Figure Drawing with Grigor Chilingarian

Greetings! We wanted to let you know that we are canceling all future Tuesday night un-instructed costume workshops. The attendance has been very low probably because there are so many other un-instructed workshops all over town, every night of the week. THE GOOD NEWS IS... Instead-- we will be offering a series of on-going, 5 week courses. The first is a live figure drawing/ painting workshop---long pose with instructor Grigor Chilingarian who also studied at The Florence Academy of Art. The weekly workshop will begin in January and we are starting the sign-up sheet now. Grigor will begin by demonstrating an academic approach to figure drawing which you will have 2 weeks to finish. The following 3 weeks will be on transferring the drawing to canvas and painting in a Florentine method developing and modeling the form, skin tones, learning about keying the light, etc. For those who are are interested in drawing only, you have the option of spending the entire 5 weeks on drawing the pose. Figure Drawing/ Painting Workshop --Tuesdays, 6:30 to 9:30 -- Starts in January --5 Weeks - $325 Russian Style Portrait Painting Workshop --- Tuesdays 6:30 to 9:30 -- Starts in February--5 Weeks - $325 Call to sign up (310) 927-2436

Thank you for your continued support and helping the Kline Academy to continue to grow and be an important part of the Los Angeles Art World. Sincerely, Cheryl Kline Kline Academy of Fine Art If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you... the best way to thank us is to refer a friend KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART www.klineacademy.com 3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National) (310) 927-2436

Kline Academy Student, Xavier Gonzalez wins Artistic Achievement Award at Culver City Art Show

Every year the Culver City Art group holds their annual art exhibit
featuring over 24 artists. This year we are proud that one
of our K.A Artists, Xavier Gonzalez won the Rice -Foster-Hesnly
Artistic Achievement Award for his entry, Meditation; a master copy
based on Domenico Fetti. It is a beautifully painted canvas in cool blue tones
with masterful blends and edges. Xavier is a young artist who is working
on perfecting his technique in classical painting. I am sure this is the first of
many of awards to come for this promising artist.

Esmeralda Acosta - Two Part Figure Drawing Demonstration on YouTube!!!

ESMERALDA ACOSTA heads up our figure drawing classes. She is an avid student herself who has studied with some of the best figure drawing artists on the west coast. She says it best in her own words: "Drawing is a passion for me. A craft I will hone till the end of my days." Esmeralda's one-two-three approach makes it easy for anyone at any level to join her class.

And her demos ROCK. She speaks volumes with each lesson as she shows you line by line how to achieve results.

Here's a full figure drawing demo done by Esmeralda Acosta:

Part 1

Part 2

Sign up for this amazing Figure Drawing class

Taught by Esmeralda Acosta

Classes: Saturdays 2 pm to 4pm $40 per class pre-paid

Space is limited RSVP: (310) 927-2436

If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you...

the best way to thank us is to refer a friend

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

www.klineacademy.com

3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National)

(310) 927-2436

October 23rd - Hal Yasulka and Esmeralda Acosta Live Demo Day

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

proudly presents...

Live Demo Day!!!

October 23rd

Featuring Live Figure Demonstrations, done by the acclaimed

faculty members of Kline Academy...

HAL YASKULKA and ESMERALDA ACOSTA!!!

Meets the artists, live model,

a relaxing and

non-stressful atmosphere

complimentary beverages and snacks

October 23rd, Saturday -- 3:00 to 6:00pm

Its Free to watch!!!

No one turned away!!!

Pass this along to your art pals

Up coming Kline academy events:

Burlesque: drawing and painting all day event - Nov 7th

Cheryl Kline's portrait painting boot camp - Nov 13th

Kline Academy's Open House - December.

If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you...

the best way to thank us is to refer a friend

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

www.klineacademy.com

3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National)

(310) 927-2436

Mixed Media Workshop with Hal Yaskulka

Dear Artists,

We have a really great workshop starting this Monday:

5 week long pose,

 mixed media, 

figure painting workshop

with a live model

Instructor Hal Yaskulka

Mondays 11am to 2pm

$300

Hal will begin by showing you his simple method of

drawing the figure with charcoal. Next, you will layer in acrylic

and add texture and impasto effects.

Finish with rich oil glazes.

This is a contemporary twist with traditional materials

2 spaces open- call asap to reserve your space

(310) 927-2436

If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you...

the best way to thank us is to refer a friend

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

www.klineacademy.com

3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National)

(310) 927-2436

All Paints are NOT Created Equal

All Paints are NOT Created Equal

by Cheryl Kline

I had the pleasure of meeting the handsome creator of Michael Harding Paints from London yesterday.

I learned of his incredible quality oil paints when I was studying in Florence and many of the instructors

were hooked on his paints. I immediately rushed to the Florentine art store to buy some. They were wonderful but after I ran out, and came back to the states, I could not find them anywhere. 

Consistent quality is a must when you are a professional painter and even a student. I still don't understand why there is a distinction between "Student" and Professional" grade paints and materials.

It is hard enough for students to learn this craft and why make it harder by pushing them towards inferior paints and brushes? Inferior paints can really muck up a painting. The colors will look muddy and will

not have the luster and brightness you want.

Good paint is essential for creating good art. But GREAT paint is pure joy and I have to tell you that Michael Harding's paint is GREAT paint.

I'm sure the reason Mr. Harding created his paint is because he is an artist himself and cares about what comes out of the tube and onto his canvas...you should too. We could have finished each other's sentences as we talked about the importance of certain colors and quality. You will love his Naples Yellow light which is lemony as it should be. Not dark and reddish! His transparent red oxide is a perfect mix of warm brown and rich red tones not a blasting red orange. The rest of the colors are pure and rich and I can't wait to get my hands on my new paint which I am about to order.

Graphaides in Santa Monica on Santa Monica Blvd. between Bundy and Centinella will gladly place your

order for his paints. (They can get you a much better price than if you buy direct because they buy bulk and then extend the Kline Academy discount). They ordered his large tubes of Titanium White and sold out with in a week!  This week and next, some of us are placing our orders so you may want to as well.

Grahaides has his color chart so drop by and have a look.

Photo: Michael Harding Artist and Creator of Michael Hardings Paint with Cheryl Kline, Artist and Director of Kline Academy of Fine Art

If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you...

the best way to thank us is to refer a friend

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

www.klineacademy.com

3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National)

(310) 927-2436

Figure Drawing Demo by Esmeralda Acosta

check out the this video of Esmeralda Acosta giving a live demo at the academy during the Wednesday morning class. At the moment I still need to upload the first part.

Right now the class is calling for enrollment at the academy and we are opening a Saturday afternoon class.

To enroll email art.director@gte.net OR call 310-927-2436

Hal Yaskulka Demo, written by Xavier Gonzalez

Yesterday at Kline academy, a new session began for the figure painting class which will last for 4 weeks. Instructor Hal Yaskulka makes headway for a brand new demo. Showing his simple yet effective step by step process, Yaskulka masterfully shows us how to paint the human body in this first demo.

Hal starts off by tinting the canvas with a thin mixture of acrylic paint, white and raw umber. After letting the paint dry, he then paints a basic out line of the body with raw umber. The idea behind this approach is to describe the form in straight angles. In addition, Hal show’s the direction of body at a certain angle, giving the figure a thrust of direction. Also to be noticed, he distinguishes the outline of the body with geometric shapes such as triangles, rectangles and cylinders.

After identifying the body Hal continues by adding the darks, and at the same time distinguishing the negative and positive spacing on the surrounding figure. Like most of his paintings, Hal adds the darks to the hair first. Rule of thumb, in a figure painting the darkest dark starts with the hair (unless they are blonde). From there, he can start ruling out what will be the color relationship of the background compared to the hair. He then moves on adding darks to the rest of the body by thickening the raw umber and adding a bit of raw sienna. Hal tends to paint the shadows in a abstract manner. The out line of the shadows is formed with straight angles. As for the negative and positive spacing, he places a shadow beneath the arm and makes certain areas darker than others. Thus, giving dimension to the entire form.

After making a noticeable feature of the figure, Hal begins to lay down the color. For this demo, Hal's palette has Titanium White, Naples yellow, Yellow ochre, Raw Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Napthol Scarlet (Vermilion) , Rose matter (Alizarin Crimson), Raw Umber, Cerulean Blue Hue and Ultramarine Blue. At this point Hal begins focusing on color relationships between the body and the back ground. Still focusing on the darks, Hal's point of origin is the head. From here, he begins by adding a greenish cool hue to the back ground, then a reddish sienna to the shadow of the head and keeping a similar color to the hair to offset it, carefully he blends both into each other. He then moves on coloring shaded areas of the body, which of course has a similar color relation ship to the back ground and the surrounding area.

The final step for this part of the demo Hal emphasizes the halftones continuously because the halftone is what bridges the gap between the dark and light and by oning in on this method, it helps a painting to gain a sense of realism. Hal begins to thicken the paint. The areas he begins to thicken are the flesh tones, in addition; by thickening the paint he begins to brighten certain parts of the body by adding a contrasting relationship between the cools and warms. Lastly, Hal adds a variety of hard and soft edges. By doing so, the painting begins to have dimension. Soft edges push a section of the painting back and a hard edge brings it forward.

It was a very informative demo. If you would like more information on Classical Figure Painting with instructor Hal Yaskulka, Mondays 11am to 2pm, long pose, call Kline Academy at (310)927-2436, limited space, all levels welcome.

If you like what we do, and like what we have taught you...

the best way to thank us is to refer a friend

KLINE ACADEMY of FINE ART

www.klineacademy.com

3264 Motor Ave, LA 90034 (near National)

(310) 927-2436

Hal Yaskulka Demo - lesson 1 of 4

The Artists who attended the ongoing figure painting course on Monday at Kline Academy received a demonstration by Instructor Hal Yaskulka.

Hal emphasized techniques that allow an individual to begin painting the human figure confidently and accurately.

Hal begins the step by step process by simply tinting the canvas in raw sienna (acrylic) to eradicate the intimidation of the white canvas. After the acrylic paint has dried, he dabs the hogs hair brush in oil and paints onto canvas.

Hal goes on by creating a silhouette that depicts a rectangular oval representing the form of the body, with that alone he moves on painting the figure in geometrical shapes.

In the second step, Hal increases the depiction of the painting by using cool colors. He lays in his darkest dark beginning with the hair. He moves onto the back ground with a greenish cool hue forming the shadow of the body.
Hal then creates the shadow of the forearm, back, and bottom with a sienna reddish hue.

The third phase connects the warm value tones to the cool tones. Hal deepens the dimension of the painting by blending the mid tone into the cool tone of the body. Note this is where it is most emphasized in order to achieve a third dimension Hal then paints the warm tones onto the canvas, however he carefully makes the colors not too warm, for that is to be left on the final phase of this demonstration

Three more weeks to go and this painting already looks absolutely amazing. Hal Yaskulka has amazed us once again. Stay tuned in the coming weeks and see this painting achieve its masterfulness by the one and only Hal Yaskulka!!!

How to Paint An Eye part 2

Sometimes, the best way to get your point across is to exaggerate. The image to the right was a demo I did on a student's palette to illustrate how varying values can help to describe the form to give it a more 3 dimensional quality. Let me explain:

1. Think of the eye as a ball. In order to round it out, you need to vary the values from medium dark to light.

2. This example is un-blended. Students tend to over blend everything. Force yourself not to blend. I used a bright Isabey brush for this example because I could get a "chiseled" edge. Overlapping each brush stroke just slightly so my edges would help create the illusion of a transition.

3. When you mix your colors, try to see the how the values vary ever so slightly. My palette was simple: Titanium white, Yellow Ochre, French Vermillion and Black.

4. Later, I could go back in and blend the edges where each value meets or-- I could leave it as is for a different style of painting. In fact, sometimes I have my students work the entire painting without blending. One of my favorite teachers once said to me in her beautiful Italian accent..."think of your painting like a mosaic...and you must describe all the facets of color and value that you see...stroke next to stroke." This has helped me in paintings on a daily basis