Virtual Art Academy® Visual Music & Poetry Painting Lessons


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What is included in the Visual Music & Poetry Building Block?

In this course Building Block I talk about those things that turn a painting into a work of art and that make the difference between an ordinary painting and a masterpiece. I will introduce you to a whole new way of looking at paintings, and explain why you are learning all these individual skills that are included in each of the other Building Blocks.
Although this Building Block is at the highest level of painting and essential for all professionals, I think if you are an absolute beginner you need to understand these main ideas right away so that you know how to evaluate paintings when you see them in galleries or on the internet. For this reason I've included the first course unit of this Building Block in the Beginner Course. Collectors or in fact anyone who just likes looking at paintings will also find this Building Block very interesting
The Visual Music & Poetry Building Block consists of six course units (in pdf format) and a total of 128 pages:
Course Unit 1 - The Visual Music & Poetry Model Course Unit 2 - Creating Poetry Course Unit 3 - Emphasis Course Unit 4 - Student Critiques I Course Unit 5 - Student Critiques II Course Unit 6 - Master Painting Critiques

Course Unit 1 - The Visual Music & Poetry Model

In this Building Block you will learn how I look at works of art using a basic model called the "Visual Music and Poetry Model". This model takes into account both the abstract and representational aspects of a painting. A painting consists of visual music combined with visual poetry.
The music of a painting is its sensuous, non-intellectual part. It derives from the physiological pleasure the human brain gets from making visual order out of the visual chaos of nature. The poetry of a painting is what the artist is trying to communicate to the viewer through his or her painting. It is the emotion that is elicited from the viewer.
So why do I use these terms 'music' and 'poetry'? I use the term 'music' because of the various analogies between music and painting. A good musical composition has harmony between its notes and a good painting has harmony between its colors and values. A good musical composition has an interesting rhythms in the time sequence of its notes, and a good painting has various rhythms in the spacings between its shapes.
Likewise good music takes advantage of repetition in sequences of notes with some variations. Repetition and variety in shapes and colors is one of the key principles in painting. Hence the strong analogy between painting and music. As for poetry, I cannot say it any better than a quote I recently read by William Carlos Williams (1883 - 1963) in a1950 interview: "Poetry is language charged with emotion. Poetry is words, words rhythmically organized. A poem is its own complete small universe, it exists separately. Any poem that is/has worth expresses the whole life of the poet. It gives a view of what the poet is." Just change the word 'poetry' in this quote to 'painting', and you'll see what I mean: "A painting is an image charged with emotion. A painting is shapes, lines, colors and values rhythmically organized. A painting is its own complete small universe, it exists separately. Any painting that is/has worth expresses the whole life of the artist. It gives a view of what the artist is."
In this course unit, you will learn:
the five components of the visual music and poetry model – the characteristics of the best contemporary work pure naturalism to pure abstraction – the choice you have when painting your subject how to differentiate the poetry from the music in your painting and make them work together, rather than fight each other the difference between far music and near music, and why brushwork is so important an eight point checklist you can use to evaluate any painting for visual music and poetry how two master painters, John Singer Sargent, and Ludovico Tommasi, achieved visual music and poetry in their work how visual music and poetry relates to the everything else you learn in the Virtual Art Academy curriculum

Course Unit 2 - Creating Poetry

In this course unit you will learn how to make your work meaningful and come up with a concept, idea or focus for your painting. This is the 'poetry' of a painting. When you learn to become aware of the poetry in a painting you begin to see paintings in a new light. Your paintings will start to communicate much more emotion and feeling, rather than being lifeless works.
You will also start to understand why certain master paintings in museums are considered a masterpiece. At the same time it will make you a much better critic of your own work, helping you to improve much faster.
In this course unit, you will learn:
how to focus your painting to make it more meaningful: the six major types of concept: emotional; aesthetic; descriptive; narrative; complex idea; and message the two types of concept that can get you in trouble, and why a five-step process for coming up with a concept for a painting the principle of subordination and how to deal with multiple subjects in your paintings without losing your focus how to take advantage of relationships to add poetry to your work and why they are so powerful when and how to simplify to give more focus to your concept the poetry/music mismatch: the most common mistake beginners make when creating poetry and music how to choose what to paint how to develop your own individual style of painting (and how not to!) why what you take out of your painting is more important than what you leave in

Course Unit 3 - Emphasis

Once you have worked out your concept and a design strategy for your painting, you need to focus the parts of your painting towards that concept and emphasize what you want to say about your subject.
The most effective way to do this is to use contrast. For example, use light against dark, warm against cool, saturated against less saturated, rectangular versus diagonal, and straight versus curved. In this course unit you will learn all the various techniques you can use to emphasize and exaggerate your concept
In this course unit, you will learn:
ten techniques for using contrast to visually emphasize your concept, including the use of contrast of saturation, light and dark, warm and cool, line, brushwork, texture, and size when to use exaggeration to enhance your painting, and why it is sometimes necessary to not paint what you see how to add energy to your paintings how to use value changes, edges, and foregrounds to create a misty mood how to dramatize skies and ocean scenes how to handle moonlight effects

Course Unit 4 - Student Critique I

This course unit contains 10 critiques of student paintings. Each critique looks at both the poetry and the music of the painting using the same Visual Music & Poetry model you learned in course unit 1. You probably have many of the same problems in your own work and so you will learn a great deal from these critiques about how to fix problems in your own work

Course Unit 5 - Student Critique II

This course unit also contains 10 critiques of student paintings. Each critique looks at both the poetry and the music of the painting using the same Visual Music & Poetry model you learned in course unit 1. You probably have many of the same problems in your own work and so you will learn a great deal from these critiques about how to fix problems in your own work.

Course Unit 6 - Master Painting Critiques

This course unit contains a set of ten critiques of paintings by the great masters. I've evaluated each of these masters using the same Visual Music & Poetry model. One of the best ways to learn paintings is to study the masters. It is important to spend your time going to museums and galleries to study their work. However if you don't know what you are looking at and why it can be difficult to learn from these paintings. This course unit will help you learn how to look at master paintings and give some focus to your trips to museums or browsing through art books.

What does it cost?

This course is equivalent to a two week specialist course of study with a professional artist that would cost around $3,000 including travel and lodging.

Many of my students have told me that this is the most thorough information they have found anywhere on the internet (read the emails that students have sent me over the past few years) so I will happily give you a 30-day Money Back Guarantee.

Complete Set of Visual Music & Poetry Course Units
USD$90.00

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