Classes Summer 2026
Introduction to Digital Painting
Making a painting is a practice of both drawing and painting skills, but also one of design. While it is a visual problem to solve, there is not one correct answer, but an entire language of expression. What are our paintings about and how can we make them visually legible? We actively guide our perception of the still life motif to focus around a design question, because while there are infinite ways to paint a still life, the correct visual path is the one that furthers and engages with our initial design question.
What is the goal of creating a painting? Especially at the moments when we are using photo reference, how are we both observing and designing? What is the thought process if not just copying? How can our design of color create a focal point or guide our experience through a painting? How can we bring our sensibility of traditional painting and mark-making into our digital work? This course will attempt to begin a conversation about all of these questions while delivering a series of steps to go through in Photoshop to begin to create digital paintings.
This workflow of strategies and tools will create both simple observational paintings and complex multi-layered environments- it’s up to the artist’s ambition and patience. There is no previous experience in Photoshop needed for this introductory level course. If you are interested in studying with me head to PCA&D's page to learn more and sign up:
https://pcad.edu/product/session-1-pre-college-introduction-to-digital-painting-grades-9-12/
Above is a 20 minute photo study focusing on silhouette, process, and simplifying to five tones
PS: a blog entry from a past semester about this class with some of my demo painting images:
https://shansen.artstation.com/blog/wLRR/painting-class-wrapped
Fantasy Digital Illustration
What does your story world look like? Who lives there and what do they do all day? Is this place a medieval kingdom, a fantastical forest, a city of the future, a desert outpost or something completely different? What materials exist there and what will your characters make out of these materials? What do your characters want? In this course each student will develop a short paragraph describing a specific fantasy place and then use this brief to design a prop that belongs to their imagined world. We will develop the story world’s visual language to design and paint the prop using specific shape language, silhouette, emotional tone, color palette, and material textures. If you are interested in studying with me head to PCA&D's page to learn more and sign up: