Students routinely complain, “My work looks hard and tight. I wish I could loosen up!” This workshop could be the answer to your prayers. Painters like Nikolai Fechin, Antonio Mancini, and Anders Zorn were masters of suggestion, and, of course, some of the greatest artists of all time. The key to their evocative work was often not what they put in, but rather what they chose to leave out. (C.W. Mundy eloquently states, “Don’t insult the viewer by spelling out every detail.”)

Most successful paintings go beyond mere rendering…they reach the viewer on an emotional level. In this two-day workshop we will work from the live model, but the principles you will learn apply equally well to figures, landscape, or still life. (As they preached at the American Academy, “If you can paint a decent head, you can paint anything!”) Of course, the world’s most iconic paintings are portraits and figures; art museums are filled with paintings of people. We are our own favorite subjects!

This two-day oil and pastel workshop is for advanced beginners or higher. You will learn:

• Power through suggestion
• One simple technique to create sparkling color
• How to avoid “unpleasant detail”
• Edge control
• How to simplify color harmony
• The key to turning the form with temperature
• A technique to create Fechin’s broken edge effects

Enrollment is limited to a maximum of 12 students; first come, first served for AIS Members ($350). In the event there is space available 45 days prior to the workshop, enrollment will be opened to non-members ($400).

This workshop will turbo-charge your understanding of drawing, value, color temperature, edge control and above all else – how to loosen up! 

Biography

William A. Schneider, AISM, OPAM, PSA-MP, works in oil and pastel.

His skills were honed during eight years at the American Academy of Art’s Saturday Program in Chicago where he studied figure drawing and pastel with Bill Parks and oil painting with Ted Smuskiewicz.  He continued his education through workshops with many of today’s masters like Carolyn Anderson, Dan Gerhartz, and Richard Schmid. He learned his advanced pastel techniques in studies with Harley Brown.

William’s paintings have been featured in numerous magazine articles and several books. His work has received awards in exhibitions including those of: Academic Artists, American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America, Portrait Society of America, and The International Association of Pastel Societies. He is a Master Signature member of OPA. The Pastel Society of America elected William to the title “Master Pastelist” and The American Impressionist Society has designated him as a “Master”. The International Association of Pastel Societies has named him to the “Master’s Circle” and elevated him to the status of “Eminent Pastelist”.