Barbara Zanelli

Portrait Painting @ Fleisher

May 11, 2023 2:00 pm

Time: Thursdays 2 – 5pm
Dates: May 11 – June 8 (5 sessions)
Location: Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA
Recommended for beginner to intermediate

This beginner to intermediate course in oils (or acrylic) will approach portraiture from a sculptural standpoint, highlighting the basic bony landmarks of the face and skull and using color/value to define major planes and movements of each feature. Moving from large, simple shapes of the face under light, students will transition their thinking from flat abstraction into three-dimensional form.


What you will learn:

1. The basic structure and anatomy of the head/face

2. Simplifying form to planes

3. Alla prima techniques for portrait painting

4. Drawing the features as homework assignments

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Drawing With Confidence @ Fleisher

April 5, 2023 1:00 pm

Time: Wednesdays 1 – 4pm
Dates: April 5 – June 7 (10 sessions)
Location: Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA
Recommended for Intermediate to Advanced

Designed for students who already have a grasp of basic drawing techniques, this class takes you deeper into form, structure, and expression. Students will be learning key concepts such as atmospheric perspective, detailed rendering, intermediate perspective, use of color, and combining materials. Each class features a directed exercise designed to be used for more complex subject matter. This class is intended for those who are looking to take their drawing to the next level. We will draw from the life model for four classes.

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Drawing Fundamentals @ Fleisher

April 6, 2023 6:30 pm

Time: Thursdays 6:30 = 9:30
Date: April 6 - June 8
Location: Fleisher Art Memorial, 719 Catharine St, Philadelphia, PA

Through exercises and longer drawing assignments, you will learn to accurately see and depict the 3-dimensional world. This class focuses on the foundations of perceptual drawing: contour, shape, value, gesture, perspective and proportional relationships. You will learn the process of starting and developing both line and tonal drawings using pencil and charcoal. Additional, emphasized concepts include “working from big to small,” and balancing close perception with measuring to bring both life and accuracy to a drawing. You will work from images, still life and the figure.

What you will learn:
1. Keener eye for contour, shape, proportion, and value relationships
2. How to use various measuring techniques to achieve accurate proportions
3. How to use 1 and 2 point perspective
4. Introduced to figure drawing with a live model
5. Process of drawing and sketching deconstructed, confidence to maintain an independent drawing practice
6. Understanding of various drawing materials, including graphite, charcoal, erasers, and ink

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Drawing in Color @ Wayne Art Center

April 21, 2023 10:00 am

Drawing in Color
Dates: April 21 – June 2 (7 sessions)
Time: 10am – 1pm
Location: Wayne Art Center, 413 Maplewood Ave, Wayne, PA 19087

In this class we will have fun exploring color in a variety of mediums. Play is the central theme, as well as discovery and combining materials. By adding color to line drawings and/or drawing lines with color, we’ll explore some different ways of using color in line and tone. This will be a topical introduction to some ways of using these mediums, so that you may choose to explore one of them deeper in the future.

Color is fun and therapeutic. We’ll start out with the basics of using colored pencils and how to layer, as well as basic color theory. Next, we’ll dip into some very basic watercolor with no objective other than to relax and let the water and color do their thing. We will also practice applying watercolor to a line drawing and applying line to a watercolor abstract painting. We will spend a day learning to hatch in color with ballpoint pens.
Weather permitting, we will also draw outdoors

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Oil Painting @ Repenning Fine Arts

April 1, 2023 10:00 am

Time: Saturday 10am – 1pm
Dates: April 1 - May 13 (7 classes)
Location: Repenning Fine Arts, 35 Kings Highway, Audubon, NJ

Join us at Repenning Fine Arts this spring in Audubon, NJ on Saturday mornings from 10 - 1 to learn to paint in oil or sharpen your oil painting skills.
In this 7 week course, we will examine different elements of oil painting such as edges, value, surface quality, and color through guided exercises and painting from life.
Weather and conditions permitting we will spend a day painting "block studies" outdoors, the way Henry Henshe's students did in the early 1900's.
There will also be the option of hiring a model to paint the portrait from life depending on the interest of the students enrolled.
No matter what we choose to paint, we are always learning about the paint itself as we use it, and this, I believe, is the fun part! Come and join us in a relaxing and supportive professional studio environment in the company of others who love to paint!

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Sketch - n - Paint @ Journey's Way

March 22, 2023 10:00 am

Time: Tuesdays 10am – 12pm
Dates: March 22 - May TBD
Location: Journey’s Way, 403 Rector St, Philadelphia PA 19128
For More Information and to register call: 215-487-1750 ext. 1101

We will kick off the new spring season having fun with color. Using watercolor in a meditative way, we will let the water and color do their thing, with no goal other than to sit back and enjoy the process.
Color and painting are very therapeutic and is for everyone and anyone to do! You don't have to be an "artist" to paint!
We will do meditative, calming and relaxing exercises from Jean Haines' book, "Paint Yourself Calm."

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"The Continuum of Western Painting"

Click on Fall-Spring 2017, download, and go to page 13. Enjoy!

An article I wrote for the Villa Rossa Voice, Syracuse University's newsletter in Florence. Read about how my experience studying art history and painting in Florence, Italy in 1998 changed my life.

Click on Fall-Spring 2017, download, and go to page 13. Enjoy!

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