A note from Don;

One difficult thing in any workshop and in particular beginning workshops is everyone's tendency to judge themselves against others in the workshop. I don't want this to happen. No matter how much they emphasize the point almost everyone will look at each other's work and either find good or bad things to say about it. Most of the time the tendency is to look at another's work and wonder why you are not painting at that level. Please believe me, we were all beginners at one time but I want you to remember that. Do not compare yourself except with yourself. You will also find that most everyone in the workshop will be very willing to help if you are stuck on a problem and almost everyone will have something constructive and positive to say. Please just don't get into the habit of comparing yourself with others. This is a beginning workshop and I do not expect the level of anyone to be greater than a beginning level.

Each week there will be a specific assignment for you to work on. You will be provided the reference materials and instructions needed to complete each assignment. There will be a short video lesson to accompany each assignment to make sure the instructions are clear and quite honestly, watching a thing done is a lot more conducive to learning than reading instructions. The outline of the workshop will be this:

Week On: Introduction and Getting Your Feet Wet
In this first week, we will jump right in and get you to paint something as bit fun to break the ice and get to know each other. It also gives me a chance to see everyone’s work and where any strengths or weaknesses may. While this is a beginning workshop, there is always a variety of skill and experience levels present and this week helps me discover those.

In this weeks video, I’ll be demonstrating the process of painting a stylized face by creating a caricature or cartoony face from the very start through to the end when the last highlight in the eye is added. This forces you to hit the ground running but in a fun way where you'll have no trouble following along to create your first digital painting. I do encourage you to draw your own sketches; however, I will provide a sketch that you can use as a list of the default brushes with any changes made to their settings as well as any textures that I might use. This will be the same for each week.

For the most part this first week will simply be getting our feet wet and having some fun doing something a bit silly while giving me a chance to get to know you all a bit better.

Week Two: Representational Art and Values
The focus of week two is twofold. We will start by using some very basic painting techniques while discussing the most important concept in representational art. We will paint some very basic primitive shapes including a sphere, cone, cube, cylinder, and maybe a few others. The reason that we will paint these easy shapes is that primitive shapes are ideal to show techniques that can be used to develop a three-dimensional appearance on a two-dimensional surface. This is really going to be getting back to the basics.

Week Three: Color Theory
In this week we will begin a serious multi week discussion of color. Color is an extremely complex and often misunderstood subject when it comes to painting. We will spend several weeks looking at some basic color theory and how to use color effectively when you paint. While value determines whether or not you can see an object, color often determines how you see an object. How you see an object means the emotional impact you sense or feel when viewing a painting. During this week, you will go over some basic color theory and apply it to a very simple subject matter by painting a simple still life consisting no more than objects.

Week Four: Continue Color Theory
In week four, we will continue our discussions on color theory and make a start at painting a landscape. The specific goal this week will be to learn how to paint the elements you will find in a typical landscape. You will learn to paint the sky, some clouds, trees, a field, maybe a stream. This will be the digital equal of a Saturday morning painting show on television.

Week Five: Texture Techniques
Hopefully by week five we will have most of the painting basics behind us. All of the earlier material will influence the outcome and how the following exercises flow on. In week, five we will get into the specifics by learning a few texture techniques used in digital paintings. For example, we will be painting very rough looking objects. This may include rocks, weathered wood, rusty metal, or even a moon like planet. This actually sounds a lot easier than it is, but it will give you the opportunity to explore texture and its use when digitally painting.

Week Six: Surfaces, Transparency and Light Distortions
In week six we will go to the opposite extreme and paint shiny and smooth materials and objects including dewdrops, drops of blood, shiny metal materials, glass bottles or goblets and anything else with shine. We will also be spending time on painting transparency effects, how it works and learning how to create the correct effect. In this, you will be painting a bottle, goblet, or maybe a fishbowl half filled with a liquid. In the liquid will be some objects and you’ll learn how to paint the impression of refraction and the distortions created by a liquid.

Week Seven: Fabric
This week you will learn to paint fabric. In almost anything, you paint there will be some area where there will be fabric. If you're painting people, this of course becomes particularly important. Fabric is not as hard as it appears, but there are a few techniques and tricks that will help you be more successful as you tackle the task. This week we will be painting some fabric hanging from some hooks on the wall. This is a very traditional study and will give you a lot of insight practice that will be directly applicable to any situation where you may need to paint some fabric.

Week Eight: Putting it all Together
This is your masterpiece week. There will be no assigned object to paint but you can choose a subject matter that interests you. The goal of this final painting is to take everything you've hopefully learned during the first seven weeks and incorporate it into your first completely original digital painting. Subject matter will be completely up to you and limited only by your imagination. As you post your works in progress, I will give you hints and ideas about what to change, where to go, and how to make the piece stronger. At the end of the week, you will have finished painting to add to your folio.

Level of Ability
It is highly recommended that you have a basic working knowledge of either Photoshop or Painter or preferably both. Most of the work in this workshop involves the use of default brushes, textures, and patterns found within each of these programs. There will be some discussion and customization of some of these basic features, however, this is not a “Learn how to use Painter and Photoshop” workshop. This is a ‘learn the fundamentals of digital painting’ workshop and will be approached as such. If you're not familiar with either of these programs you may want to do some homework ahead of time.

Other Requirements
Students need to be familiar with web navigation and browsing, as well as email.

Students need to be familiar with using a bulletin board system (such as CGTalk.com).

Software and Hardware Requirements
Students must have access to a machine (PC or Mac) with the necessary hardware to run Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

A Wacom Tablet and scanner are required.

A web browser and internet connection is required. A broadband connection is mandatory as some of the lessons will be in the form of videos for students to download.