From The Erik Tiemens Workshop

So I just tookthe workshop with Erik Tiemens. Man was it good. Not only was it really affordable, but it was full of good info and was well-put-together. He crammed in as much teaching as he could, and it felt like he could have given way more if time permitted... He did a lot of demonstrations, and was genuinely interested in giving as much help as he could. He layed out his own method and went through it pretty thoroughly. I can see myself exploring for a while because I found it so natural, useful and effective.

First thing he had us do was use this scrap piece of toned paper to do some compositions from our head to warm up, and also get used to this super-limited pallette.



He then sent us out into the field to sketch and gather ideas for a finished piece based on our observations.



Focusing on the planes of this coastal rock



After the first day of class we went to sketch outside again.. I'm pleased with the way the clouds came out... A lack of proper preparation actually helped out a bit here...



The foreground rock came out ok, but the clouds looked way better before they dried...



In class we did some more thumbnails to work out what we wanted to do for our final piece.



We then got a chance to go out and sketch some more. I got some more details for the painting I wanted to do.



these detail studies help you out more than a photograph does, actually.



The final piece I did in class. It took about an hour and a half, roughly... Much quicker than I could have executed this in oil. I would consider this a good preliminary for a large scale painting. I'm planning on doing this in oils.



After class we were still pretty juiced to do more painting. We went out and sketched again for about an hour. I did this painting in that time. I found that this painting was just as fun to do as an oil painting, and much quicker.



Anybody in the bay area, if you want Erik to keep doing workshops around here, contact him and let him know you're interested in taking a
workshop with him. It's a huge amount of bang for the buck...