Expressive Drawing, Painting & Mixed Media Techniques Course
What you'll learn
- Learn how to use charcoal, graphite pencil, pens, and makers to effectively draw, individually and in combination with other materials
- Learn how to use watercolor paint, India ink, and acrylic paint to produce artistic, colorful washes
- Learn how to effectively paint with India ink and acrylic paint, using various dynamic mark making techniques
- Practice creativity and artistic expression
- Learn how to use optional materials such as salt, water, rubbing alcohol, and acetone to produce interest and texture in artworks
- Draw and paint creative, expressive portraits, landscapes, still life artworks and more, using a combination of representational and expressive techniques
Requirements
- If you are new to drawing and have trouble drawing the eye or face in three of the projects, we suggest enrolling our Complete Drawing Masterclass here on Udemy, as an unofficial prerequisite, but it is not required if you want to get started
- Materials (with links) are covered in the first section, but required materials include paper, pencil, and some kind of paint such as watercolor and acrylic, to follow along with the techniques. Charcoal, pastel, ink, pens and makers are also suggested.
- A willingness to learn by following along and having fun working with the various materials to produce expressive art
- If you have trouble sketching the eye or face in three of the projects, we show how to use transfer or trace instead, but we do not go over the forms and subforms of the eye like we do in our unofficial prerequisite here on Udemy, the Drawing Masterclass, that we also teach. This class is more about expressive materials and methods!
Description
Welcome to the expressive drawing, painting, and mixed media techniques masterclass! In this online artistic drawing and painting course, you will apply creativity and learn various dynamic mark making techniques in various drawing, painting, and mixed media projects.
You will learn how materials such as graphite, charcoal, watercolor paint, acrylic paint, India ink, ink pens and markers, and pastel can work individually or with each other in order to produce beautiful, amazing works of art. There are specific considerations for each of these materials, and by completing this course, you will become a "materials master"! I also show how to use optional materials such as water, rubbing alcohol, acetone, denatured alcohol, vellum paper, unique mark making tools such as feathers and mop brushes, and masking materials such as painter's tape, rubber cement, and masking fluid.
However, if you only have access to paper, pencil, and some paint such as watercolor or acrylic, that is okay as well! I demonstrate these techniques and how they can be applied across a variety of mediums with a variety of mark making, erasing, and blending tools.
This course also allows you to practice creativity and expressiveness as you draw and paint in various artistic projects.
By the time you complete this expressive drawing and painting course, you will have produced a portfolio of amazing drawings, paintings, and mixed media works of art, including expressive and creative landscapes, portraits, still life drawings, and much, much more.
Once you enroll in this course, you get:
Lifetime access to all of the content, including over 8 hours of on-demand, helpful video demonstrations and instruction.
Various PDF handouts and support files.
Access to our exclusive Drawing Club forum, for helpful feedback and critique from peers and me, the instructor of this course, Jonathan Simon.
After the introduction section (where we provide helpful considerations of mark making and materials), the sections in this drawing course focus on specific projects, so you can follow along with my demonstration. Each section includes a material list and support files:
Expressive Ink Pen Eye Drawing with Watercolor - You will draw and paint an fun, beautiful, and expressive drawing and painting of an eye using various materials, including watercolor paint and ink pen and optional materials (salt and gesso).
Flowing Fish Drawing with Color Wash - By the time you have completed this project, you will have learned various relevant mark making, drawing, painting, blending, and erasing techniques and how to effectively transfer images. You will also learn flowing drawing techniques for the fish drawing and various ways to produce a beautiful watercolor wash.
Ink and Watercolor Expressive Portrait - During this project, you will learn how to produce an interesting, expressive portrait drawing and painting, by using various dynamic mark making and painting methods with ink and watercolor.
Atmospheric Ink Landscape with Acrylic Wash - You will draw an interesting landscape composition using ink, then we will apply a color wash using acrylic paint. Considerations of using ink and acrylic together as we draw and paint are included.
Ink and Pastel Artistic Tulip Landscape - In this project, you will draw an artistic landscape with colorful ink and add tulips with bright pastels. Material- and tool-specific considerations are included. Have fun!
Charcoal Still Life with Masking Methods - You will learn charcoal mark making methods and assorted masking techniques to produce an artistic still life drawing. We will then show how to safely tear and burn the edges for artistic effect.
Final Project: Portrait and Cityscape Artwork - In this final project of this course, we will use a variety of materials and methods used earlier in the course to produce an expressive portrait with a cityscape background. We will add layers of ink, charcoal, pastel, and gesso using two photos as reference.
Enroll now and get started producing amazing, beautiful works of art! We'll see you in the course. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you don't like the course, you can get a refund. But we know you'll love this course, as you produce awesome drawings, paintings, and mixed media art projects in this course.
Please note that anyone who wants to draw or paint expressively can join this course, but if you have trouble drawing the eye or face in three of the projects, we suggest you enroll in our Drawing Masterclass, which is an unofficial prerequisite for this course. It is not required, and we show you in this expressive course how to use tracing and transferring methods instead of sketching from reference or imagination, but just in case, this is an FYI. We do not go over the forms and subforms of the eye in this course, since it is more about expanding beyond that and drawing expressively and creatively and adding to the representational drawings and paintings that we produce in this course. Our other course can be found here on Udemy by clicking on our profiles.
Who this course is for:
- Artists and students who want to learn how to effectively and creatively work with materials including graphite pencil, charcoal, pastel, ink, pens and markers, watercolor paint, acrylic paint, and more.
- People how want to make expressive and creative art, using dynamic mark making, blending, erasing, and layering techniques
- People who want to paint, draw, and produce mixed media art for fun
- Graphic design and visual art professionals who want to learn more art techniques to add to their toolkit
Instructors
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 31,008 Reviews
- 551,229 Students
- 15 Courses
I love seeing students succeed in their designs, photos, productions, artistic work, and careers.
Do you want to learn become a better designer or communicator? Do you want to learn industry-standard editing and effects in Photoshop? Do you want to create logos for your brand or for clients? Do you want to learn new skills that are in demand in the new digital economy?
I'm passionate about communication, writing, art, and design education, and I'm currently a full-time professor of communication and digital media. I've developed curriculum and taught classes on design, photography, and writing for over a decade. My university students have become full-time, award-winning photographers, web designers, creative specialists, reporters, and layout designers. And now, you can learn from me as well!
Get started by enrolling in my courses, learning new skills and knowledge, and asking me questions in the courses and forums.
My Three-Part Qualifications to Teach You (Professional Experience, Education, and Experience Teaching):
By combining my professional in-the-field experience (both full-time and freelance), formal education, and experience teaching these topics, I've been able to produce top-notch courses that maximize learning and enable students to become better graphic designers, logo designers, photo editors, artists, and digital media producers.
Real World, Professional Experience:
I've worked as Webmaster and Advertising Designer at a regional newspaper (The News Chief), Internet Development Director at an award-winning advertising design firm, Technology Librarian at a city library system, and Managing Editor at two international graphic design magazines at Kelby Media Group. I've also written for print and online publications and designed websites and other promotional design work for clients on an on-going basis for the past 20 years.
Education:
Besides relevant marketplace experience, I also have a B.A. in Communication from Southeastern University, an M.A. in Journalism and Media Studies from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, and a Ph.D. in Communication from Regent University. My Ph.D. dissertation focuses on the mythic branding of Apple's Macintosh/Mac in their primary commercial campaigns (1984, Think Different, Switch/Real People, and Get a Mac). Example graduate courses such as Creative Approaches to Digital Media and Visual Storytelling have helped me when developing my own courses.
Experience Teaching:
Teaching these topics in the classroom and online has helped me figure out the best ways to explain concepts and guide students in the designs and productions. Besides being a full-time professor, I've developed curriculum and taught design, photography, and digital media courses for years at the university level for various schools in Florida, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Sorrento (Italy).
Courses:
I'm the founder of Good Creative Academy, the premiere online school for learning and creating. If you're looking to learn more about graphic design, photo retouching, visual art, Adobe software, and digital media production, you have arrived at the right place.
Fun tech-related facts about me:
I taught myself QBasic when I was 13, and later used that programming language to write a program that simulated the DOS prompt, to fool my high school graphic design teacher into thinking the computers had been hacked.
I used web banner advertising on my websites in high school and during my freshman year of college, which brought in about $750 a month in income.
- 4.5 Instructor Rating
- 3,951 Reviews
- 58,219 Students
- 4 Courses
Jonathan Simon is a fine artist, illustrator and university professor. He holds a B.F.A in illustration from Memphis College of Art and a M.F.A. in painting from the New York Academy of Art. He has studied with a variety of talented artists in both accredited programs and private apprenticeships, including Tony Ryder, author of The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing, Jacob Collins and Michael Grimaldi of Water Street Atelier / The Grand Central Atelier, and Frank Porcu at the Art Students League of New York.
Jonathan prefers to work from life, as opposed to photographs. "Using live models and setups affords me the opportunity to study, interact, and change course in real time," he says. "I enjoy this careful examination of my subjects, as much for the artistic process itself as for the end result."
A studio artist for more than 26 years, Jonathan is also an experienced art educator who has held full-time faculty positions teaching intermediate- to advanced-level drawing, figure drawing, painting and illustration classes at colleges such as the New Hampshire Institute of Art. He believes in sound, proven methods, materials and approaches and offers both private and group instruction on everything from basic drawing skills to more advanced concepts.