The Landscape Masterclass
A complete foundation in realist landscape painting.
A LIVE, ONLINE MASTERCLASS
ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED
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A Quick Overview:
The Missing Structure
Landscape painting can feel overwhelming.
It’s possible to spend years fussing around if you don’t have a clear direction and a solid foundation. Without that, all the techniques or brushes in the world can’t help you.
That’s why this isn’t another watch someone make a painting course. Each week, we’ll focus on the fundamentals and principles behind my brush strokes - deep diving into composition, optics, color and more.
I think we learn to paint by learning to see. My goal with this course is not to teach you how to paint like me, but how to paint like YOU!
What’s Included in the Course
A 6 week, live course that covers everything you need to know about landscape painting from the ground up.
Structured assignments - Each week builds on the last, guiding you through the entire paint process, showing how each stage is connected, ultimately gaining a solid foundation
Weekly group critiques - Recieve feedback on the assignments, learning from your own mistakes and others
Weekly Study Hours - Work alongside other painters, ask questions, and deepen your understanding in real time.
Private Community Access - Connect with other serious painters who are committed to improving
Included - a whole year's worth of Patreon Membership (over ~50 hours of premium, plein air painting process tutorials) and curated guide, showing how each weeks topic is demonstrated throughout the existing library of plein air videos (extra credit !)
Class Recordings - All classes will be recorded and available to watch the next day - revist the material at your own pace. Recording available for a full year
Weekly Schedule (US Eastern Time):
Saturdays - Weekly Lessons : 12pm - 3pm
Tuesdays - Study Hours and Q&A : 6pm - 7pm (optional)
Thursday - Critiques : 5pm - 8pm
Duration: 6 weeks | 03/21 - 04/30
Recording of each session will be available the next day in case you miss the live class, or to rewatch
Recording Access: 12 months
First day of class - March 21st
Course Outline
WEEK 1
Mindset and Drawing
In the first week, we'll dive into the right mindset to improve, and how we can begin to assess our own work to ensure we keep growing, even when we are on our own. Then, we dive into the practical introduction to academic drawing and the basics of placing a view within a picture frame.
WEEK 2
Value Masses and Composition
The second week we will tackle value masses and composition. Using our drawing skills, we’ll switch from linear drawing to mass (shape) drawing and value, and observe how the theory of masses ties elegantly to composition, as well as tackle some basic skills to observing masses, value, and simplifying the landscape.
WEEK 3
Advanced Value and Optics
The third week will focus on advanced value, optics, and form. This will be all about how light works in the real world, and our perception of it. We tie in the foundations of drawing from observation (values included) to a more conceptual understanding of how light works and what you can expect to see.
WEEK 4
Color, Light, Atmosphere
It takes a while to understand that color IS light. In week 4 we will build on our understanding of light by focusing on hue and saturation, not just value. We dive deeper into how the colors on our palette work, and how we perceive the color of the natural world. Greens, atmosphere, blue skies, and more.
WEEK 5
Elements and Materials
After having a firm grasp of observing what we see and understanding how light works it helps to start learning about the various elements that make up a landscape - trees, clouds, water, grasses, rocks, and so on. We’ll learn the difference between a cumulonimbus and a red oak, and why they should not be painted the same way.
WEEK 6
Brushwork and Texture
We are saving the best for last. The truth is it would be a cheap trick to just tell you what brush to use. The whole point of this course is to help you see the world in a new light. Once your perception improves, that leads the way to better paintings. We’ll analyze different schools of landscape painting, helping you discover your own style
A LIVE, ONLINE MASTERCLASS
ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED
Join the newsletter to stay updated for future online masterclasses
Everyone Starts Somehwere
Everyone starts somewhere. Painting outside did not come naturally to me. It was really challenging.
For as long as I painted on my own, I only really saw massive improvement when I was able to study with others. Having the right teachers lets you catapult you progress forwards, giving you a solid foundation and a path to follow. If you don’t know to which port you sail, no wind is favorable.
This Class Is For You If:
You want to master the fundamentals of realist landscape painting
You care more about expanding your perception than hearing about my secret brushes (I don’t actually have any, its almost all bristle filberts. That was mostly a joke - sorta)
You also admire masters like Sargent, Levitan, Bierstadt, and Monet
You’re willing to commit 6 weeks to focused work
My Art Journey
The right teachers make a big difference. I would not be where I am today if not for all the people that helped me along the way. It took a lot, from many different places, but I realize that the larger point of art is not to make just one nice paintings, but to craft an artistic life.
So, special thanks to my many teachers : My many illustration and painting professors from MSU, Tim Clark and his drawing class at the ASL, Stapleton Kearns and his infamous Snowcamp workshop and blog. The four great years studying academic painting with Jordan Sokol, Amaya Gurpide, Eddie Rochat, Stephen Bauman, and Cornelia Hernes. Marc Dalessio’s New England Workshop and his blog. Donald Jurney and his traveling artist grant - being able to backpack across Europe for a summer and see all the great museums was itself a priceless learning experiences. The friends I made attending the Hudson River Fellowship over the years - understanding more conceptual approaches, and the many other friends I have been able to make, paint with, and learn from over the past years, who keep the adventure going.
Inside the Masterclass Community
The live classes will be live streamed, and the class community will be hosted on Mighty Networks - a great platform that allows up to connect and learn together! Here’s a look inside:
Looking forward to getting started!
A LIVE, ONLINE MASTERCLASS
ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED
Join the newsletter to stay updated for future online masterclasses
Frequently Asked Questions
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This course is designed for anyone who wants to deepen their understanding of landscape fundamentals.
This will be a serious deep dive into everything you need to know about landscape painting, but it will be approachable. If you’re a total beginner, it’ll set you straight and possibly save you from building any bad habits. If you are more advanced, there will be some topics or approaches you probably have not considered, too.
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In person workshops are great opportunities to pack a ton of learning in a few short days. Often they feel like a jolt of knowledge. You get to meet other people, and for half the day I am walking around between students, giving them live feedback as they paint.
I think that in person factor is hard to replace. The biggest hurdle of in person workshops is aligning your schedule and making travel plans to be able to attend one.
This Masterclass will offer time to directly ask questions and meet with other attendees, all from the comfort of your own home. And if you are not able to attend the live session, you will be able to watch the recordings, and also go back and watch them. Often people lament how fast a workshop goes, so fast it’s hard to let all the information sink in. -
My goal with my patreon was to create affordable, top level landscape painting instruction that anyone around the world could access. Each month I share a new demo of (usually) a plein air painting. It shows my working methods as an artist, and is similar to a demo that you might watch at a workshop
What I always thought was missing was structure.
When I am painting, there are a lot of underlying skills that are hard to explain in an outdoor setting. This masterclass will focus on each foundational skill, one week at a time, and show how they connect and build on top of each other -
The first week will only require a pencil.
After the second week, the rest of the course will be geared towards painting. I will be painting in oils, but if anyone wants to work in acrylics, gouache, or digitally, that would probably be fine, as the fundamental principles don’t change - just the sections specific to paint handling and layering may not be the most applicable.
For all intents and purposes, water mixable oils work exactly like oils.
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Going outside to paint will be optional.
I am a big believer in painting outside. It’s kind of where landscape painting started.
I also get bored of painting from photos (long story) and I strongly believe that learning to paint from photos is not ideal (equally long but more important story)
But I understand the need for flexibility. The lectures will be based on analyzing master paintings as well as showing my own as examples, and some in studio demo’s.
You’ll also have access to around 50 hours of additional plein air tutorials that I have done in the past for extra content.
For completing assignments, you’ll have the option of working from life, master copy, or reference (though I would encourage you to attempt either of the former) -
As you will have the recording of each session, it will be possible to complete the course even if you miss some sessions.
Some have asked about participating in the course even if they won’t be able to attend ANY of the live sessions. You are able to, but you miss out on the ability to ask questions, and stay accountable!Ultimately, it is your decision, but recordings will not have lifetime access.
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Enrollement will end on Thursday, March 19th, at 9pm. The first class starts on Saturday, March 21st, at 12pm est.
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If you decide the course isn’t the right fit, you may request a full refund before the first live class begins, on March 21st. After the course has started, refunds are not available due to the live and interactive nature of the program.