Self Study Courses

There are a few things to consider and plan for before we pick up the paint brushes. Your Pre-Prep steps are essential in beginning well and wrapping your head around your ideas, supplies, and how to begin.

Meet CarpyLynn and the Fishhead Course

How to Get the Most Out Of This Course

Let's Chat About Supplies

Planning the Piece

Pre-Prep Steps

Now that we have a plan we can begin to paint! From First Steps to Applying your base coat, we begin with loose structure, add a bit of pattern, and begin laying in the base coats of color.

First Steps

Sketching the Head

Sketching the Face

Adding Pattern With Lines

Activating Your Lines

Beginning Your Base Coats

Foundational Steps

The layering steps are the most fun because they take a painting from the beginning bones and shift it to a bolder, developed piece. Contrast and Values are key here.

Graphite and Grunge

Nailing Down a Color Strategy

Beginning to Define Eyes

Quick Time Lapse of Pushing Darks

OOPS...Lifting A Spot

Beginning to Push Details

Layering For Impact

Knowing the steps to finish strong are just as important as beginning well. In these final videos, I show you the steps to consider Are We Done Yet...and as you can see, the answer is always...it depends.

New Ideas After Fresh Eyes

Evaluating Line Work

Are We Done Yet?

Inking In The Eyes

Fixing The Fish

Last Steps

Course Summary

Finishing Strong

<div class="iframe-wrapper" style="display: flex; justify-content: flex-start;"><iframe src="https://iframe.mediadelivery.net/embed/431082/ee43cf5c-5ec1-456e-97ed-62c9b8bdca61?autoplay=false" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" style="max-width: 100%; text-align: left;"></iframe></div><h2 id="473906a6-d2b0-456f-b200-70df91a5fdf1" data-toc-id="473906a6-d2b0-456f-b200-70df91a5fdf1" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">MEET CARPYLYNN</h2>She is from the Land of Ardithian. She wears a fish roughly the size of her own head and carries another one at her shoulder. There is no water anywhere near her except on Tuesdays when she feeds her fist. I often asked her why Tuesday, and why fish, but the answers never came and I realized, over time, that it was none of my business. She had her secrets and I have mine. What I did learn about her though, despite the smell, is that she is one of the kindest and most welcoming Ardithians I ever met and she loves others just the way that they are…smells included. For that reason, CarpyLynn is beloved, fish and all.Of course she is a story character, but what matters for you is this: she is not a photograph. When you paint from a photo, every mark that doesn't match feels like a mistake. When you paint from a character, every mark you make is the point. Nobody can tell you her nose is wrong. Nobody has met her.A painting can be as wild and loose as you want as long as you give the viewer one place to rest and connect the story to the marks. If you are on the fence about whether this course is for you, start with these questions: <h2 id="8356ae32-b4f9-4685-bb97-9792b20d359d" data-toc-id="8356ae32-b4f9-4685-bb97-9792b20d359d" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">DO YOU EVER...?</h2><ul><li>Do you love loose, expressive watercolor but every time you try it, the face falls apart?</li><li>Do you tighten up the moment you get near the eyes, and then the whole painting goes stiff?</li><li>Do you feel like you have to choose between painting accurately and painting freely?</li><li>Do your patterns and details end up looking busy instead of intentional?</li><li>Do you get to the end and genuinely not know whether it's finished?</li></ul><h2 id="399a9745-04ee-4c01-a885-89318ad77c92" data-toc-id="399a9745-04ee-4c01-a885-89318ad77c92" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">WHY THIS HAPPENS</h2>Most of us were taught this as a choice. Paint tight or paint loose. Pick a lane.So, we do. And then we look at work that has both, a resolved, quiet face surrounded by color that clearly wasn't planned… and we assume the artist has some instinct we weren't offered.They don't. They made a decision, and they made it on purpose, over and over, in specific places.That's not talent or something that’s gifted. It's a habit of asking one question at every step: Is this the place to be accurate, or is this the place to let go?The answer to that depends on our intention of what we really want to express and experience as we paint. Finding out way to the answer requires time spent behind the brush and idea, and this course shows you what that looks like in a very Ardithian way. <img src="https://ezycourse.b-cdn.net/2632/cmt8tyzg41oha01xrgmv3d3rk.jpg" alt="image" style="height: auto; cursor: pointer;"><h2 id="8d516475-59fc-4f59-ba3e-440e163d8f1e" data-toc-id="8d516475-59fc-4f59-ba3e-440e163d8f1e" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">COURSE QUICK FACTS </h2><ul><li>Medium — Watercolor &amp; Mixed Media</li><li>25 Lessons — 2 hours 25 minutes of instruction</li><li>Lifetime Access — With your own classroom dashboard</li><li>Private Classroom — Push Past Ordinary Society</li><li>Price — $ 65 USD</li><li>All Sales Final</li></ul><h2 id="48f837c3-18ca-43de-883b-9a5fd393bb3a" data-toc-id="48f837c3-18ca-43de-883b-9a5fd393bb3a" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">WHAT WE'LL MAKE AND HOW</h2>Over 25 short lessons we'll build Carpylynn together, from the first pencil line to the last piece of ink.She's watercolor at heart, but she doesn't stay that way. We'll layer in water-soluble pencil and activate it with water, so the drawing becomes part of the paint. We'll shift graphite into grunge instead of erasing it. We'll build base coats, push darks hard, lift color back out where it's gone too far, and finish with black line and ink where the piece needs us to notice.The structure of the painting is a study in contrast. Her face is friendly, welcoming, and imperfect. Everything else is loud. Streaming fins. A collar of irregular spikes. Blocks of red and yellow that don't ask permission. Pattern that never repeats the same way twice.And in the background, you'll see the pencil marks I never erased.Every one of those was a choice, and in this course, you'll hear me make those decisions out loud.<h2 id="62e45d46-a484-4ed7-ae10-cd7cd7d11334" data-toc-id="62e45d46-a484-4ed7-ae10-cd7cd7d11334" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">WHAT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO DECIDE</h2>By the end of this course, you'll be able to decide:<ul><li>Where a painting needs a resting place, and where it can go completely feral</li><li>How to keep a face quiet and resolved without letting it turn stiff</li><li>How to make irregular pattern read as intentional instead of busy</li><li>When to leave your drawing visible and when to bury it</li><li>How to push darks far enough to matter, and how to pull color back when you've gone too far</li><li>Where black line will sharpen a piece and where it will kill it</li><li>Whether a painting is actually finished or whether you've just gotten nervous</li></ul><h2 id="512261c3-7f91-45d2-bf06-d25392c34f81" data-toc-id="512261c3-7f91-45d2-bf06-d25392c34f81" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">THE 25 LESSONS</h2>The course is comprised of 25 lessons broken down into prework, foundation work, layering work, and finishing strong work. BEFORE YOU BEGIN<ol><li>Meet Carpylynn</li><li>Course Overview</li><li>How To Get The Most Out Of This Course</li><li>Supplies Chat</li><li>Specific Supply Links</li><li>Planning The Piece</li></ol>LAYING THE FOUNDATION 7. Beginning With First Steps8. Sketching the Fishhead9. Sketching the Face10. Adding Pattern11. Activating Water Soluble Lines12. Adding Base Coats BUILDING COLOR AND DEPTH 13. Shifting Graphite to Grunge14. Nailing Your Color Strategy15. Defining Eyes16. Time Lapse of Pushing Darks17. Lifting A Spot18. Pushing DetailsJUDGMENT AND FINISHING 19. Revisit With Fresh Eyes20. Evaluating Line Work21. Are We Done Yet?22. Inking In The Eyes23. Fixing the Fish24. Last Steps25. Course SummaryA note on that last section: seven of these 25 lessons are about evaluating, deciding and repairing rather than applying paint. That's deliberate. Fixing the Fish exists because the fish went wrong, and I filmed fixing it instead of quietly starting over. Knowing what to do when a painting stops working is the part most of us were never taught.A note on time: 2 hours 25 minutes is the instruction. The painting will take you considerably longer than that, and it should.<h2 id="b85cc6cc-3608-4801-9182-9909356969a9" data-toc-id="b85cc6cc-3608-4801-9182-9909356969a9" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">MY HOPE FOR YOU</h2>My hope is that you stop asking permission.Not from me, not from a photograph, not from whatever voice tells you that a face has to be correct before it's allowed to be interesting. Trusting your imagination and desire to tell visual stories is so important and I am here to cheer you on for that. I hope you finish Carpylynn and immediately want to make one that looks nothing like mine.I hope you find yourself leaving a pencil mark on it on purpose.I hope the next time a painting goes wrong, you take a deep breath and see the way forward to use the mark to your creative advantage through use or omission. And I hope that somewhere in the middle of all that, you notice you've started making decisions instead of following instructions and are building your version of beautifully different or interesting. <h2 id="80ae02fb-4d3a-49b0-84b6-61d448d327d6" data-toc-id="80ae02fb-4d3a-49b0-84b6-61d448d327d6" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">WHO THIS IS FOR</h2><ul><li>Painters who love loose, expressive watercolor but freeze up on faces</li><li>Anyone who wants their work to feel narrative rather than decorative</li><li>Mixed media artists curious about layering pencil, ink and line into watercolor</li><li>People who like a little strangeness in their work</li><li>Painters at any level who are willing to make decisions</li></ul><h2 id="59083b21-13b3-40cd-b430-13efe0aececb" data-toc-id="59083b21-13b3-40cd-b430-13efe0aececb" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">WHO THIS IS NOT FOR</h2><ul><li>Anyone who wants to reproduce my painting exactly</li><li>Anyone looking for photorealism or traditional portraiture</li><li>Anyone who needs every step to have one correct answer</li><li>Anyone who isn't willing to let a painting go a bit wrong before it goes right</li></ul><h2 id="6c5e4438-2a9a-40ba-a4e9-c1ea2454d635" data-toc-id="6c5e4438-2a9a-40ba-a4e9-c1ea2454d635" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">SUPPLIES</h2>Please don't go out and buy everything. Watch the supplies lessons first, use what you already have, and only fill gaps if you need to. This painting is far more about decisions than materials.FULL LIST UPON REGISTRATION140lb Watercolor Paper (11 by 14)Painter’s TapeWatercolor Paints (Use what you have) I will be using:Gansai TambiFuumuuii Semi-Opaque WatercolorsHolbein and Daniel Smith Tube Watercolor PaintsWater Soluble Graphite Pencil 4BWater Soluble Acrylic Pencils (Derwent, Faber Castel, Stabilo Aquarellable)Languo Drawing InksMicron Waterproof Pen Size 05Spray MisterPaint Brushes (Round size 10 or 12) Use what you have and the brushes you love<h2 id="27b94a42-992c-4edc-a167-a7b2a7f90b3a" data-toc-id="27b94a42-992c-4edc-a167-a7b2a7f90b3a" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">THE PRIVATE CLASSROOM</h2>THIS COURSE COMES WITH A LIFETIME SEAT IN THE PUSH PAST ORDINARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM WHERE YOU CAN ASK QUESTIONS AND GET FEEDBACK ON YOUR WORK. <h2 id="736e8df3-0058-47d0-88ee-6b96fee88f3a" data-toc-id="736e8df3-0058-47d0-88ee-6b96fee88f3a" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">FAQ</h2>Will I paint the exact painting Ardith painted? Not exactly. You will learn the steps and decisions that I will make but I will HIGHLY encourage you to add colors, details, and marks that make the piece your own. You'll learn the same process and build the same character, but the goal will ultimately be to create your own Land of Ardithian inspired narrative work.Can beginners take this? Yes. There's no rendering test to pass. The willingness to make a decision matters more than the years you've put in.I've never used water-soluble pencil or ink over watercolor. Will I be lost? No. Both are introduced from scratch.How long is the course? 25 lessons, 2 hours 25 minutes of instruction. The painting itself takes longer.Do I need every supply on the list? No. Watch the supplies lessons first.How do I access the course after purchase? You will have lifetime access to your course through my Ardithian Arts website.Is there a refund? No. Due to this being a digital course, all sales are final.Can I gift this? Definitely. Email me at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:info@ardithgoodwin.com">info@ardithgoodwin.com</a> with their contact info.

Where to Be Accurate and Where to Let Go

Learn to paint a face that holds perfectly still while everything around it runs wild... in watercolor, water-soluble pencil, ink and a little grunge.

CarpyLynn The Fishhead

Ardith Goodwin

Course Details

Course content