Explore portraits that breathe with emotion and story. Learn how color shapes mood, how to manage your tools, and how to build a studio practice that actually works. These classes blend expressive techniques with practical guidance, making it easy to take what you learn straight to your canvas.
Class Collection
🌱 Starter - beginner or refresher
🔹 Build - growing skills, exploration
🎨 All Levels - beginner friendly, advancing fast
💥 Intensive - full immersion, mastery
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Soft pastel artistry has a rich history—explore different pastel types, surfaces, mark-making techniques, essential tools, safety tips, and more. Paint boldly with pastels!
🎨 All Levels
Soft Pastels Bootcamp
Immerse yourself in the candy world of soft pastels!
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Standalone Price: $297.00
*Included in all Memberships.
🎨 All Levels
Discover the diversity of soft pastels by exploring mark-making, essential tools, color mixing and so much more!
Bold abstract color is not reserved for acrylic medium only! The soft pastel medium both competes with the vibrant and expressive colors of acrylic and collaborates with them too! When you learn how color works across multiple mediums you become a more confident artist in and out of the studio!
Join Luzdy Rivera in this comprehensive bootcamp as she guides you through the essentials of this time tested medium and shares invaluable techniques to elevate your pastel mastery!
You'll Learn
- Old Masters + Contemporary Influences
- Exploring Pastels & Surfaces
- Materials, Tools, Cleaning & Safety
- Mark-making & Underpainting
- Composition
- Profile Portrait Methods
- and more!
Learn simplified processes so you don't get overwhelmed and your studio time becomes your favorite time!
Soft Pastels Bootcamp
Immerse yourself in the candy world of soft pastels!
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Standalone Price: $297.00
*Included in all Memberships.
🎨 All Levels
Discover the diversity of soft pastels by exploring mark-making, essential tools, color mixing and so much more!
Bold abstract color is not reserved for acrylic medium only! The soft pastel medium both competes with the vibrant and expressive colors of acrylic and collaborates with them too! When you learn how color works across multiple mediums you become a more confident artist in and out of the studio!
Join Luzdy Rivera in this comprehensive bootcamp as she guides you through the essentials of this time tested medium and shares invaluable techniques to elevate your pastel mastery!
You'll Learn
- Old Masters + Contemporary Influences
- Exploring Pastels & Surfaces
- Materials, Tools, Cleaning & Safety
- Mark-making & Underpainting
- Composition
- Profile Portrait Methods
- and more!
Learn simplified processes so you don't get overwhelmed and your studio time becomes your favorite time!
Take color theory into the studio with this 5 class series that demonstrates the 5 main color schemes in the SOFT PASTEL medium. These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
🔹 Build
Soft Pastels Portrait Series
Create Art and a Life you Love.
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
🔹 Build
Standalone Price: $197
*Included in all Memberships.
Learn bold color with the Soft Pastel Medium. These 5 classes demonstrate the 5 main color schemes in action. These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
This class pairs well with both the Soft Pastels Bootcamp and The Color Playbook.
Soft Pastels Portrait Series
Create Art and a Life you Love.
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
🔹 Build
Standalone Price: $197
*Included in all Memberships.
Learn bold color with the Soft Pastel Medium. These 5 classes demonstrate the 5 main color schemes in action. These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
This class pairs well with both the Soft Pastels Bootcamp and The Color Playbook.
Take color theory into the studio with this 5 class series that demonstrates the 5 main color schemes in the ACRYLIC medium. These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
🔹 Build
Acrylic Portrait Series
Create Art and a Life you Love.
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Standalone Price: $197
*Included in all Memberships.
🔹 Build
Take color theory into the studio with this 5 class series that demonstrates the 5 main color schemes in the ACRYLIC medium.
Monochromatic
Analogous
Complementary
Triad
Tetrad
These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
Acrylic Portrait Series
Create Art and a Life you Love.
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Standalone Price: $197
*Included in all Memberships.
🔹 Build
Take color theory into the studio with this 5 class series that demonstrates the 5 main color schemes in the ACRYLIC medium.
Monochromatic
Analogous
Complementary
Triad
Tetrad
These classes compliment The Color Playbook teaching series.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Discover how color shapes emotion! Master the Split-Complementary scheme, plan your palette, and paint a full portrait in real time—mood and harmony included.
🔹 Build
Color and Mood
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Available with Membership
🔹 Build
Explore a split-complementary palette while painting a three-quarter view portrait. Focus on Luzdy's style of expressive brushwork and pick up practical tips for using color to create mood and impact.
You will cover:
→ Painting a full portrait from start to finish
→ Color mixing and planning a harmonious palette
→ Mastering the split-complementary color scheme
→ Tackling a challenging three-quarter view
→ Easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance from Luzdy
Through real-time demonstrations, you’ll learn how to use color deliberately to shape emotion and bring harmony and impact to every brushstroke.
Color and Mood
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Available with Membership
🔹 Build
Explore a split-complementary palette while painting a three-quarter view portrait. Focus on Luzdy's style of expressive brushwork and pick up practical tips for using color to create mood and impact.
You will cover:
→ Painting a full portrait from start to finish
→ Color mixing and planning a harmonious palette
→ Mastering the split-complementary color scheme
→ Tackling a challenging three-quarter view
→ Easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance from Luzdy
Through real-time demonstrations, you’ll learn how to use color deliberately to shape emotion and bring harmony and impact to every brushstroke.
Membership Only Classes
Make your art the center of attention! Emphasis is the focal point—where you want the viewer to pause. It can be created in many ways, with one or multiple key elements.
🌱 Starter
EMPHASIS
Make your art the center of attention!
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
🌱 Starter
Principles of Art: Understand the principles behind great works of art. Transcribe them into your work. Find your own voice.
Emphasis is what we call the focal point, the dominant element – where you want the viewer to stop and stay in your painting. It can be achieved in many ways and a painting can have one or multiple elements of emphasis.
Contrast, Positioning, Convergence and The Unusual: Within those 4 categories you will also learn value, colors, hue, saturation, pattern& texture, size & proportion, centring, isolation, leading elements and the unexpected.
You will learn:
- 4 Categories of Emphasis
- All ways to achieve those 4 types of emphasis
- Create mini sketches
Put into practice the theory you learned using mini studies and successfully translate your ideas onto canvas!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"Binge watched and headed straight to my studio.Very easy to follow, excellent examples and descriptions of each. I’m just getting started, so feel excited and enriched by this first touch with the program. Thank you!"
- Karen Sharbo
EMPHASIS
Make your art the center of attention!
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
🌱 Starter
Principles of Art: Understand the principles behind great works of art. Transcribe them into your work. Find your own voice.
Emphasis is what we call the focal point, the dominant element – where you want the viewer to stop and stay in your painting. It can be achieved in many ways and a painting can have one or multiple elements of emphasis.
Contrast, Positioning, Convergence and The Unusual: Within those 4 categories you will also learn value, colors, hue, saturation, pattern& texture, size & proportion, centring, isolation, leading elements and the unexpected.
You will learn:
- 4 Categories of Emphasis
- All ways to achieve those 4 types of emphasis
- Create mini sketches
Put into practice the theory you learned using mini studies and successfully translate your ideas onto canvas!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
"Binge watched and headed straight to my studio.Very easy to follow, excellent examples and descriptions of each. I’m just getting started, so feel excited and enriched by this first touch with the program. Thank you!"
- Karen Sharbo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Learn the nuance of painting on a Large Canvas, how children's feature are different than adults and the elements of a Tetrad Color Scheme.
💥 Intensive
Children and Likeness
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Available with Membership
💥 Intensive
Learn to create focus on a large-scale canvas while capturing the unique essence of a child’s face. Tackle the challenges of larger-than-life portraits and develop the skills to paint accurate likenesses, whether it’s someone you know well or a commission.
You will cover:
→ Working on a large-scale canvas with ease
→ Building and emphasizing the focal point
→ Painting a compelling likeness
→ Using a beautiful triad palette for harmony and impact
→ Tips for handling the pressure of capturing a subject authentically
Through step-by-step demonstrations, you’ll gain practical techniques to overcome common pitfalls, manage scale, and bring subtle nuance and life to every portrait.
Children and Likeness
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
Available with Membership
💥 Intensive
Learn to create focus on a large-scale canvas while capturing the unique essence of a child’s face. Tackle the challenges of larger-than-life portraits and develop the skills to paint accurate likenesses, whether it’s someone you know well or a commission.
You will cover:
→ Working on a large-scale canvas with ease
→ Building and emphasizing the focal point
→ Painting a compelling likeness
→ Using a beautiful triad palette for harmony and impact
→ Tips for handling the pressure of capturing a subject authentically
Through step-by-step demonstrations, you’ll gain practical techniques to overcome common pitfalls, manage scale, and bring subtle nuance and life to every portrait.
Luzdy’s method makes the figure simple, letting you start painting right away—no years of study required. Explore new subjects while working in bold, expressive color, all in Luzdy Rivera’s signature style.
🎨 All Levels
The Figure Simplified
Master the Figure Without the Overwhelm
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
*Included in all Memberships.
🎨 All Levels
Luzdy’s method cuts through the complexity of the figure, giving you the confidence and skills to paint it successfully every time you step into the studio.
Why wait years to study before you start creating? With Luzdy’s approach, you can begin painting the figure right away—even if you’re used to portraits and want to explore new subjects. You’ll learn as you paint, working in bold, abstract color and embracing the unique, expressive style that only Luzdy Rivera can teach.
The Figure Simplified
Master the Figure Without the Overwhelm
Instructor: Luzdy Rivera
*Included in all Memberships.
🎨 All Levels
Luzdy’s method cuts through the complexity of the figure, giving you the confidence and skills to paint it successfully every time you step into the studio.
Why wait years to study before you start creating? With Luzdy’s approach, you can begin painting the figure right away—even if you’re used to portraits and want to explore new subjects. You’ll learn as you paint, working in bold, abstract color and embracing the unique, expressive style that only Luzdy Rivera can teach.
MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR
LUZDY RIVERA
Luzdy Rivera is a bold portrait and figurative artist, from Puerto Rico, living in Massachusetts, USA. Luzdy's art is driven by human emotions through gestures, poses and expressions. Her use of color is intentionally bold, with visible texture, marks and brushstrokes. "I strive to create expressive and emotive art that is so much more than what I, as the artist, can see and feel, but more about what I can make others see, think and feel."
Luzdy has been a mentor with Bold School since 2021 and is a graduate of our premiere class, Bold Color Bootcamp.
Other Works by Luzdy
Start making art that people want to hang on their wall!
Yes please!"Wow! Can't even tell you how much I enjoyed this one! Thank you! Your technique to get features right is amazing. Thanks for so much info and such a beautiful portrait. "
DARLA PETERSON
"Wonderful example of back and forth with pure and muted colors...this was very enjoyable and such an exuberant teacher!"
BRENNA KOHLASE
"Luzdy, this was so helpful. I binged watched as I've done with Charla and many other classes. I'm getting a good overall picture of where you are going in your process. I loved your mixing process and your background, texturing process and tools. I learned a ton! Thanks you!"
SANDRA CARR
"I don't know where to start with how mcuh this class helpd me! This is the first time I haven't worked with a grid and it works so well! You've converted me to a one inch brush. The small scraper was also so effective. There were so many more tips to take it so I'll be watching many more times. You have such a lovely peaceful way of teaching and sharing your expertise. Thank you!"
JILL LANDER
Student Gallery
Get Access to Luzdy's Entire Class Library with Membership.
Choose the plan that's right for you
★★★★★
"Luzdy is so personable and knowledgeable with her subject. I took away so many new things. Highly recommend. Can't wait for her next class. "
- Christie Keele
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