The Amsterdam Painter Workshop

June 25 - 28, 2012

The Art of Transforming Your Photographs into Expressive Paintings

Corel Painter 12 training with artistic insights, creative techniques and power tips from Corel Painter Master Jeremy Sutton

De Roos Centrum Voor Creatieve & Spirituele Groei, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

All levels

Expand Your Creative Freedom using Corel Painter 12 and a Wacom Tablet to Transform Your Photographs into Expressive Paintings

What You'll Learn

This seminar is a wonderful opportunity for you to stretch yourself creatively on every level in a beautiful and stimulating environment. You will explore ways to transform your photographs into paintings using Corel Painter 12 and a Wacom tablet. Learn a combination of technical and artistic skills that will open the doors to you fully expressing yourself on the digital canvas. Whether you are a professional photographer wanting to expand your product range, a fine artist wanting to stretch into the digital medium, an experienced Painter artist wanting new ideas and stimulation or you simply wish to expand and explore your creativity, you will find this seminar a stimulating and educational experience.

I teach an open-minded, outside the box, approach to transforming your imagery that will stretch your image-making muscles and allow your creativity to flow. I take a thorough, well-structured, in-depth and methodical approach to building up your knowledge and understanding of Corel Painter 11 and the Wacom tablet, balancing the sharing of information with hands-on project work where you try out the demonstrated techniques on an image of your own. The project work affords you the time to integrate new information and hone your skills. You will get individual feedback in which I share ideas and insights. Enjoy an unforgettable educational and inspiring experience that will bring you pleasure for years to come.

This Painter workshop is designed to suit both the more advanced Painter users as well as beginners. The class size will be kept small so that everyone will benefit from individual attention. Places will be reserved on a first-come-first-serve basis so register early to guarantee yourself a place.

I have invited the great Dutch artist Ad van Bokhoven (www.advanbokhoven.nl), whose paintings were reproduced on the Painter 11 CD packaging and in the Painter 12 welcome screen slide show, to give a short presentation on his art and techniques during the workshop. This will be confirmed nearer the time.

I lived in The Netherlands for three years prior to moving to the US, and speak conversational Dutch. For those who are visiting the The Netherlands from elsewhere, I am excited to be able to share this beautiful place, one close to my heart, with you. Amsterdam is a beautiful, compact, charming historic city. It is a stimulating environment that offers a wealth of fabulous photo opportunities. The Netherlands has a long and wonderful tradition of great master painters, including, of course, Vermeer, Rembrandt and van Gogh, examples of whose work you'll find in the great world-class art museums of Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, Van Gogh Museum and the new Hermitage Amsterdam. These museums are all within ten to twenty minutes walk of the workshop location and are well worth visiting. If you can please visit them prior to class so you can be inspired by the great art! You may wish to join the Dutch tradition and rent a bicycle while you are visiting - it's a fast, efficient and fun way to get around. (No hills like San Francisco!)

Syllabus

DAY 1: The Foundation - Optimizing and Mastering The Tools & Materials

Turbo charging your tools - Wacom and Corel Painter 12 set up, organization and optimization. Installation of extra brushes, art materials and workspaces. Customizing icons in Custom Palettes. Exploring, understanding, controlling, customizing and saving brushes, the heart of Painter. Setting brush tracking for individual brushes. Loosening up your brush strokes through painting from imagination and life. Playing with paper textures, patterns, mirror painting and the kaleidoscope. Learn how to capture, apply and organize custom papers and patterns.

DAY 2: The Workflow - An Impressionistic Approach to Painting From Photos

Workflow strategy for painting from photos. Keen and intense observation throughout. Visualizing the end. Preparing your photos for painting. Mixing images together to create a source composition (use of layers and layer masks). Starting with large, simple and bold; and ending with small, complex and careful. The "zone dance": going back and forth between being in the "painting zone" and the "observing zone". Striking the balance between the loose impressionist painterly brush work and realism, between abstraction and representation. Brush choices, painting techniques and creative strategies.

DAY 3: The Art - Going for It with Variety, Colour & Contrast

Livening your paintings up with use of greater variety and range of colour, tone, texture, detail, contrasts and brush strokes. Techniques for understanding colour and introducing more colour into your painting. Going beyond clone colour and working with light and atmosphere. Focus on use of variation, color and contrast in depicting eyes, hair, clothes, reflective and translucent surfaces, atmosphere, shadows, highlights and "black" and "white" surfaces and materials.

DAY 4: The Result - Project Work and Individual Mentorship

This is the day when you have an opportunity to integrate all that you have learnt, paint for the whole day, and get deep into a project with Jeremy's individual guidance and mentorship. Wrap up, review and graduation.

Requirements

This is an all levels class. You will need to bring with you a computer loaded with the most recent version of Corel Painter 12 and a Wacom tablet. Please bring with you a digital camera and card reader. Registration for this class includes a month Premium Membership of my online learning web site PaintboxTV.com so please download the extra brushes, art materials and workspace on the site prior to coming to the workshop.

Fee

The class fee is US $1,500, which includes the class workbook and a one month PaintboxTV.com Premium Membership (commencing at the time of registration). Lunch, travel and accomodation are at your own cost. Any credit cards will be charged at the time of registration in US $. Please see Class Registration Terms and Conditions.

Location

The seminar will take place in the beautiful Parkzaal of the De Roos Center for Creativity located in the historic Vondelpark, very close to the center of Amsterdam. The De Roos center is a lovely place. It has a cafe, outdoor seating and a very relaxing atmosphere, perfect for nurturing creativity.

Class Hours

10.00 - 17.00 (10am - 5pm).

Accommodation

There are many hotel options in the center of Amsterdam. One of my favorites is the Hotel Orlando, a beautiful 17th century house turned into an elegant bed-and-breakfast. It is located in a great neighborhood on the Prinsengracht canal, very close to the Hermitage Amsterdam. It is about twenty minutes walk from the workshop.

Travel

If you are flying into Amsterdam from the US or other countries outside Europe, checkout the direct flights offered by KLM, or other airlines flying via London. British Airways has excellent service between Amsterdam and London, making London a good route when coming from the US.

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