MARIE DONATO
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Marie Donato Art Classes: Drawing, Pastel & Oil Painting

11/25/2019

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2020 Art Classes offered at my Lake St. Louis location, include student's choice of media - pastel painting, oil painting and charcoal/graphite drawing.  
​Here are progress photos of student's work from classes in a variety of media.
Students can choose their own subject reference in order to feel a connection with the subject. 
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Beautiful pastel paintings!
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Oil painting in progress. Gorgeous color!
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Here is a graphite & charcoal drawing getting some finishing touches.
Lovely!
TAKE AN ART CLASS WITH MARIE DONATO
 Check out Marie's Art Class Info Page
​
Join the Fun!




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How to Relax and Loosen Up with Your Drawing

3/25/2019

 

Learn more about virtual Individual Lessons with Marie.

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DRAWING STEP-BY-STEP


It is common to be too tight and focused on details EARLY ON.

​Ironically being LOOSE in the beginning will actually improve the final details in your drawing. 

​You do not have to dread the blank sheet of paper in front of you. Here are some ways to help you relax and enjoy drawing. 

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Remember the starting lines will get covered up

Be loose and very general with your beginning pencil lines, make a soft suggestion of where the eyes and face will be.

Remember that all of these soft lines will be covered up with future mark making and shading. So don't worry about messing up.

Use powdered graphite to block-in value shapes

Why? Sometimes a pencil point or line can be too restrictive. Powdered graphite is easier to put down broad, loose, value shapes of darks.

Please don't be afraid to get your dark shadows in, because again future marks will go on top.

​No ... the second photo above isn't darker than the photos to the right.  You may think I lightened some of the eye area, I didn't.  

​What I did was go darker with the eyebrow, lidline, and lashline. It's just an optical illusion. Those darker marks make the values before it look lighter.

Have fun and enjoy drawing.
Are you interested in drawing tips and classes?  Learn about private individual instruction with Marie
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For more drawing tips, Sign up for my newsletter to get info sent to you.


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Portrait Drawing Class at the St. Louis Art Museum

11/15/2018

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What a Fun Art Field Trip!

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Sketching the Portrait at the Museum

I love our amazing St. Louis Art Museum! It is so beautiful!
A favorite thing is to bring my class to the museum to explore and sketch. 

We sketched from two masterwork paintings.​
Our emphasis was sketching the large shapes of the figure in the painting, creating a loose drawing in charcoal and pencil.
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​With no pressure, our sketching is done as a form of personal journaling, for each of us to explore and to become more aware of this incredible painting.  

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Portrait of a Woman
by Nicolas de Largilliere
c. ​1696

To sketch a masterwork, helps us all to really see it and maybe begin to think about all the decisions that the artist had to make in creating this painting, such as composition, lighting, how much of the sitter will be included and on and on.

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We moved on to a second amazing painting by Robert Henri.
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​Again our emphasis was on sketching, and getting the overall strong direction or angle of the subject's figure. Then we moved on to creating large shapes to small shapes, with minimal detail.  
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Betalo Rubino, Dramatic Dancer
by Robert Henri
1916
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To reward all our lovely sketches,
​we relax and enjoy a luxurious lunch together!
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What a treat!!
​A super fun fantastic day was had by all!!
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Join the Fun--
​If you are reading this and are interested in taking

Art Classes with Marie Donato,
​check out Marie's Art Class Info Page
for more information.


Have a Great Day!
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CLASS: DRAWING THE PORTRAIT

11/11/2018

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What a great class! Fantastic finished work by my Portrait Drawing Class at OA Gallery!  The focus of this portrait class was drawing the portrait on toned paper using graphite and charcoal. It's great for students to have a connection to their subject, so students are encouraged to bring their own photos. 
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Demonstration Drawing where I begin by loosely laying in the large shapes of the head, face, hair and neckline and then I start the eye area. 
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My art class students are working hard and making beautiful progress!
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What a great job they did! I have the best students!
Thank you all for making it such a fun class!!


If you are reading this and are interested in taking
Art Classes with Marie Donato,
​check out Marie's Art Class Info Page
for more information.


Have a Great Day!

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Drawing Class at the Museum

6/3/2018

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Wow! An art lesson at the Saint Louis Art Museum was a unique opportunity and treat for my drawing students!  As an art teacher my hope is that my students have fun while learning!  So I arranged a visit to the Prints and Drawings Study Room.  Visiting the Study Room was a rare occasion to get a close look at Master work dating back to the 1700's!  From there we went on to the main galleries to create sketches from two Zorn portraits. We all had a blast!
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17 works on paper were chosen from the Art Museum's collection.  Many of the works were unframed, matted only, and amazingly, not under glass.  Magnifying glasses were supplied for closer inspection of the beautiful marks and details!
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St. Louis Art Museum
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The Prints and Study Room
​was a pure delight to us all!
We saw works from Ingres, Renoir, Childe Hassam, Berthe Morisot and others.
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Beautiful pastel by Mary Cassatt
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Pastel painting created in 1753 by Maurice Quentin de la Tour
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Etching by Anders Zorn
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Questions answered by the Study Room Manager, Heather Hughes, were so helpful!  
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Great information! 
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From the Study Room we sketched from the Anders Zorn portraits.
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 We divided up between the Zorn portraits, Lucy Turner Joy and Halsey Cooley Ives.  Mr Ives was the first director of the St. Louis Art Museum.
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Sketching Lucy Turner Joy by Anders Zorn
Great fun!
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To top it off we gathered for a delicious relaxing lunch at the Museum's Panorama Restaurant!
​What a perfect day!

As an art instructor, it is my hope to share my excitement for drawing and to create fun learning experiences for my students.  

We definitely will be visiting the museum again! 
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For information on future classes offered
check out my Art Classes page.

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​www.mariedonato.com





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New Art Class: Drawing the Portrait

2/21/2018

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New Art Class
at OA Gallery

Drawing the Portrait/Figure
​on Toned Paper
Sept 14 - Oct 19, 2018
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Drawing Fall Session 2018
Fridays, Sept 14 - Oct 19, 2018
10:00 am - 12:00 Noon
6-week session
$195
Contact Marie to Register


OA Gallery Class
101A W. Argonne Dr. 63122
  For more information...
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Join Marie's Fall Drawing Class and learn the techniques and tips she has acquired over the years, and discover the joy of just creating!
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Drawing Class: Steps for drawing on toned paper

3/27/2017

 
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​This was my Portrait Drawing Demonstration for the class "Drawing on Toned Paper" held at OA Gallery.  I was using black charcoal for the darker values and white charcoal for the highlights .
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Learning to draw on toned paper using black and white charcoal, helps greatly in understanding value tones.

Here are some of the steps in drawing a portrait on toned paper.  The drawing is started lightly in the beginning. When the likeness of the eyes are getting closer then I'll start to establish more of the darks. Until then I keep the pencil marks light in case I need to erase. 
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Here the dark values are established in the drawing.  In a portrait the eyes will always have your darkest dark in the pupil of the eye and at the lashline. 

Using toned paper instead of white paper helps you to obtain your darkest darks and lightest lights while letting the paper be your midtone value.  
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A white charcoal pencil is used to show the highlights.
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This is the stage where values are checked and corrected. They help to show the three dimensional quality in the drawing.
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The portrait demo is finished and ready to be put in a frame!
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​The portrait is complete! It can be viewed at the Galleries at Heartland in Kirkwood, MO.
Working on toned paper is a beautiful and classical way to draw, which dates back to the Renaissance.
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Look at these beautiful drawings!  Everyone did a fantastic job!  What a great class!

Would you like information about my art classes?  Check out my classes here on my website.

Or  Sign up for my newsletter for new classes as they are scheduled. 
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DRAWING

1/30/2017

 
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Class is Full
New Drawing Class 2017 ​
with Marie Donato


​"Learning to Draw on Toned Paper"​

Marie Donato is offering a Spring 2017 Drawing Class to be held at the beautiful OA Gallery in charming downtown Kirkwood! 

​Set aside relaxing time for yourself and be inspired in the art-filled
OA Gallery, located directly across from the Kirkwood train station.

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Drawing Spring Session
Fridays    March 10 - April 14
​10:00 am -12:00 noon

​6-week session   

(If needed - snow/day April 21)


Current Class Information Here



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  • ARTWORK
    • Figures
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    • Equestrian
  • Portraits
    • Procedure
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  • Contact
    • About
    • Representation
  • Art Classes
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    • Individual Lessons
  • Studio Notes
    • STEP-BY-STEP