Course Description

Still life painting might seem like an art school exercise that is a fall-back for when more thrilling subjects like a landscape or live model aren’t available. Not so! Still life is an integral part of improving your art and plays a vitally important role in finding your personal style and artistic voice.

In this class, we will work on painting still lifes in oil using the Alla Prima method (completing the paintings in one sitting.) We’ll cover setting up a still life, lighting, selecting subjects, creating compositions, and we’ll complete several paintings from start to finish. I’ll also review some of my favorite books on still life painting so you can continue your journey when the videos are done. This is a perfect course if you want to become more comfortable working with oil paints, improve your drafting, nurture your aesthetic eye, and discover your personal style.

Techniques Taught in this Course

• Selecting still life props
• How to compose a still life
• Lighting a still life to make an interesting painting
• Discovering your artistic voice
• Creating thumbnail sketches to test out ideas
• Prepare a wood panel to accept oil paints
• Mixing colors with oil paints
• Using mediums with oil paints
• Rendering an underpainting to establish values
• How to use still life to get you artistically “unstuck”
• Tricks for checking for accurate values and pleasing composition