Beginning Acrylics
ABOUT THIS CLASS
Beginning Acrylic Painting is about getting comfortable with paint and learning how to turn what you see into something you can work with on a canvas or page.
We’ll start with the materials themselves: paint, brushes, surfaces, mediums, tools, and how to set up a simple, functional workspace. You’ll learn how acrylic behaves, including consistency, coverage, transparency, layering, drying time, and color mixing.
Through exercises, studies, and small paintings, we’ll build brushwork and paint-handling skills while working with value, shape, color, edges, form, and the basic relationships that help us understand and paint the elements and objects around us.
We’re not going to spend 14 weeks chasing perfect finished paintings. We’ll work in manageable steps so you can understand what you’re seeing, learn what your materials can do, and become more confident making choices with paint.
This class is beginner friendly, and no previous painting experience is required. Each class builds on what came before, giving you time to practice, experiment, and develop a painting practice that continues beyond the classroom.
Interested in Education Access, Teacher & Military Discounts please contact Kelli Johnson at kjohnson@academycenter.org for more information.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Instructor : Toby Penney
Toby teaches painting and watercolor with a practical, approachable focus on understanding what your materials can actually do: how paint behaves, what a brush can do, how color works, and how the choices we make change what happens on the page or canvas. She breaks those ideas into manageable pieces, building strong foundations. Whether someone is picking up a brush for the first time or returning after years away, her classes make room for curiosity, experimentation, and the confidence that comes from understanding what you’re doing and why.
Based in Lynchburg, Toby is an internationally exhibiting artist whose personal practice moves across painting, watercolor, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and book arts.
Find more of Toby’s work at tobypenney.com.
