Ron Lemen Outdoor Figure Painting Class - Review

Recently I took a class with Ron Lemen at Studio 2nd Street (http://studio2ndstreet.com/). I found out about this place by seeing their Booth at Comic-Con.  I had a pretty good experience there. I think it's a really underrated art school. I'm going to promote it and tell you why. 

1) Classes are $225 for an 8 - week course. This is a great deal. Classes of this caliber costs $400-$600 at places like CDA, 3Kicks, and LAAFA. 

2) Low student to teacher ratio.  There were only about 7 people enrolled in the class I was taking. An average of 4-5 students show up to class. One week there was only 2 students. I got lots of great feedback, personalized lessons, lots of questions answered...

3) Ron is a great teacher. In class, we painted a model outdoors. The picture below sums it up. He is really analytical and technical. He gives really full explanations to things. He knew that I invested a lot of time and money to drive down to take his class, and he would explain things to me like there was no tomorrow. 

Ron Demoing in my sketchbook

Notes and Diagrams that he used to explain his concepts.

Ron's color theory is really really good.  I thought I already knew a lot about color, but after this class - I realize I know nothing. 

Did you know the order you mix your color matter? There is an order of operations for mixing color... just like math. 

In addition, Ron's knowledge extended to the chemicals and minerals used in the paints and how they interacted with each other. 

Ron's Gouache Demo. I feel like Ron really wants you to learn. The class was primarily taught in oil. However, I would show Ron gouache paintings that I do on my own time for feedback.  Ron decided he wanted to teach me a lesson about using that medium, and told me he would do a gouache demo for me the following week. And, he did. 

Photo of the model.

4) Last but not least, Studio 2nd Street holds a monthly sketch jam. There is music, pizza, wine, and lots of people drawing. And.. it's free. Check it out!