Painting Made Clear: Foundations Of Oil Painting

A complete, step-by-step guide to building strong, lasting skills in oil painting from the ground up.

What you'll learn

Understand the essential materials and tools for oil painting and how to use them effectively.

Learn proper brush handling techniques for precision, control, and expressive strokes.

Master color mixing to create a wide range of tones and harmonies.

Develop skills to paint smooth gradients and clean transitions between colors.

Practice exercises to model form, volume, and light with confidence.

Complete a final painting project that integrates all techniques learned in the course

Requirements

No prior experience required — just the desire to learn and explore oil painting

Description

Painting Made Clear: Foundations of Oil Painting is designed to give you all the essential skills you need to paint with confidence, even if you’ve never touched a brush before. We begin with the true basics : understanding your materials, preparing your workspace, and mastering fundamental brush techniques — so you start with the right habits from day one. You’ll learn how to choose and care for brushes, clean your tools properly, prepare a smooth background, blend colors seamlessly, create your own medium, respect the “fat over lean” rule, use Liquin, sign your work, and varnish it for long-term protection.From there, we’ll explore color mastery. You’ll study vocabulary and definitions, the science of drying times, how to mix primaries and complementary colors, adjust values, how to mix any color from a limited palette create black without using black paint, and mix natural beiges and browns.These skills are reinforced through a comprehensive series of targeted exercises: painting in bichrome to focus on value contrast, cutting out an amphora to practice precision, mastering sharp and soft edges, rendering an egg in black and white and color, painting a sphere and a white object, creating an upside-down coffee cup with a focus on form and color, achieving a blur effect, and painting drapery and a ribbon with realistic texture.The course culminates with a complete final project : painting an amphora and flower where you’ll bring together every skill learned. By the end, you’ll have a solid foundation, practical techniques, and the confidence to approach any oil painting subject with clarity and control.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Section 2: Mastering the Basics – Materials and Brushwork

Lecture 2 Materials

Lecture 3 Brush Techniques

Lecture 4 Cleaning Brushes

Lecture 5 Cleaning the Palette

Lecture 6 Creating a Flat Background

Lecture 7 Blending Colors Smoothly

Lecture 8 Making a Painting Medium and Following the Fat Over Lean Rule

Lecture 9 Using Liquin

Lecture 10 Signing Your Artwork

Lecture 11 Varnishing Your Artwork

Lecture 12 Getting an Accurate Drawing Before Painting – Even Without Drawing Skills I

Lecture 13 Getting an Accurate Drawing Before Painting – Even Without Drawing Skills

Lecture 14 An Exercice to Get Better with the Grid Technique

Section 3: Mastering Color in Oil Painting

Lecture 15 Introduction

Lecture 16 Vocabulary and Definitions

Lecture 17 Drying Time

Lecture 18 Mixing Primary Colors

Lecture 19 Complementary Colors

Lecture 20 Mixing All Colors on the Palette Together

Lecture 21 Getting Any Color With A Limited Palette – Theory

Lecture 22 Getting Any Color With A Limited Palette – Demonstrations

Lecture 23 Darkening or Lightening a Color

Lecture 24 Creating Black

Lecture 25 Mixing Beiges

Lecture 26 Mixing Browns

Lecture 27 Conclusion

Section 4: Practical Painting Exercises

Lecture 28 Bichrome Subject

Lecture 29 Cutting Out the Amphora

Lecture 30 Sharp Edge and Soft Edge

Lecture 31 The Egg – Black and White and Color

Lecture 32 The Sphere

Lecture 33 The White Object

Lecture 34 Painting an Apple in 5,10,20 Brushstrokes

Lecture 35 The Upside-Down Coffee Cup

Lecture 36 Blur Effect

Lecture 37 Painting the Drapery

Lecture 38 Painting the Orange Ribbon

Section 5: Your Final Artwork

Lecture 39 Final Amphora Painting – Presentation

Lecture 40 Final Amphora Painting – Size of the Paper

Lecture 41 Final Amphora Painting – Planning

Lecture 42 Final Amphora Painting – Color Analysis, Mixing, and Painting the Amphora

Lecture 43 Final Amphora Painting – Painting the Flower

Lecture 44 Final Amphora Painting – Painting the Background and Support

Beginners who want to start oil painting with clear, step-by-step guidance.,Hobbyists looking to strengthen their fundamentals and build lasting skills.,Artists from other mediums curious about exploring oil painting techniques.,Anyone who wants to understand the essentials of materials, color, and brushwork to create confident, expressive paintings.