Painting with Acrylic or Oil

Achieving authentic self-expression is at the heart of every creative practice. Whether you’re picking up a paintbrush for the first time, looking to refine your technique, or eager to explore a new medium, this course offers a supportive and inspiring environment for your artistic growth. With small class sizes and a differentiated teaching approach, beginners and intermediate artists alike benefit from focused, one-on-one guidance.

In this 4-week course, students may work in either acrylic or oil. Each medium has its own temperament, and learning to navigate its unique qualities is key to mastering them. Through demonstrations, guided exercises, and individualized instruction, you’ll explore color theory, composition, painting techniques, the use of essential tools and materials, and formal strategies for organizing the elements of art using the principles of design.

Beginners will build a strong foundation by learning the color wheel, color mixing, and how artists construct effective color schemes. You’ll become familiar with brushes, palettes, and paint handling, and will be encouraged to begin with figurative work—creating a landscape, still life, and/or portrait from photographic references.

Intermediate students will focus on strengthening their visual vocabulary and technical fluency. Emphasis will be placed on refining your personal direction by considering both the formal and conceptual aspects of your work. Exploration, experimentation, and creative risk-taking are encouraged as you develop a cohesive body of work with individualized feedback and support.

Materials are not included; a materials list will be provided upon registration.

Class Breakdown: 

Planning and preparation

• Ideation: Brainstorming what to paint and defining the overall concept.
• Concept Development and Sketching: Students first explore compositional variations in their sketchbooks or drawing paper before transferring the finalized idea to the canvas or painting surface. 
• Workspace Setup (Beginners): Students learn how to organize their materials effectively, such as paints, brushes, and their palette.

Color theory and painting techniques

• Color theory: Students learn and practice how to mix colors, control value, color saturation, and organize a cohesive color scheme.
• Value and light: Learning to use different values (lights and darks) to create form and depth.
• Brushwork and mark-making: Practicing various types of strokes using different brush types and learning to control pressure to create different effects.
• Composition: Arranging all the visual elements on the canvas to guide the viewer’s eye towards a focal point. 

Application, definition, and refinement

• Blocking in: Applying the main colors and values using blocking techniques to establish the foundation of the painting.
• Rendering: Developing the painting from general shapes to more specific details.
• Edge control: Learning to use a variety of edges—hard, soft, and broken—to define forms and create different effects, like blending or separation.
• Refining details: Adding highlights, adjusting shapes, and making final adjustments to lighting. 

Final stages

• Finishing: Applying final touches to complete the painting.
• Critique: Reviewing the completed work to analyze its strengths and areas for improvement. 

Refund & Cancellation Policy: Attendees can request refunds up to 48 hours before the course starts. Classes must meet a minimum enrollment number to run.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR 

Born in NOLA and raised in the Dominican Republic, Raul Perdomo has been an exhibiting artist working in Miami since 1990. He holds a BFA degree in painting and drawing from Florida State University with minors in printmaking and art history. 

His work has been included in multiple group and solo exhibitions and is a part of many national and international art collections.

Raul has been a South Florida Art Center/now Oolite Arts resident artist between 1990-1993. His experiences as an exhibiting artist in the contemporary art world evolved into the art education field, where he worked for M-DCPS between 2006-2008. Between 2008-2012 taught advanced painting, drawing, and portfolio development workshops both private and at Oolite Arts. Perdomo served as visual arts program director and has worked as an instructor at Miami Arts Charter School Wynwood campus since 2011.