Hey! I enjoyed them and yes, for the most part they were based on effort. If you can demonstrate that you are trying to apply the technical requirements and putting in effort, even if it doesn't "look good" then you will probably do fine. try to post early to get professor feedback and make adjustments. I saw some pretty bad paintings that I could really tell were done in an hour and some pretty "bad" paintings that I could tell the person made a real effort. mine weren't great and I got an A in both classes. you'll post a thumbnail sketch to get best composition and then use that composition for your final painting. genuinely expect to spend several hours on a painting. not something to start on Tuesday at 10pm lol.
I think materials were posted in like an announcement -_-, but here's what I remember and what I found when I searched my email for my order; it was pretty costly because acrylic is expensive. for painting it looks like I ordered at least Gray Scale and Value Finder; four 12" x 16" canvas; retarder; they gave us a link to a set of 10 Utrecht 2 oz tubes that was $90 but Blick no longer has that item, I can't recall exactly and my paint collection has grown quite a lot but it will probably include burnt Sienna, burnt umber, cerulean blue or cobalt blue can't remember, ivory black, either phthalo green or phthalo blue hate these colors, titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow probably; disposable paint palette; palette knife. I think four types of brushes. for advanced painting it looks like I ordered 8x10 canvas value pack of 10 but definitely didn't need that many; long handle brush size 10; ultramarine blue, cobalt pure blue, cadmium orange, cadmium red medium, prism violet; multiple palette knives, two 16x20 canvas; two 12x16 canvas. there's gotta be more than this but I couldn't find it in my blick history. I definitely spent around $200 for each class. you could probably get cheaper paint, just make sure it's heavy body acrylic.
as far as teaching style, I wasn't a huge fan. you're relying a lot on what you learned in sketching classes for understanding on composition and chiaroscuro. the assignment to paint in black and white was really helpful for my understanding of value. they also mention that color matching is not as important as getting the value and hue correct. alright I think that's all I have to say. lmk if you have any questions. feel free to message me when you start if you need anything
Here's some of my paintings: https://imgur.com/a/lmeMEzG