What you will get from taking this course: 

• Knowledge of different ways to apply paint to the surface, creating various effects and structures that will add details to your work 
• Confidence in choosing when and where to use a different medium or technique 
• An understanding of how to plan your painting in advance 
• Elephant Academy Takeaway Technique: Learn how to incorporate experimental and expressionist methods in order to develop your own style 

Learn the principles of carefully planning a painting from start to finish. In this four-week course, tutor Lisette Marguerite will lead students from the early stages of composition, layering and colour mixing to completion of a finished work. Along the way they will gain a new understanding of different techniques, methods and mediums, learning to combine acrylic and oil paint within a single painting.  

From drawing exercises and making collages and preparatory sketches to preparing the canvas, students will be taken through each stage of creating a final painting. They will learn the basics of working with a grid to create an underlayer on the canvas to paint upon.  

The aim is to create a detailed and realistic painting of a vase during this course, and DIY printmaking techniques will be used to apply patterns and other repetitive shapes to its form. Students will also gain knowledge of colour studies in order to fill in the rest of the vase, learning how to mix colours and finish the work. By the end of the course, they will have learned numerous new techniques to apply to future pieces, as well as having produced a final work of art.  

Dutch artist Lisette Marguerite completed her degree in Fine Art in 2019 at the University of Arts Utrecht. She now lives and works in Lisbon, and has a strong artistic interest in identity, collective memory, and language. In her work she uses various layers and colour arrangements to take viewers on a journey through different approaches to contemporary cultures.