Painting Made Clear: Realistic Portraits in Oil

A step-by-step guide to painting realistic portraits in oil, from individual features to complete works.

What you'll learn
- Understand the essential materials, tools, and setup for oil portrait painting.
- Master skin tone mixing using a limited palette for consistent, realistic results.
- Apply shading and blending techniques to create depth, volume, and lifelike forms.
- Paint facial features — eyes, nose, mouth— with precision and expression.
- Develop strategies for painting different ages, genders, and skin tones convincingly.
- Complete full portrait projects from initial brushstroke to final refinements with confidence.

Requirements
- It is strongly recommended to complete Painting Made Clear: Foundations of Oil Painting first, as the techniques covered there — including blending, applying color correctly, mixing any color, and many others — will be used and expanded upon throughout this portrait course

Description
Painting Made Clear: Realistic Portraits in Oilis designed to help you master the art of painting lifelike portraits with clarity and confidence. We’ll start with the fundamentals: understanding your materials, setting up your workspace, and creating an accurate drawing as a foundation — even if you’re not confident in your drawing skills or previous experience is limited.

From there, you’ll focus on painting individual facial features in detail. You’ll learn how to render noses, mouths, eyes, eyebrows, skin textures, and hair with realistic depth, using smooth blending and precise color mixing to achieve natural and convincing results. We’ll also explore how to work in black and white first, using subjects like Michelangelo’s David to develop your value control before moving on to complex skin tones and advanced techniques.

The course includes complete portrait projects: a male portrait, a female portrait, a woman in profile, and a young boy. For each one, you’ll see the entire process — from analyzing colors to planning your painting sequence and working area by area until the final details are completed.

Whether you’re starting from my foundational oil painting course or already have some experience, this program will give you a structured, repeatable method to create portraits that capture both realism and character beautifully and effectively.

Who this course is for:
- Artists who want to learn how to paint realistic portraits in oil, from the first sketch to the final details.
- Students who have completed Painting Made Clear: Foundations of Oil Painting and wish to apply and expand those skills on portrait subjects.
- Intermediate painters looking to refine their techniques for skin tones, facial features, and expression.
- Anyone seeking clear, structured guidance to create lifelike, expressive portraits with oil paints. Demander à ChatGPT
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