Full course description
Painting with the Masters
4/10-5/1/2026, Thursdays, 9:30am-12:30pm
Location: ONLINE
Instructor: Tami Tsark
This course will help you appreciate some of your favorite “master” painters; study and copy paintings from different time periods; and match some original elements but learn to make them your own. Our studies will include classic and contemporary artists from different eras. We will follow in the well-established tradition of learning to appreciate and reproduce some of the things that make paintings great. This class is open to beginning and continuing students.
Suggested materials list:
Please bring what any supplies you might have. Feel free to email the instructor if you are new and have questions.
Notebook – paper to work out thumbnail sketches and jot down notes
For Drawing:
Charcoal & graphite pencils
Kneaded or Rubber erasers (no gum erasers)
Drawing Paper (sketch paper ok for warm ups, but something more substantial for finished work.
For Paintings:
Brushes - Soft brushes are fine. Something with a bit of a spring and a point. Nice to have a variety of rounds and flats. If you have one round to start the first day of class, that's fine and we can discuss.
Paints - Artist's grade are better than student grade and will save you money in the long run*.
Water Media paint: We will typically work with water media (watercolor, gouache, or acrylic) but since folks are working in their homes, oil paints are fine. (Note: This is not a beginning oil painting class).
Recommended colors:
Warm Red (Rose or any primary red),
Cool Red (Alizarin Crimson),
Yellow Ochre,
Cool Blue (Ultramarine),
Burnt Umber,
Burnt Sienna.
Optional:
Indigo or Payne's Grey,
Warm Blue (Turquoise, Cerulean),
Titanium White (Oil or Acrylic painters).
Painting surfaces or supports.
Rag or towel. Paper towels for blotting water media.
Water Containers: two, if possible: One to rinse brushes, one small one with clean water to use as a painting “medium” (watercolorists).
Paper: at least 90 lb. watercolor paper or cardstock/bristol for exercises. 140lb. – 300 lb. for more finished work. Strathmore® 400 Series Watercolor Pad or Canson. (Mixed media paper isnot recommended, but is OK). For artist grade paper, Arches, Fabriano and Fluid make 300lb. sheets and pads.
optional
board and masking tape for watercolor painters
second device (iphone or ipad) for digital painting reference during class
Instructor Bio: Tami S. Tsark is a painter, educator, and media producer. She is a working artist with work exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. Tami infuse her love of motion, from her background as a competitive ice skater, into her imagery. Themes that are of most interest are dream-states, persistent knowledge and/or the transfer of emotion from historical or perceived events to new hosts. Plainly put, she loves to incorporate reclaimed objects and complex surfaces and explore their new affect using video or paint. Tami has been teaching art since 2017. She’s taught privately, globally, and at several institutions, including the Schulz Museum, College of Marin, Sharon Art at San Francisco Rec & Park, and Oxford Day Academy. A graduate of the UCLA Film and TV Program, Ms. Tsark has worked as an executive producer at several educational software and Internet companies (including Broderbund/Random House. McGraw-Hill, Leapfrog, Knowledge Adventure, 415 Productions, Hewlett Packard.) She has also worked as a Post-Production Supervisor for animated television series, Rugrats and The Simpsons. In her other professional life, she works as Projects’ Director and in involved in all aspects of production and business development.
image credit: Tami S. Tsark