Acrylics – Unearthed (Online Course) Winter 2027 w/ Nicki Heenan

March 4 to March 25 (Thursdays) 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM, Eastern Time

**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.

Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.

Course Description

Landscape painting with texture using acrylics. An introduction to working with acrylics using tools such as rollers, squeegees and palette knives to create textured surfaces and dynamic compositions. There will be guidance on how to add pigments into acrylic binder and ways to prepare paper and panels to build a painting substrate. These techniques are a great way to abstract the landscape in a loose and exciting way. 

Course Outline

WEEK 1 : TOOLS AND MATERIALS

Facility with your tools makes painting go much more smoothly. We will do several exercises to explore the versatility of rollers, squeegees and palette knives when used with acrylics.

Demo: Tools and paint structure

Exercise: Create a sample board of techniques for reference

Demo and paint along: Show how to combine these tools in a painting with reference supplied.

4 quick studies playing with different textures using a limited palette on paper

WEEK 2 : PAPER AND PANEL PREPARATION

Taking time to prepare the surface you are working on can speed up your painting ( very useful for plein air painting) and also provide an armature or structure for your composition.

Demo: Sealing and preparing a panel and priming paper

Exercise: prepare 4 surfaces with textured materials which are listed in the materials list plus prepare one A3 paper with textured primer

Demo: I will show the same painting side by side on two surfaces to contrast the effects of different primings.

4 quick studies on A3 paper using 3 values of one colour

WEEK 3 : TREES AND RIVER PAINTING

Now we will have some fun with our tools! Often the subject dictates which tools and techniques are the most useful to use in a painting. Trees with their form are easily transcribed using a squeegee and water using a roller.

Warm-up: 4 quick tree studies using squeegee and roller

Demo : I will start a painting with reference supplied on how to set up a painting of trees and river. This will also involve mixing the first layers of colour.

Exercise: Start your armature using my reference image or your own

Demo: Now that my initial surface is dry, I will continue to work with the tools layer by layer working with different viscosities of acrylic paint.

Homework: finish your painting once the initial layers are dry.

WEEK 4 : ROCKS AND OCEAN

By adding pigment into acrylic, we can build the structure of rocks so that they describe their form in an energetic way. By contrast, the surface of the ocean can be smooth by manipulating more fluid paint.

Warm-up: 4 quick seascape studies using palette knife and squeegee

Demo and paint along : I will be using a split priming to differentiate the surface of water and rocks. We will set up our surfaces in preparation for painting. Reference supplied or use your own.

Demo : Using a surface that I have prepared earlier, I will demonstrate how effective having a texture on part of your painting is for manipulating acrylic in both fluid and stiff states.

Paint along: The surface we prepared earlier should be dry and we can paint side by side to put into action all the different techniques demonstrated.

Course Materials List

Acrylic paint colours

Black, Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Teal, Pthalo Green, Cad Yellow

Hue (medium), Yellow Ochre, Pyrole Orange, Magenta, Burnt

Sienna, Raw Umber.

6” Squeegee – from: Messermeister from amazon or cold wax

academy, 3 or 4” is also useful.

4” Soft Brayer or Roller – from: Inovart or cold wax academy

Palette knife – square tip preferable

A3 acrylic paper

8 x 10” panel x4 – Ampersand gesso board

Matte medium

Calcium carbonate – can buy from chemist shop

Powdered pigment – pan pastel or dry pastel in neutral colours – grey

Acrylic ink – Paynes grey or sepia

Paper towels

Wet wipes

Masking tape

Straight edge

Watercolour Pencil – dark colour

Board to tape A3 paper onto

Water jar