 6 - Oil & Acrylic Brushestypes of brushes brushes for travelling brush holders
brush cleaners brush cleaning pots palette knives
Course Unit 7 - Watercolor Brushes
types of brushes brush holders and cleaning pots frisk
Course Unit 8 - Oil/Acrylic Easels & Palettes - Studio
oil and acrylic painting studio easels palettes water tra
organizer box
Course Unit 9 - Oil/Acrylic Easels & Palettes - Plein A
oil and acrylic plein air painting easels superlightweigh
systems palettes palette carriers storing wet paint
Course Unit 10 - Watercolor Easels & Palettes
watercolor easels palettes
Course Unit 11 - Organizing Your Studio
studio lights mirrors taboret trash can air cleaner
gloves hand cleaners cataloging paintings
photographing your work framing
Course Unit 12 - Organizing Plein Air Painting
packing list umbrellas stool mirrors clothing ma
stick medium cup trash can paper towels carriers
7/22/2019 The VIrtual Art Academy Building Blocks
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Overview 16
HISTORYOFTHEVIRTUALARTACADEMY
How the course wascreated
From the early days of my art career I have been fortunate enough to have
studied with some great artists. To capture this valuable information I have
always kept detailed notes. The more I learned, the more notes I accumulated,
until I had a very large and good body of knowledge. The only problem was that
it was becoming extremely difficult to refer back to them. The notes were
scattered about dozens of note books and sketchbooks. Finding them when I
needed them was becoming next to impossible.
In addition, over the years I have gathered a personal library of over one
hundred how to art books. Although many of them contained some valuable
nuggets of information, they were usually buried deep in long paragraphs of
text. This meant that it was almost impossible to go back and find these valuable
nuggets of information when I needed them.
Also I had found that some of the best information was in books written fifty to
a hundred years ago. In those days, there was not so much commercial pressure
for the quick fixes and simplistic step-by-steps you find in many contemporary
publications. Consequently, many of these old texts included much more detail
and discussion about the finer points of painting. Because of their age, many of
those books were out of print and extremely difficult to find. Because I usually
had to return these books to friends or libraries, I had to copy out the important
information by hand more notes to add to the dozens of notebooks I already
had!
For all these reasons I started trying to organize this knowledge in such a way
that I could easily refer back to it again when I had a particular painting
problem.
During the late 90s and early 00s I started to run workshops in California. My
students found that the way I analyzed paintings was novel to them and urged
me to write a book sowing the seeds for what was to become the Virtual Art
Academy Reference Library. I started to organize the knowledge I had
gathered, and a one-book project grew to ten books, then twenty and by 2003 I
finally had around thirty course units, each covering an important specific topic
in painting. Because the regular art book publishers have a rigid standard format
for their art instruction books of 175 pages with mostly illustrations and very
little in-depth discussion of painting I decided to self-publish, and the Virtual
Art Academy was born.
Edition 1 was published in 2003 and included around 30 course units. Within a
couple of years the course expanded to around 50 course units, and InternationalArtist Magazine endorsed the program and offered me a regular monthly
column. From 2006 to 2007, twenty short video lectures were added to the
course. The lectures were the basis of the methodology I taught my students
during my week-long workshops. A couple of years later, when I discovered
that almost half of my students were watercolor painters, I began to add more
specific information for that medium.
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HISTORYOFTHEVIRTUALARTACADEMY(CONTINUED)
How the course wascreated (continued)
The course never remained static as I continued to learn more myself, and I
produced continual updates every month or so from 2007 onwards. These were
released to members of the new Online Campus, which was started around
2008/9.
By 2010, the course had grown so much that it was due for a re-organization. Inthe process of organizing Edition 2, I added many more new examples to further
explain the key principles of painting. To make these principles clearer, I used
extensive examples of paintings of old masters (including late 18th and 20th
century masters), as well as new examples of my own work, which had matured
considerably from the time I wrote the first edition.
In parallel with the reorganization of the reference library, I also created a new
sequenced program of instruction that beginner artists could use to gradually
built up their skills over a period of years by starting with the basic topics then
moving to more advanced topics. This became the new Virtual Art Academy
Apprentice Program. More experienced artists were able to select the areas of
each Building Block that they wanted to focus on and build their own custom
learning path by jumping ahead in the program to the third or fourth years.
The reorganization took three years, and Edition 2 was released in 2013.
Much valuable knowledge on painting that was taught up until about a century
ago has been nearly lost as a result of the 20th century modernism movement in
art. My hope is that with the Virtual Art Academy project, that knowledge will
now be saved and preserved for the future. Not only will this classical
knowledge be rescued from obscurity, but it will be integrated with the
innovations in painting discovered during the 20th century, to form a new body
of advanced knowledge on the art of painting for the 21st century.
Barry John Raybould
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About the Virtual ArtAcademy teaching
materials format
A key feature of the Virtual Art Academy course materials is the way they have
been professionally mapped into a structured format to make your learning
easier. The format is compact, without an excess of words, and written in such a
way that does not allow for vagueness and ambiguity. This is done through the
use of clear definitions and numerous examples to make the concepts clearer. As
a result, the Virtual Art Academy materials are much easier to understand and
learn from than traditionally structured books. This is particularly importantwhen the underlying ideas and principles are complex, as they are in painting.
The reason I have been able to do this is because in a previous career I was
fortunate enough to have acquired extensive training in a proprietary, structured
writing methodology called Information Mapping a methodology that is, in
fact, used by hundreds of major US and international businesses to help their
employees learn more quickly. (Information Mapping is a trademark of
Information Mapping Inc.). In this earlier career, I was a frequent speaker at
many international conferences on how to use computer technology to help
people learn faster and more effectively. In the early 90s I was the founder and
president of a consulting company called Ariel PSS Corporation (later tobecome Ariel Performance Centered Systems, Inc.), which was a leader in a
new field called Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), a revolution
from traditional Computer Based Training (CBT). All the advanced methods of
teaching that I learned through this experience were incorporated in the Virtual
Art Academy materials. This makes them unique.
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Overview 19
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Brushwork I would like to acknowledge the following artists as sources of knowledge forparts of the Brushwork Building Block:
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), whose oil and watercolor works I have stud-
ied first-hand in the National Museum of Art in Washington and in the Sargent
in Venice exhibition in Venice in 2007.
Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923), whose works I have studied first-hand at his stu-
dio museum and a major exhibition of his work in Madrid in 2009.
the Chinese landscape painting old masters, whose brushwork techniques I
have studied in museums in China.
the contemporary masters, Ovanes Berberian, David Leffel, and Daniel Sprick,
all of whom are experts in different approaches to brushwork in oils.
Martin R. Ahearn (1918-2009), my watercolor painter teacher.
Emile A. Gruppe (1896-1978), author of the now out of print classic book,
Brushwork for the Oil Painter.
Ken Auster, for showing me the mop and rigger technique.
Jean Dobie, who wrote an excellent book on watercolor techniques.
The California Impressionists, whose work I studied first hand in the 90s and
00s in California in the Monterey Museum of Art, the Irvine Museum, the
Oakland Museum as well as in galleries in Carmel, California where I used to
live.
The Russian Impressionists, whose works I have studied first-hand in various
locations.
Various drawing teachers, who taught me the free-hand and control-hand tech-
niques through direct observation of master painters at work.
and finally, Jove Wang, a contemporary master, who was my greatest influence
in showing me the importance of brushwork.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(CONTINUED)
Color I would like to acknowledge the following artists upon whose knowledge I havedrawn in order to put together the Color Building Block:
Faber Birren, for some hints that helped me develop my ideas on the more
advanced aspects of color harmony. The original reference source for the dis-
cussion of mono-isochromes and the equation approach for creating thesescales (included for interest only) was based on a (somewhat difficult-to-fol-
low) text by Faber Birren (1961). The discussion about poly-isochromes how-
ever, (and the term itself), was based on my own observations and research into
color. Birren also had suggestions for how to create the effects of luster, irides-
cence, and luminosity,
Jeanne Dobie, who introduced me to the power of mouse colors as well as the
idea of color threads, complementary half tones, and techniques for how to
reduce emphasis on parts of the painting.
Ovanes Berberian, for showing me the possibilities for creating beautiful grays
and explaining to me the importance of preparing your palette correctly.
Daniel Sprick, who showed me the technique of Nine-Pile Gradations.
The palettes described in course unit two of this Building Block have come from
many sources, in particular I would like to give credit to:
Kevin Macpherson palette numbers two, three
Ken Auster palette number one
Ovanes Berberian palettes number zero and thirteen
Dan McCaw palette number six
Ron Grauer, Lois Johnson palette number seven
Composition I would like to acknowledge the following artists as sources of knowledge forparts of this Building Block:
Composing Your Paintings by Bernard Dunstan. St. Vladimirs Seminary
Press, 1979.
The Art of Color and Design, Second Edition, Maitland Graves, 1951
Joaqun Sorolla y Bastida (1863 1923), the Spanish painter from whom I
learned much by studying his paintings.
Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne. Derus Fine Arts.
Henry R. Poore. The original source of organizational structures that was later
further developed by Edgar Payne.
Drawing Scenery: Seascapes and Landscapes by Jack Hamm. Perigee Trade.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(CONTINUED)
Concept I would like to acknowledge the following artists as sources of knowledge forparts of this Building Block:
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 1564). It was seeing his
Pieta in Rome and his statue of David and the Sistine Chapel in Florence when
I was seventeen years old that moved me to become a professional artist. All ofthese works had an enormous emotional impact on me, because of their sheer
beauty and emotional power.
Charles Movalli (1945- ), who had a very humorous way of making his stu-
dents focus their paintings on one subject.
Drawing I would like to acknowledge the following artists upon whose knowledge I havedrawn in order to put together this Building Block (there are many sources):
Rex Vicat Cole
Nicolaides
Betty Edwards
Phil Metzger
Joseph D'Amelio
Glenn Vilppu
Bridgman
Peck
Jove Wang
Stephen Perkins
Cedric Egeli
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(CONTINUED)
Form I would like to acknowledge the following artists upon whose knowledge I havedrawn in order to put together this Building Block:
Craig Nelson, a fine artist and illustrator, for introducing me to the term: two-
value statement.
Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585), who used the two-value approach in his studies
for his large paintings.
David Leffel, who has studied Rembrandts working methods and art in great
detail, and who taught me much of the detailed information on the planes of
the light and shade.
Frank Reilly. Much of my investigation into the theories in course unit three
were based on work by Frank Reilly (1907-1967), who was one of the most
respected teachers in the first half of the 20th century, and who taught one of
my teachers.
A. Dorian, who documented much of Frank J. Reillys teaching program of the1930s and from whom I learned the scientific approach to observing color
changes across a form.
Joaquin Sorolla (1863-1923), and many of the Russian Impressionists, whose
paintings I studied to identify hue changes on forms
Sergei Bongart (1918-1985)
Henry Hensche (1899-1992)
Notan I would like to acknowledge the following artists, upon whose knowledge I havedrawn in order to put together this Building Block:
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857 - 1922)
The idea of an edge notan is one I came up with many years ago after studying
the paintings ofJMW Turner.
I first picked up the idea of a quick color sketch in which the drawing was not
important, many years ago on a workshop with the artist Kevin Macpherson.
He did not use the term color map, but it was basically the same idea.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(CONTINUED)
Observation Color unitFor the content of the color course unit in this Building Block, I would like to
acknowledge:
Several of the diagrams on value progression in atmospheric perspectivewere
based on the work of the early to mid-20th century teacher Frank J. Reilly, whotaught many of the top US illustrators of the 20th century.
Henry Hensche (1899-1992), who in turn learned from Charles Hawthorne
(1872-1930), and
Sergei Bongart (1918-1985), whose knowledge was passed down to me by
Ovanes Berberian.
The use of block studies was the color teaching approach used by Henry
Hensche. Studying color using still life setups outdoors was the approach used by
Sergei Bongart.
There were basically two schools that were teaching this color skill in the UnitedStates in the mid 20th century. Both of these schools were very successful. One
school was run in Massachusetts, on the East Coast, by Henry Hensche (1899-
1992), and the other in Los Angeles by Sergei Bongart (1918-1985). Both of
these teachers were responsible for teaching many of today's better contemporary
artists and painting instructors, and each has their own group of enthusiasts for
their particular teaching methods.
I have experienced both methods because one of my teachers, Ovanes Berberian
was a scholarship student with Sergei Bongart, and another of my teachers was
Cedric Egeli, one of the top portrait painters in the US, and he studied with Henry
Hensche.
Of the two artists, I prefer Bongarts work because of his use of bravura
brushwork. In my opinion, Hensches work is sometimes a little overworked
since he used a lot of palette knife work. Sometimes he laid down color spots
directly. At other times he seems to have painted wet-over-dry to obtain an
optical color mixingeffect (or maybe just to gradually work up to the correct
color?). Hence Hensches paintings have relatively little near music compared to
Bongarts work. Be aware though that I think both Bongarts colors and
Hensches colors can sometimes appear too saturated and a little garish.
Just as it has been for centuries in the art world, the best knowledge passes from
generation to generation through a relatively small number of artists. I have
combined the most useful approaches from both teachers in this course unit toshow you how to learn this skill.
Itness unit
Much of the information on trees was derived from the work of Rex Vicat Cole
in The Artistic Anatomy of Trees, Their Structure and Treatment in Painting,
published in 1916.
The concept of itness was first described to me by artist and friendRodney
Winfield.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS(CONTINUED)
Process I would like to acknowledge the following artists upon whose knowledge I havedrawn in order to put together this Building Block:
My principle teachers for oil painting: David Leffel, Ovanes Berberien and
Jove Wang.
Frank, who taught me acrylic painting in the style of John Constable in my
twenties.
Various other professional artists and friends with whom I have taken work-
shops and from whom I have learned important techniques such as Daniel
Sprick, Kevin Macpherson, Gregory Kondos and Ken Auster.
My teachers Martin Ahearn and Jean Dobie for watercolor.
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