It stands to reason that a willingness to explore and try new things would be correlated with creativity the most important factor, however, is not an external stimulus but the human brain that possesses the capacity to both create and destroy.

A lesser known fact is that psychologists sometimes encourage patients to use artistic expression to confront difficult feelings to distract the mind and keep it happy. Creativity is thus an important key to happiness. In general, activities that require more holistic perception like spatial reasoning, and appreciation of beauty stimulate the right hemisphere and those activities which require more analytical thinking—including language—stimulate the left.

There is a notion that people who are right -brain thinkers tend to be imaginative and subjective while left brained people are logical and pragmatic. Scientifically, the right hemisphere of the brain does coordinate the left side of the body and perform tasks that have do with creativity and arts. But, no one side can perform a task solitarily. Mental processes are interlinked and together perform the functions of bodily coordination. Neuroscientists have used brain imaging to prove that while the brain does use different sides to carry out certain functions, there is no one governing side.

For instance, while painting one needs to have his/her spatial perception and hand-eye coordination clear while also being imaginative and creative. In the beginning, one needs to be able to visualize the final painting in their mind, then, develop the painting, choose the elements, match and mix colors, place the shadows and highlights and finally they need to be able to look critically at what they have done which is controlled by the left brain resulting in comprehensive sanctity.

Again, as it turns out, there’s a major neuroscientific link between openness to new experience and creative thinking. Exploration of the mind and the outside world is tied to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which also plays a role in motivation and learning.

There is, now, enough evidence to suggest that the right brain or creative impulses help in the overall wellbeing of a person and his/her happiness. Components of a creative personality, like the quest for a new experience and perseverance, are also good predictors of life satisfaction. Sometimes a person may get so involved in his artistic endeavor that they tend to forget everything else.

Getting into a state of flow can produce substantial happiness, the kind that lasts longer than the pleasure we get from eating good food. But it is a slow and gradual process and does not produce immediate results. Nowadays, schools like Anthelion School of Art focus on the wholesome well-being of a person through the concentrated method of painting.

In our fast-moving world with way too much information and responsibility, our brain reaches the highest point of pressure very often. The risk of not paying attention to the warning signs of mental pressure are that sometimes, we overload the left brain so much that even hours of sleep cannot heal it and many normal functions of the brain get disrupted. The best way to maintain the balance is to use the right brain function of creativity and art more often. The use of the right brain releases endorphins, making us feel good and taking care of the rising pressure levels in our lives.

Therefore institutions like Anthelion School of Art have come up with art therapy. It is also the reason for the selling of coloring books for adults in bookstores, with claims that making art can help us to become more mindful and resilient during times of stress. In fact, creativity if channeled correctly could be so powerful that. It can help people to cope with chronic illnesses like cancer. It may be appalling that creativity has so many positive effects on human health. Studies show that art It allows one to express and process emotions, It helps us focus on the moment and “live the present”, and also increase self-confidence.

To conclude, although happiness is in principle difficult to define and study, it is inextricably linked to the right brain functions that stimulate creativity and emotions and play a key role in the formation of a strong and disciplined personality devoid of negative experiences like depression and lack of confidence.

They say Art is a way of life – one that inspires a human being to achieve, to de-stress and to motive oneself to walk the path of life with the hope of success. Nowadays, people are trampled under work pressure and deadlines; they need some space to vent their feelings and emotions. What better way is there than to use art as a medium of expression!  Then again, we are social beings who cannot stay isolated from society. Consequentially, whatever we do is shared among our tribe.

When one creates art, they give themselves an opportunity to face their fears, their hopes and their visions and ideals. Further, one can fearlessly convey their saddest despairs and great happiness through their work, be it, fine art or painting.

Painting specifically, is an unconventional form of expression. In fact, painting as a spiritual practice is an act of conscious, creative alignment with our innately creative soul. The artist can surrender, to open his/her heart, and see themselves through new eyes and to show the audience a new perspective of life.

** Artwork by our Students

Today, the progress of painting as spiritual therapy runs parallel to most hardcore scientific therapies. Here at Anthelion School of Art. we help people develop themselves spiritually through painting.

Moving on to personal use of paintings, a good painting not only sets one a class apart, it is also more visually appealing and decorative compared to other visual artifacts. Many people value modern paintings according to how well they can spark a conversation. A beautiful painting and its painter can open one’s mind to a new vision of the world, while some other may electrify emotions, while other ones simply set a style for a room.

Most importantly perhaps, in today’s world where the focus is shifting from mainstream professions to more creative ones, painting provides great financial scope. With the advent of modernism, painting as a genre has metamorphed into various categories giving its lovers myriad possibilities to explore. For example, Abstract art refers to a style of painting that does not use objective reality as a reference. Instead, the artist alludes to his or her subject and reduces it to a simplified form. Colors and shapes are used to portray emotions and the landscape of one’s inner world.

Another major issue of discussion today is the proper growth of a child’s perception and understanding. Well, yes, Painting helps with that too. When parents encourage their children to learn painting, they are sharpening their child’s large and small muscle development, as well as their eye-hand coordination. Using crayons, markers, and paintbrushes helps children practice the fine motor control they will need for writing later on. As children work together in art schools, they learn to share, to interact with others, to be responsible for cleanup, and to put materials away. These are positive and important changes for social learning. Anthelion School of Art takes special care to encourage children into group work facilitating their behavioral development.

** Artwork by our Students

Talking of behavioral development, it is quite evident that people are losing their human touch in the race to succeed in their lives, it is not wrong to say that painting brings this humanity back into human beings. It helps us to communicate in a different, personal language. This is a great benefit for all people and mainly for those who have conditions with a lack of communication or problems expressing themselves such as: shyness, autism and other disabilities. In this global society driven by competition, painting gives one a recluse; Working in a non-competitive, relaxed environment (the teacher plays a major role here) will enable the student to come closer to greater personal achievements; this will strengthen his/her individuality and self-esteem. This is especially significant for people with codependency, traumatic conditions and elderly people who need activities that can strengthen their autonomy.

People who immerse themselves several hours painting or creating something enter a purer area, in a very strong state of concentration; they abstract themselves from their surroundings and time passes by without noticing it. Physical pains fade away; it is almost like entering another dimension without leaving our body. This concentration state is called Alpha; one part of the brain is conscious and the other pulls the unconscious out. There is more creation because a pure energy is transmitted to what´s being created, and we can spend hours without feeling tiredness, pain or other conditions eventually making the person more socially lovable.

Practice, understand and discussing art creates a better understanding of it.

All these factors direct an individual to the most essential element lacking in human life today- Learning how to paint has all the benefits of good entertainment:  laughter, social acceptance and learning something new.

SYLLABUS GUIDELINE

NOTE: We don’t strictly follow it. This is our guideline. It completely depends on the student if he/she would like to go by the syllabus guideline or would like to choose and move forward. Mentor’s guidance will be helpful. But finally it is student’s decision and choice.

GRAMMAR & TECHNIQUES:

Use of Medium: It is to be noted that Anthelion School of Art being an open school for all ages and levels of expertise, students are free to start with any medium. But we would advice to follow the following order of mediums for the detailed syllabus mentioned below. Mentor’s guidance in this matter is the best choice.

• Black & White – Pencil, Charcoal, White Pastel (Conte)
• Colour Study – Dry Medium – Oil Pastel, Soft Pastel, Pen & Ink, Pencil Applications
• Colour Study – Wet Medium – Water Colour – General, Tempera, Wash, Gouache, Mixed Media
• Colour Study – Wet Medium – Oil, Acrylic

Module 1:

General Compositions (Part 1):

• Compositional exercises based on studies of objects and groups in space, on studies of the local scene.
• Compositional analysis of paintings; exercises in the use of colour and textural values.
• Painting of man-made objects and nature – study of colour, form, tone, and texture.
• Understanding the materials & mediums of fine arts.
• Terminologies: Drawing, Painting, Sketching, Foreshortening, perspective, eyelevel, fixed point of view, vanishing point, ration proportion, sketching, proportion sketching, drawing, light & shade, painting still life, landscape, anatomy, vertical, horizontal, two & three dimensional, transparent & opaque etc.
• Compose a Painting with Manmade object and Natural object.
• Composition study based on our daily life.
• Creating an Indian Artform (religious epic, mythology, traditional festival, folk-art or celebration) based painting which will depict the mood of joy or sorrow.
• Composition based on any western art form which will depict the mood of joy or sorrow.

Module 2:

Study from man-made objects and nature:

• Drawing from cubes, cones, cylindrical objects, cast, drapery, still life
• Transparent Nature, (Capsicum, Tomato, Grapes etc. Soft & Hard Man- Made & Nature
• Transparent Nature & opaque man made.
• Heavy & Light Man Made & Nature
• Opaque Nature (Brinjal, Apple etc.)
• Peeled fruits (Banana, Orange, Sweet lime, Pomegranate etc.)
• Various Textures (Bitter guard, Pine apple, Stone etc.)
• Vegetable Like (Radish, Spring Onion etc.)

Still Life and Painting:

• Food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, or shells
• Man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewellery, coins, pipes)
• Botanical illustration
• Dutch and Flemish painting

Landscape Study from nature:

• Medium: Pastel/Watercolor/Oil/Acrylic colour
• Sketches of animals and birds with actions.
• Sketches of nature
• Sketches of different types of vehicles.
• Sketches of Architectural structures.
• Sketches of human figure (capture different postures movement & various emotions.
• Outdoor (Sketching and landscape)
• Outdoor sketching at various public places (Ex.-Market, Street, bus stop) Station)
• Optional payed workshop (one in Kolkata whole day, One out of Kolkata two days one night).

Antique Study:

• Crumpling and Spritzing technique
• Staining
• Using Flame and Heat
• Burying Paper in the yard method

Module 3:

Anatomy – Human figure

• Anatomy study from skeleton
• Drawing from Skull (Various actions & expressions) bones & Muscles
• Drawing from torso (Various actions with hands (Twist)) bones & Muscles
• Drawing from Full Skeleton (Various actions) bones & Muscles

Head Study:

• Construction of the skull
• Planes and masses of the head
• Identifying and drawing Planes sessions.
• Render head and the features
• Adult head proportions
• Measuring Facial features and muscles

Drawing from full figure:

• Drawing from Full Figure (Sitting Position on chair)
• Drawing from Full Figure (Standing Position)
• Drawing from Full Figure (Sitting on Bench)
• Drawing from Full Figure (Reclining Position) – student should draw from different angles.
• Model Study (To be organized in Batches)

Drawing from Group (Various Subjective actions) bones & Muscles

• Painting 3/4^th and full figure
• Creative Painting
• Portrait painting or fresco painting

Module 4:

Elements of Art:

• Line
• Form
• Colour
• Tone
• Texture
• Space

General Composition (Part 2):

• Principles of Composition
• Proportion
• Rhythm
• Dominance
• Harmony
• Unity
• Balance
• Abstraction
• Stylization
• Point line form, colour, tone texture and space.

Perspective Drawings:

• Linear Perspective
• Three Point Perspective
• Figures in Perspective
• Perspective correction
• Aerial Perspective
• Perspective in a Nature.
• Water, reflections & perspective.
• Perspective techniques.
• Architectural Renderings.

Memory Drawing:

• How to Draw from Memory and Imagination.
• How to train visual memory
• Perceptual training and recall.

Module 5:

Methods & Materials of the following:

Oil Pastel

• Making Marks
• Sketching with Oil Pastels
• Blending
• Crumb Control
• Wet Effects
• Thinner Wash
• Tonal Layers
• Grass Texture
• Reflections and Shadows
• Add Details
• How to use Temperature Tricks
• Special Surfaces painting technique.

Dry Pastel

• How to use End of a Pastel
• How to use Edge of a Pastel
• Hatching and Cross-Hatching techniques
• Blending techniques
• Scumbling
• Feathering
• Dusting

Water colour techniques

• Dry and wet colour mixing
• Light to dark with finishing
• Using paper towel for painting
• Splatter techniques.
• Bleed Colours into one another
• Layering
• Pullin the colours
• Scumbling
• Lifting the colour
• Using salt for texture
• Using sponge
• Negative painting
• Using tapes

Oil Colour

• Colour Blocking techniques
• Study picture Transparency
• Using layers.
• Techniques to intensify the colours
• Contrasting colours
• Using White paint
• Charcoal lines using in oil paintings
• Brush stroke size learning
• Paint mixture techniques
• Foliage painting
• Pointillism techniques
• Creating Soft texture
• Monochrome painting
• Cool colours using
• Complementary colours using
• Human skin colour painting
• Landscape shadow

Acrylic colour

• Gesso technique using
• Glazing
• Blending
• Dry Bruch using
• Washing
• Stippling
• Splattering
• Dabbing
• Pallet Knife using
• How to add detailing
• Under painting Technique
• Glazing
• Layering
• Colour Blocking
• Partial mixing of Colours

Methods & Materials of the following:

• Tempera
• Wash
• Gouache
• Mural
• Installation
• Collage
• Etching
• Fresco
• Mosaic

Calligraphy:

• Basic discipline of beautiful handwriting, sense of letter form- simultaneous judgement of the composition of letter’s spacing organization
• Intuitive and logical planning of writing development of style.
• Script writing with different types of traditional and modern tools. Students should be exposed to calligraphic examples of various traditional scripts

THEORY – ART HISTORY & ART FORMS:

Module 6:

History of Indian Art:

• Rock art
• Indus Valley Civilization (c. 5000 BCE – c. 1500 BCE)
• Mauryan art (c. 340 BCE – c. 232 BCE)
• Buddhist art (c. 1 CE – c. 500 CE)
• Mughal art of Northern India (pre-1600) and its influences
• Deccan art of South-Central India
• British period (1841–1947)Gupta art (c. 320 CE – c. 550 CE)
• Middle Kingdoms and the Late Medieval period (c. 600 CE – c. 1300 CE)
• Dynasties of South India (c. 3rd century CE – c. 1300 CE)
• Contemporary art (c. 1900 CE-present)
• Early Modern and Colonial Era (c. 1400 CE – c. 1800 CE)
• Pre-independence Indian art
• Contextual Modernism

Material history of Indian art – Theoretical Understanding:

• Sculpture
• Wall painting
• Miniature painting
• Jewellery

History of Western art:

• Greek art Byzantine Art High renaissance:
• Leonardo-da-Vinci
• Michelangelo
• Raphael
• Neoclassicism: – Jacques-Louis David
• Romanticism: – Eugène Delacroix, Francisco Goya, El Greco,
• Realism: -Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet. Barbizon Painters
• Impressionism: – Influence of Realistic Ideas, Change in landscape Paintings, and Importance of light theory, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Manet
• Post-impressionist Painters: -Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne.
• Fauvism: – Madisse, Balminck, Derain.
• Cubism: – Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger. Beginning of cubism and phases of Cubism.
• Expressionism: – (Characteristics and Artists- Kandinsky, klee, Die Bruacke – Krichmer, Nolde etc. Blau Reiter – Landinsky, Marc, Kakoschka etc)
• Futurism:-(Characteristics and Artists- Boccioni, Severini).
• Surrealism: – (Characteristics and Artists-, Ruadh DeLone, Salvador Dali etc.)
• Dadaism: – (Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Hans Arp, Kurt Schwitlers etc.)
• Abstract Expressionism: – (Characteristics and Artists Jackson Pollock, Apell, William De Keoning, Rothko, Franz Kilne).

 Module 7:

Understanding different styles in Indian art:

• Tribal art
• Folk art
• Classical art
• Temple art
• Modern art

Indian Art Forms & Styles:

• Warli
• Gond
• Bhil
• Pithora
• Patua (Scrols)
• Kalamkari
• Thanjavur or Tanjore
• Cheriyal Scrolls
• Miniature – Mughal & Rajasthani
• Pahari Miniature: Kangra, Guler, Basohli, Chamba, Mandi, Arki style
• Bengal – Patachitra, Kalighat
• Rajasthani – Phad, Maru-Gurjar, Bundi, Kishangargh, Roghan
• Bihar – Mithila, Madhubani, Majusha
• Mughal Portrait – reign of Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan

Western Art Forms & Styles:

• Academic Art
• Ancient Classical Art
• American Landscape
• Early Medieval art
• Romanesque
• Gothic
• Baroque
• Classicism – Classical
• Cubism
• Dutch Baroque
• Expressionism
• High Renaissance
• Byzantine
• Impressionism
• Mannerism
• Marine Art – Maritime
• Modern Art
• Naturalism
• Neoclassicism
• Orientalism
• Pointillism
• Portrait Painter
• Post Impressionism
• Pre-Raphaelite
• Realism
• Renaissance
• Rococo
• Romanticism
• Surrealism
• Victorian
• Symbolism, American Modernism, Bauhaus
• Abstract expressionism
• Pop art

 Module 8: Bengal Form of Art

STYLIZATION & SELF DISCOVERY:

Module 9: Discover / Invent your own style (-ism) through series.

Module 10: Theme, Form, Style Project Work.