Acrylic Painting with Ricky: Fundamentals, Approaches and Techniques * 7 Mondays 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM * March 31st - May 26th, 2025.

Ages: Adults (Ages 16+)
Dates: 7 Mondays, March 31, April 7, 14, 28, May 5, 12 & 26, 2025. (No class April 21 Easter Monday and May 19 Victoria Day)
Time: 12:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Materials: Students can choose to use studio paints and brushes or bring their own.  All students will be responsible for purchasing their own canvases.  
Location: Ricky Schaede Art Studio, 5 First St Unit 3A, Orangeville ON L9W 1E1
Instructor: Ricky Schaede

Acrylic Painting with Ricky: Fundamentals, Approaches and Techniques:  Learn about acrylic painting with Ricky, exploring every step of the painting process from initial sketch, transferring the sketch onto the canvas, applying a coloured ground, building the painting in layers, glazing, detailing, texturing, finishing, varnishing and more.  We will create at least one highly detailed finished work and also do a variety of exercises and skills building.  The style of painting I teach will take your strong foundation in drawing and translate that into full colour acrylic painting.  Creativity will be encouraged and, after our first finished painting where we all create a painting of the same subject, students will get to create a second painting with their own choice of subject matter with 1 on 1 guidance from Ricky.  

MATERIALS LIST: 

(this list would be for students who are opting to bring their own supplies, with the exception being that everyone would need to purchase their own canvas)

Canvas:

For our first painting we will each use a 9" x 12" or 8" x 10" stretched canvas, and for your second painting you are free to use any size you would like but I don't recommend anything larger than 14" x18".  I do sell canvases at these sizes at my shop, high quality and made in Kingston, Ontario.

Heavy Body Acrylic Paints:

It is not crucial that you have the creme de la creme of quality in acrylic paints.  Any of the following brands would be great: TriArt, Rheotech, Amsterdam, Liquitex, Golden.  Having the exact same colours as me is not necessary, it's more important to have a warm and cool of each primary colour.  Acrylic paints are the item that I am least stocked with in my shop to sell so if you're planning to buy your own paints I would recommend buying Amsterdam tubes at maggiolly's or going to Michael's.  

You will need the following paint colours: (please note you just need one colour of each category, not every single colour listed below)

*Titanium White

*Carbon Black

*WARM RED eg. Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Medium, Azo Red Light, Azo Red Medium, Scarlet Lake, (reds labelled light or medium will be a warm red, this colour should be a more orangey red)

*COOL RED eg. Alizarin Crimson, Primary Magenta, Carmine, Crimson Lake, Red Madder, Cadmium Red Deep, Azo Red Deep (reds labelled deep or crimson)

*WARM YELLOW eg. Indian Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Deep, Azo Yellow Deep (yellows labelled deep are more warm / towards orange)

*COOL YELLOW eg. Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow Light, Azo Yellow Light, Primary Yellow (yellows labelled lemon or light)

*WARM BLUE eg. Ultramarine Blue, Indanthrone Blue, Anthraquinone Blue (

*COOL BLUE eg. Phthalo Blue Green Shade, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Blue, Primary Cyan

*COOL BROWN: Burnt Umber

*WARM BROWN: Burnt Sienna

*ACRYLIC GLOSS GLAZING MEDIUM I recommend the Golden brand sold at Maggiolly's or Michael's. A small 8oz bottle should be more than enough but if you're going to paint a lot, buy a larger bottle for better value.  

OPTIONAL: Gloss, Matte, or Semi-Gloss varnish to put a protective layer on the finished painting.  A varnish also evens out the gloss level of the painting as some colours are more gloss while others are more matte.  I prefer gloss but some artists prefer matte.

Palette

I highly recommend a disposable paper palette as it makes clean up so easy.  I sell some inexpensive paper palettes at my shop, but I also have a ton of tupperware lids people can use.  Please note if you use my tupperware lids you would be responsible for cleaning them at the end of class so they are ready to be used again by other students.  

Paintbrushes

Soft synthetic or semi-soft synthetic bristle is recommended.  I do not recommend stiff bristles like hog bristle for acrylics. Make sure you have a variety of Brush sizes and shapes.  I love the Simply Simmons soft synthetic and semi-soft synthetic, but any brand of brush will work as long as the bristles aren't super stiff.

*Make sure to have a couple tiny round brushes for doing fine details, think around sizes 1, 2, 0 etc..  

*For medium sized brushes (sizes 4-10, 1/4", 1/2", 3/4") I like flats, brights and filberts.  

*1" wash brush (flat 1" brush)

Most basic brush kits that you buy should give you a good enough variety, and if you end up not having a specific brush shape or size that we need I am happy to lend you one from my studio brushes.  Don't stress about having every single paint brush the exact same as mine, its more important to have a variety of sizes.

I do sell several awesome brush kits at my studio!

Sketching Supplies

We will begin by drawing our subject so please bring an HB pencil, eraser, and your sketchbook paper size 8"x10" or 9"x12".  Students may wish to bring their fancy erasers and other drawing tools but the bare bones listed above will work just fine.  I will be providing graphite transfer paper so we can transfer the drawing from our sketchbook onto our canvas.

I will be providing all students with easels, aprons, paper towel, cups for water, and soap for washing up.