ACADEMY ROADMAP
A plan for your Learning!
Welcome to this membership Road map is to help you understand how to use the training in the Academy.
No matter which stage of the journey you’re already at, the Road map should give you some guidance.
CORE TRAINING ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
How much do you know about the fundamentals of a good painting?
These 10 Yes/No questions will help you find out:
- Can you explain in one sentence what tonal values are?
- Do you know the compliment of yellow?
- Do you implement colour theory in your work?
- Do you still have a problem sometimes getting a feeling of distance in your landscapes?
- Do you think using the Golden Section in composing your paintings is useful?
- Do you know how to support your Focal point?
- Do you look at your work sometimes and wonder why it looks ‘weak’ or ‘flat’ and lacking in drama?
- Do you have difficulty with the idea of using darker colours in your work?
- Do you shy away from drawing anything with buildings?
- Do you like to use photographs a lot in your work? Are you forced to work from photos for whatever reason?
Numbers 1,2.3.5.6 should be Yes. Numbers 4,7,8,9, should be No. Number 10 could be either
(This is an indication that you need to take the training in the basic core principles of painting. )
THE CORE TRAINING MODULES ARE YOUR ART FOUNDATION COURSE !
All the Core training modules work together to strengthen your Core knowledge about painting. This is all stuff that most serious artists know which they have either learned in art college/university, or picked up over the years. They each give you a massive advantage and equip you with tools to design and ‘be in charge’ of your own creative ideas. They certainly are the foundation of an ‘original’ creative artist.
If you need or want to use photography as references to work from you especially need to understand the Core painting lores. So the Core training is your foundation course and once you have done them, and realise what this basic knowledge can do for your work, it is work that you will never regret doing.
If you are a beginner to pastel – but have worked in other mediums or have for whatever reason come across the core basics like Tonal Values, Composition, and Colour Theory, in some past learning situation, then you can take those Core trainings as a refresher by all means, but you might want to go straight to Beginners pastel or to take part in the Academy theme at the time with project work..
So……
If You are a Beginner to Art – whether a Silver or Gold Member
To be a beginner in the Academy is a good place to start. Why is that? Well because starting from scratch is a good way to make sure you haven’t developed any bad habits, and that is why I love teaching beginners!
In a way it is comparable to the art student going to college, and the first training they take is called a ‘Foundation Course’. This is your foundation course and as such will give you exactly that – firm foundations to build your work on.
But never forget that this training is always here and you can dip into it whenever you need to at any time, as long as you are a member of the Academy. The Core training is important no matter what subject you prefer, (or even what medium you are in)
If you are not a Beginner
Artists develop in different ways – especially those who have thus far been self-taught. The problem with being self-taught, is often you don’t know what it is that you don’t know! And believe me when I say it is what you don’t know that can be the problem to your development.
I am such an artist. It was many years ago I realized that to make any ‘real’ progress and develop my work, I needed to know the basics – the Core training in the Academy. I bet you can identify with that. Over the years it is astonishing how many artists I have met who are stuck in a rut – some recognized names amongst them, who are exactly that, and realise that to progress and get out of the rut, they need a period of learning things that they were never exposed to before; if they were to progress and grow.
