The leap, understood as a thrust or movement toward the unknown, is a symbol of courage and openness. The workshop is inspired by the idea of courage as the ability to face choices, step outside one’s comfort zone, and make space for questions and possibilities.
Starting from a series of narrative prompts, participants will create one or more illustrations, either in leporello format or on individual sheets, exploring the concept of the leap as gesture, movement, and openness.
The observation of gestures, objects, and spaces will serve as a starting point for experimenting with different painting and graphic techniques.
During the workshop, participants will explore gouache, an opaque and velvety medium that allows for delicate layering and a playful use of transparency and density. This will be combined with the masking technique: certain areas of the paper are protected before applying color, preserving the original white of the paper or previously applied colors. This process can be repeated multiple times, including masking already painted areas, to create overlapping layers, light effects, contrasts, and positive/negative interplay, resulting in dynamic, stratified images.
Among the proposed techniques, monotype will also be introduced, a printmaking method that produces a unique image characterized by distinctive marks and textures inherent to the printing process, useful for enriching the image and opening up unexpected visual solutions.
Some of the techniques introduced involve an element of unpredictability: color may spread in unexpected ways, and overlapping layers may transform the image and alter its balance. In these cases, the aim is to embrace what happens during the process, even when it challenges what has already been built. It is precisely through this openness that unexpected solutions, new directions, and stylistic possibilities can emerge, ones that would be difficult to achieve within more controlled approaches.
The workshop is open to everyone. Each participant may choose to develop their final work entirely on paper or, for those who work digitally, begin with the elements created during the workshop and then scan and rework them digitally. In this case, the workshop can also become an opportunity to build a small personal archive of textures to be reused in future projects. No prior experience in digital work is required, but those who wish may explore this approach during the final development phase.
The course can therefore be followed either in an analog format (painting on paper) or in a hybrid digital format (painting on paper and then digitizing the work).
The workshop will also be an opportunity to weave together storytelling and imagination: each participant will give shape to personal stories, impressions, and marks, experimenting with the courage to take risks, make choices, and express themselves through creative gesture.
Illustration by Elisa Talentino