LAYER & GLAZE
Traditional oil painting

BEGINNERS LAYER & GLAZING (Todd Bonita)
 Centennial Hall, North Hampton, NH (2nd floor Ballroom). 105 Post Rd. North Hampton, NH
January 4 - March 1, 2027 (9am - 12) 7 Mondays
(Limit 12) $360

This is our Annual, "New Years resolution class"....Make this the year you finally jump in and crack the codes to good painting. This indoor class takes place Monday mornings and aims to simplify oil painting using a traditional layering process. These classes are for beginners who have never painted before or for those who have some experience but are looking for a simple and focussed understanding of the nuts and bolts of oil painting. Each class begins with a demo, where we will explore individual steps from drawing to underpainting to color application. Design, value, color and creative oil painting techniques and tools will be discussed and demonstrated. With an understanding of these principles, students will be better equipped to meet the challenges of painting with glazes and layers, and thereby, better able to express themselves as artist. Syllabus and supply list below.

​* No class Jan 18, Feb 15. Snow date: March 08, 2027.
* If you miss a class or several due to schedule conflicts, please know that you are welcome to stay after a class and join our Critique club session, which follows Layer and Glaze class.  We meet in the same space immediately following class, so bring a lunch and join us for a full day. 
​*Scroll below to see how I made this painting...

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REGISTER:
Contact Todd Bonita
Phone: (603) 819-9100
Email: [email protected]
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We accept:
* Checks, 
* Credit Cards (3.6% process fee)
* Pay Pal (3.6% process fee) 
* Cash for teachers pet...LOL
* Venmo ; @Todd-Bonita (add 2% for process fee)

If sending a check, please make it out to Todd
Bonita and mail it to:

Todd Bonita
28 McShane Ave
Greenland, NH 03840

Please write "Layer and Glaze" in the memo on the check.

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Please bring to first class:
3 photographs (We will use one of them as reference to complete your painting and begin our discussion on design).

• One 8x10” or 9x12” canvas or panel.
• Art Supplies (List is below syllabus)

SYLLABUS

Day #1 Introduction, Overview, Design.

1. Discussion of oil painting, objective, goals, tools and process
2. Design, Drawing and value scales.
3. Students work on value scales.

Day #2 Design, underpainting demonstration

1. Underpainting demonstration
2. Student set up and work on under paintings

Day #3 Under painting White, Values

1. Discuss students work
2. Underpainting White demonstration
3. Set up and work on Underpainting

Day #4 Finished Underpaintings

1. Discuss students work
2. Set up and work on Underpainting

Day #5 Local color

1. Discussion of color Wheel (Hue, Value, Chroma,/ Munselle, Complimentary, Keying, planning color scheme).
2. Local color lay-in demonstration
3. Set up and work on color lay in.

Day #6 Color, Atmosphere, Edges, Brushwork

1. Discussion of color 2 (Mixing, Graying, Atmosphere, Mood, Depth/Distance, warm and cool, relationships).
2. Color mixing exercise
3. Set up and work on student projects

Day #7 Finish Paintings, Critique, Conclusion, Framing

1. Discussion of finishing a painting
2. Set up and finish our paintings
3. Review of primary fundamentals of oil painting, visual elements, process.
4. Critique of personal projects
5. Class critique, recommendation for further study and reading (Coffee and treats).

Supply List 
(I buy my supplies at Jerrysartarama.com, Dickblick.com, Cheapjoes.com, Utrecht.com)
Please bring a table easel, I have extras if you don't have one.

Pallet
I recommend a wood pallet. I have glass too for one of my boxes...try to avoid paper pallets.

Paint
*(I recommend a minimal palette of a warm and cool version of the three primaries plus white (with maybe a few extras)....A total of 9 colors but I have included some additional (optional colors) if you wish to expand and experiment. Please spend the extra for professional grade paints, be careful not to buy the student grade paints. I use Williamsburg, Winsor & Newton, Gamblin and Utrecht but there are many good options.)

Titanium White
Alkyd White (Important under painting color) Alkyd is quick dry paint. For brands I like Winsor and Newton Griffin Alkyd Titanium White.
Cad Yellow medium
Yellow ochre (Alternatively, After more than twenty years, I replaced my cool yellow with Transparent Earth Yellow and I love it).
Alizeran Crimson Permanent
Cadmium Red Medium
Ultramarine Blue
Cerulean Blue
Sap Green
Raw umber
Ivory Black
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Painting surface
Canvas, gessoed wood panels, oil primed panels, canvas or linen mounted to panels are all fine.
I use oil primed wood panels...I recommend (8x10”) or (9x12”)....Please dont run to Michaels last minute and get the slick surfaced, gessoed panels they sell...they are aweful and paint slides off of them. Get something with a little tooth to it...just a little though.)

Brushes
*Assortment of bristle brushes (I suggest large, medium and small in three styles: Flats, Rounds and Filberts. I mostly use Robert Simmons Signet series flats #3, #6 and #10)
*Assortment of synthetic flats and or filberts for glazing color.
*Small synthetic rounds for details. (I suggest Winsor and Newton Septre Gold 2 in the 404 series...size 4 and / or size 6)

Other
*Trowel type Pallet knife
*liquin and pallet cup
****Gamsol (Turpentine substitute) with container or medium glass jar (No turps aloud in studio, sorry, please use Gamsol.
*paper towels (Blue shop towels are the best)
Soft pencil, eraser and sketchbook
*Ruler, straight edge or a mahl stick (something to make straight lines with is handy)
*A Veiwfinder: Important! Whether homemade or store bought, it must be adjustable or proportionate to your canvases. Viewcatcher is ideal.
*Ruby Beholder (This is a quilters tool, a simple red piece of plastic used to see values, Amazon.com has them)
*Artist paint box for supplies
*Wet paint carrier. I love the PanelPaks...they are lightweight and convenient or you could use a pizza box.

**(I have extras of everything so please do not stress or panic if you can’t find that tube of yellow, etc…For best deals, shop online at Jerrys Artarama, Dick Blick, Utrecht or Cheap Joes.


Recommended reading

1. Art Spirit by Robert Henri
2. Alla Prima 2, (Everything I know about painting) by Richard Schmid
3. Hawthorn on Painting by Charles Hawthorn
4. Drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards
5. Composition of outdoor painting by Edgar Payne
6. Carlsons guide to landscape painting by John Carlson
7. Landscape Painting: Essential concepts by Mitchell Albala
8. Landscape Painting inside and out by Kevin MacPherson

www.toddbonita.com
www.toddbonitagallery.com

How I make a picture.

I draw using charcoal, transferring my drawing by using a grid system.

Pour Refined linsedd oil on to a rag or towel. I love the blue painters shop towels.

Apply a thin coat of raw umber oil over the entire canvas. Just get it on there, no need for fancy painting yet. We are just looking for total coverage.

Using another shop towel, smooth out the strokes to get an even coat. Im looking for a mid tone coverage...Something like a value 5 is fine. It should be just thin enough to still see the drawing underneath.

By adding these midtones, you are 1/3 done with the painting at this stage. Next, remove the lights and beaf up the darks.

You should still see the drawng through the umber wash.

Place a shop towel around your finger and wipe away the lights.

Bing - bang - boom! Remove those lights. Values 7, 8 and 9.

Squint your eyes at your photo reference, isolating the lights...Go get those suckers..wipe - wipe - wipe.

Once the lights are wiped away, now beef up the darks. No medium necessary. Simply use a brush and raw umber and darken as needed.

Squint your eyes while looking at your black and white reference. continue to mass in the dark values.

You can arrive at something convincing quite quickly. The light, dark and mid tone families are all present = illusion of form.

Once the large dark masses are in, I use a smaller brush for the smaller marks.

After about 6 hours the paint begins to tack...its telling you, "You are done for today". Bravo. Let it dry overnight.

This is a large canvas (48x60"). If I were working on smaller canvases, I could do as many as 3 to 6 underpainting wipe-aways in the same period.

Next painting session = Beef up the darks more. We are now using Liquin (Quick dry Alkyd medium) to our raw umber.

The liquin thins the paint for a thin wash to intensify and beef up the darks even more. Adding subtly to the darks.

"Always START with the DARKS". The darks are easiest to see and replicate. Start from a position of confidence and get to something convincing quickly.

Cruising along with the darks...now lets introduce White paint and mid tones...Take a breath, here we go.....

Introducing Underpainting white. Any quick dry white will do. My favorite is W7N Griffin Alkyd White.

Using the white and raw umber, I make a third pile of mid tones.

I adjust the mid tones as needed. If its a darker mid tone, I add a little more umber to the mix...if its a light mid tone, "You guessed it", I add a little more light.

The goal here is to broaden the subtle range of mid -tones. Im using the paint with liquin and keeping the washes fairly thin.

Progress is quick, by the end of the session (A few hours), I have enhanced all three families; Light, dark and mid tones.

Session 2 complete. Let it dry over night. Compare this progress to the day one session picture of me with the "6 Hours" sign. Its a substantial leap, infusing a greater feeling of 3 dimensional form.

3rd painting session = ADDING COLOR! Big day, get ready. We shift our attention now to the color reference. Easy -peazy!

I use professional grade oil colors.

I squeeze out fresh paint in the same spots. Keeping it simple. Im using Liquin as my medium.

Using liquin, I add it the oil color and make a thin wash. observe its relative transparency here.

I started with a green mossy color because it was the largest area of color in this painting.

Ask yourself, "Where else in the painting am I seeing this color?"...Then add a thin glaze of it as necessary.

The goal of the first color application is to cover every square inch of the canvas with a thin glaze of transparent color.

These next two photos reveal the true magic of this technique; Observe the side of the boat, its painted monochromatically with a dark, light and midtone value. Watch the side of the boat in the nexzt frame as I add only one layer of red on top of the monochrome.

By adding only one thin, transparent wash of red, it appears as though Ive added a dark, light and mid tone red. Boom! Value does all the work and color gets the credit.

Boop!

Almost done! Let it dry overnight and the big finish tomorrow = Adding semi opaque and opaque color.

FINAL COLOR SESSION!...Lets go. Its upside down day. A Right brain trick to check for accuracy. By painting upside down, our right brain is engaged and we are better able to see the shapes abstractly and more accurately. I know, strange but true.

Technically, this is the most difficult part of the painting as we are trying to mix color accurately. We are still using a full color palette and liquin medium.

I am selectively adding slightly thicker passages of paint, semi-opaque and opaque. These passages are selective and go over parts of the painting while leaving other parts revealing the transparent glazes from yesterday.

By covering the painting with transparent, semi-opaque and opaque passages, we have a dynamic and interesting surface of both transparent luminosity and reflective opacity.

Viola! Finished. Ill wait for it to dry, put it in a frame and then sign it. (This painting now hangs at the Church Landing at Mills Falls Inn in Meredith, NH.

You can see a free video series of my process on my You Tube channel. Happy painting.