Fourth-Friday Figure Drawing & Painting with Edward Sprafkin

June 27th

9:30 am to 12:30 pm

$40 Members/$50 Non-Members

 

This three-hour class will meet on the fourth Friday of every month from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm through October 2025.  Working from a live model, beginning with short warm-up poses and ending with a one-hour final pose; participants will learn practical approaches to figure drawing and quick-sketch painting while honing their observational skills and receiving instructor feedback throughout each class. This monthly meet-up is perfect for those already attending local open studios who have a basic working knowledge of their materials and wish to have more instruction. New artists are encouraged to develop their drawing skills before learning to paint.

 

Drawing Supply List:

If you already have a favorite drawing tool, by all means use it. If you’re brand new to drawing I recommend that you use a correctable material such as graphite, pastel pencil, or charcoal pencil. Once you have a firm grasp of the basics there are limitless mark making tools to experiment with including color pencils, fountain pens, brush pens, markers, ink liners, etc.
You can get as invested as you wish with materials, but you can simply use an HB graphite pencil, clipboard, and a ream of standard copy paper to keep it budget-friendly.
You don’t have to purchase everything on this list! Decide whether you are going to work with graphite, pastel pencil, or charcoal and shop accordingly.

Bare-bones Practice Paper: Ream of standard copy paper for graphite and ballpoint.
Smooth Newsprint: 18 x 24 Great for pastel pencils, charcoal pencils, and soft graphite but not acid-free and will turn yellow over time.
Good Multiuse Paper: 11×14 -18×24 Strathmore 300 or Canson Universal Sketch pads.
Better Drawing Paper: 11×14 – 18×24 Strathmore 400, Legion Stonehenge, Canson Classic, Fabriano 1264 Drawing pads.
Toned Papers: Strathmore Toned Gray, Toned Tan, Toned Blue, or Strathmore Artagain Assorted Tints are great with graphite, charcoal, and pastel pencil.
Drawing Clipboard: A rigid support suitable for your paper or sketchbook size.
Graphite Pencils: 12 piece set of wood pencils, Mechanical Pencils 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9.
Charcoal Pencils: General’s 2B – 6B. You can also purchase pre-packaged sets.
General’s White Charcoal pencil if working on Toned papers.
Pastel Pencils: Stabilo CarbOthello chalk-pastel coloring pencils.
Pencil sharpener for graphite or razor blade & sandpaper for charcoal and pastels.
Kneaded Eraser
White Plastic Eraser: mostly used for graphite.

Edward Sprafkin is an impressionistic painter whose favorite subjects include landscapes, portraits, and figures. He strives to create a great sense of depth, mood, and atmosphere in his paintings, regardless of their scale.

Edward is just as passionate about teaching as he is about painting. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and finds inspiration in seeing students’ progress to new skill levels.

Edward Sprafkin’s work has been featured in American Artist Magazine, juried, and shown from coast to coast, including the Salmagundi Club in NYC and private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

Painting Supply List:

If you’re an oil painter, I highly recommend water-mixable oils for their ease of clean-up and non-reliance on vapor-harmful solvents. If you use traditional oil paints, please use Gamsol Only and keep it capped when not in use. I will be working in either acrylic or gouache paints for the demonstrations; however, you are free to use your paint of choice.

 

Canvas: Acrylic-primed in a variety of sizes for oil and acrylic paints.

Cold Press watercolor block: for gouache and watercolor paints.

 

Oil/Acrylic Palette: Grey Matters or standard white disposable paper palette

Gouache Palette: Small porcelain enameled butchers tray palette

Watercolor palette: 12 to18 large wells for watercolor paints.

 

Professional Oil Paint: Gamblin, Utrecht, Windsor Newton, Rembrandt, or Grumbacher.

Professional Heavy-body Acrylic Paint: Liquitex or Utrecht.

Professional Gouache Paints: Utrecht, Windsor Newton, Holbein, ShinHan

Professional Watercolor Paints: Utrecht, Windsor Newton, Holbein, Daniel Smith

Basic Colors: (You are free to use your favorite colors!)

Titanium or Permanent White

Cad Yellow Medium

Yellow Ocher

Cad Red Light or Medium

Alizarin Permanent

Burnt Sienna

Ultramarine Blue

Phthalo Blue

 

Solvent-Free Oil Medium: Gamblin Solvent-Free Oil Fluid Medium to thin your oil paints while painting.

Palette Cups: Two metal palette cups for oil mediums.

 

Oil Brushes: Hog Bristle Flats or Brights, sizes #2-12.

Acrylic Brushes: Synthetic Flats, sizes #2-12.

Watercolor and Gouache Brushes: Princeton Velvet Touch 1”, ½”, ¾” Flats.

 

Palette Knife: Diamond-shaped, 2″ in length for oil and acrylic paints.

Brush Washer: Plastic bucket for water-mixable oil, acrylic, gouache, and watercolor.

Water spray bottle/atomizer for acrylic, watercolor, and gouache paints.

Paper towels, tissues, or rags.

Small sketchbook and pencil: for working out thumbnail sketches before painting.

For questions you can contact Cynthia at dunnselphc@yahoo.com