Classical Painting Course

Paint what you see and combine it with what you know.

The Classical Painting Course is a remote atelier program, loaded with all the tools a growing artist needs to build his or her skills in realist painting. The course offers a curriculum of assignments as well as the recommended order to progress through each to maximize learning.

 

It includes over 100 hours of videos covering materials, techniques, color, and demonstrations of fully completed assignments.

Overview

of the Classical Painting Course

Welcome to the world of Classical Painting! We have made our best effort to relay the methods and techniques of historical masters as seen in their writings, the writings of their students, and analyses of their work. The material has been arranged in a logical order and divided into three terms, each of which builds on the skill sets gained in the previous terms. 


The first term of the Classical Painting Course, CPC100, lays the foundation for all other terms. The color course introduces methods of mixing to achieved any desired color, then focuses on training to observe and understand the variety of color. The master copy course introduces the other foundation of painting: paint application. Through black/white and limited color copies, students learn to construct a painting while attempting to mimic brushwork of master artists. 


CPC200 shifts to working from life, attempting to preserve the quality of paint application learned in the first term while working from casts, still life, and the figure. The figure subject is restricted to studies of anatomy and overall figure block-ins. 

 

The foundation of a figure painting must be strong before advancing to extended studies. 


CPC300 pulls all the concepts together: observing/mixing color correctly, applying paint with the success of the old masters, working from life, and dealing with the complexities and challenges of a living model for extended periods of time. For a student to be successful, the skills learned in both the previous terms and the drawing year must be highly developed, and students must be comfortable enough to use them easily. 

Introduction to the Classical Painting Course

Many ways to paint

We recognize there are as many ways to paint as there are people in the world. The painting program is designed to be like a traditional atelier to teach the methods required to develop your skills as an artist. The button below will take you to a page listing many of the different ways to develop a painting in the classical style, which will also be linked throughout the Painting Program. It may be helpful to review these methods before diving into the Painting Program.

Concepts and Techniques List

The Painting Program is full of content. The button below will take you to a page where you can review Concepts and Techniques in a simple list format.

Table of Contents

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