Painting I

Course Description

ART2500C – Painting I is a 3-credit, integrated studio course that introduces students to the fundamentals of painting in oil and/or acrylic media. Students develop technical proficiency with brushes, mediums, and surface preparation; build a working understanding of color mixing and pictorial space; and produce a body of paintings that progresses from monochromatic value studies through still life, landscape, and figurative or self-directed compositions. The course is designed to assist students in developing a personal visual language by emphasizing the conceptual form, structure, and content of the work produced.

The course sits within the Florida Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS) under Visual Arts > Studio Art and is offered at approximately 30 Florida public institutions. As a sophomore-level (2000-series) studio course, it represents a significant step in the BFA/BA studio art pathway, building directly on the foundational skills established in ART1201C (Two-Dimensional Design) and ART1300C (Drawing I).

Painting I is suitable for both art majors building toward a BFA portfolio and non-majors seeking a substantive humanities studio elective. The primary medium emphasis varies by institution: some programs focus exclusively on oil painting (FSU, UF), some on acrylic, and many offer a choice or sequence of both. Students should consult the specific section's syllabus for the materials list before enrolling.

Learning Outcomes

Required Outcomes

Upon successful completion of ART2500C, students will be able to:

• Prepare painting surfaces (canvas, panel, paper) appropriately for the chosen medium, including stretching, gessoing, and toning a ground.
• Use painting tools — brushes, palette knives, palettes, and mediums — with technical competence and safe studio practice.
• Mix accurate, intentional colors using a limited palette and demonstrate command of hue, value, intensity (chroma), and temperature.
• Render three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional surface using value structure, edge quality, and color modulation.
• Develop compositional strategies for the picture plane, including focal point, atmospheric perspective, and pictorial space.
• Produce paintings from direct observation (still life, model, landscape, or interior).
• Apply the elements of art and principles of design from foundational coursework to painting-specific problems.
• Use visual arts and painting-specific vocabulary in written reflections and group critique.
• Participate in group critique as both presenter and respondent.
• Maintain studio safety practices, including proper handling and disposal of solvents (for oil painting) and ventilation awareness.

Optional Outcomes

Depending on instructor specialty, institutional emphasis, and the chosen primary medium, students may also:

• Develop oil painting-specific competencies: indirect painting methods, glazing, fat-over-lean rules, working with mediums (linseed, stand, walnut oil, alkyds).
• Develop acrylic painting-specific competencies: working with mediums and gels, working in transparent and opaque modes, mixed-media integration.
• Explore plein air painting outdoors.
• Engage with figurative painting from a live model.
• Develop narrative or conceptual content in a series of related paintings.
• Connect studio practice to art-historical traditions through readings, lectures, or museum visits.

Major Topics

Required Topics

• Materials and Their Properties: Pigments, binders, vehicles; the difference between oil and acrylic; supports and grounds; brush types and care.
• Surface Preparation: Stretching canvas, applying gesso, toning a ground, preparing panels.
• Color Mixing in Paint: Limited-palette exercises, color charts, achieving specific hues from primaries plus white and black, neutral mixing, complementary mixing.
• Value and Form: Monochromatic underpaintings, value studies, modeling form through value transitions, the role of cast shadow and reflected light.
• Still Life Painting: Composing a still life setup, working from observation, controlled lighting, sustained painting practice over multiple sessions.
• Pictorial Space: Foreground/middleground/background, atmospheric perspective, the picture plane and shallow vs. deep space.
• Composition for Painting: Cropping, compositional balance, focal-point strategies specific to painted images.
• Critique Practice: Speaking about painted work, receiving feedback, revising work in response to critique.
• Studio Safety: Solvent handling (oils), ventilation, MSDS awareness, disposal practices.

Optional Topics

• Indirect Painting Methods: Imprimatura, grisaille, glazing layers — primarily an oil-painting topic.
• Direct (Alla Prima) Painting: Wet-into-wet techniques, single-session paintings.
• Landscape and Plein Air: Working outdoors, light/weather considerations, portable setups.
• Figure Painting: Working from a clothed or nude model (institutional policies vary).
• Self-Portrait or Portrait: Working from a mirror or photograph.
• Abstract or Non-Representational Painting: Process-based or formal exploration.
• Art History and Contemporary Practice: Survey of major painters and movements relevant to assigned projects.

Resources & Tools

• Recommended texts and readings: The Painter's Handbook by Mark David Gottsegen (technical reference); Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter by James Gurney; Alla Prima II by Richard Schmid (advanced); instructor handouts.
• Oil-painting kit (typical): Set of artist-grade oil colors (white, ivory black, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, burnt sienna, raw umber); bristle brushes (rounds, filberts, flats, sizes 2–12); palette knife; wood or glass palette; odorless mineral spirits or Gamsol; linseed or walnut oil medium; stretched canvas (multiple sizes) or canvas panels; rags or paper towels; paint thinner storage container.
• Acrylic-painting kit (typical): Heavy-body acrylic colors (similar palette); synthetic brushes; acrylic mediums (matte/gloss/retarder); spray bottle for keeping paint workable.
• Lab fees: $50–$120 per semester; some institutions provide a starter kit.
• Studio equipment provided: Easels, model stands, still-life setups, drying racks, locker storage, ventilation.
• Reference platforms: Smarthistory, Khan Academy art history modules, museum digital collections (the Met, the National Gallery, the Tate, regional Florida collections including the Norton Museum and the Pérez Art Museum Miami).

Career Pathways

Painting I is a foundation course on a longer pathway to studio art careers. Direct vocational outcomes are limited at this level, but the course is required preparation for:

• Fine Artist, Painter (SOC 27-1013) — gallery representation, commission work, residencies; Florida's gallery scenes in Miami (Wynwood, Design District), Sarasota, and St. Petersburg are notable regional ecosystems.
• Illustrator (book, editorial, scientific) — Florida's publishing and editorial industries.
• Concept Artist / Theme Park Designer — Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Creative both maintain Orlando-area painting and concept-art studios.
• Art Educator (K–12) — pathway through Florida art education BS degrees with subsequent certification.
• Art Therapist (with MA-level training) — growing field; Florida licensure pathway through ATCB.
• Set Painter / Scenic Artist — film/TV/theatre, with notable employer presence in Central Florida.
• Mural Artist / Public Art Commission Work — Miami's Wynwood Walls and other Florida public-art programs are active commissioning bodies.

Special Information

How Florida course levels actually affect transfer

Worth stating precisely, because the numbering is often misread. In Florida's Statewide Course Numbering System the first digit denotes the year in which the course is normally offered — 1 for the first year, 2 for the second, 3 for the third, 4 for the fourth — not how well it transfers.

• 1000- and 2000-level courses transfer transparently between Florida public institutions. A 1000-level course is not "lower quality" than a 2000-level one, and the difference between them is not a transfer barrier.
• The boundary that matters is lower division to upper division. Taking a 2000-level course toward a 3000-level requirement is the problematic step, because upper- division credit generally must be earned at the upper-division level.
• 3000 to 4000 transfers without difficulty — both are upper division.
• PSAV (0-level) courses do not transfer as college credit at all, which is a different and much harder boundary; that pathway runs through articulation agreements rather than transfer.

Separately from transfer, SCNS equivalency is keyed to the course number. A program that requires a specific number is satisfied by that number from any participating institution. A different number with similar content still transfers as credit, but the receiving program decides whether it fills that particular requirement or counts as elective credit. That is a curriculum question to settle with an advisor — not a barrier to the credit transferring.

⚠ ART1500C and ART2500C are both "Painting I" — check which one your program means

Florida carries introductory painting under two numbers with the same title and the same credit value:

• ART1500C — Painting I at the 1000 level, 3 credits, and typically no prerequisite — an introductory course open to beginners and non-majors.
• ART2500C — Painting I at the 2000 level, 3 credits, and frequently requiring ART1300C Drawing I and ART1201C Two-Dimensional Design first — the version embedded in a studio art major sequence.

The content overlaps substantially; the difference is level and prerequisite structure. Both are lower division and both transfer transparently between Florida public institutions. What differs is whether a receiving program that names one number specifically will count the other toward that requirement or as elective credit. For a general education or elective student this rarely matters; for a student intending a studio art major it matters a great deal, and the safer choice is the number the receiving institution uses. Ask an advisor before registering.

Credits and contact hours — what 3 credits means in a studio course

The C suffix means lecture and studio are integrated, and Florida catalogs state the format for this course as 2 lecture and 4 studio hours weekly — roughly 90 contact hours across a 15-week term. That is the standard shape for a college studio course and is why contact hours run well above the credit value; the same ratio applies to ART1300C Drawing I, ART2501C Painting II, and the ceramics and sculpture courses. Expect substantial open studio time outside scheduled class as well.

Articulation and Transfer

ART2500C transfers across the Florida common course numbering system to all SUS institutions. It satisfies a sophomore-level studio painting requirement in BFA pathways at FSU, UF, UCF, USF, FAU, FIU, FGCU, and UNF. A grade of C or higher is required for the course to apply toward most major degree pathways.

Course Format and Studio Practice

This is a hands-on studio course with extensive in-class painting time. Expect 8–12 finished paintings (or substantial in-progress works) by semester end, plus value studies and color exercises. Class meetings typically run 4–6 hours per session, with substantial out-of-class painting expected — a working studio space at home is helpful but not strictly required.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites vary by institution. The most common pattern is ART1201C (Two-Dimensional Design) and ART1300C (Drawing I), often with grade-of-C-or-better requirements. Some institutions accept either course alone or instructor permission. A small number of institutions list ART2500C as open to non-majors with no prerequisite — verify with your specific institution's catalog.

Position in Curriculum

ART2500C is normally taken in the second year of a BFA pathway, after foundational drawing and design coursework. It is the prerequisite for ART2501C (Painting II), ART3504C and the upper-division painting sequence. Sophomore portfolio review at SUS BFA programs typically expects work from this course or its equivalent.

Course Code Variations

Course titles vary: "Painting I," "Beginning Painting," "Painting Composition I," and "Painting Fundamentals" all refer to ART2500C. A small number of institutions designate the course as 4 credits with extended studio time (FSW, FAU's main campus); the SCNS-standard 3-credit structure predominates statewide.

Studio Safety

Oil painting requires careful handling of solvents. Florida's institutions follow OSHA and EPA solvent-handling guidelines; expect MSDS sheets, designated solvent containers, and rules against pouring solvents down drains. Many Florida programs are shifting to solvent-free oil painting using walnut oil or specialty mediums for student safety. Students with allergies or respiratory concerns should communicate with their instructor early in the term.