The eLearning Center for Gatlin Education Services

Learn a traditional approach to oil painting. After a thorough orientation to the painter's materials (paint, canvas, brushes, and solvents), you will study a systematic and time-honored approach to oil painting that enables you to capture proportion, perspective, and lighting in the world around you. Each lesson guides you systematically through a disciplined approach to creating art. You'll learn how to build a foundation with preparatory sketches and underpainting, and find out how to mix your paints correctly. You'll gain control over value through monochromatic painting and color studies. As you paint a series of still lifes, you'll explore different painting techniques and conceptual approaches.

LESSON 1: Preliminary Drawing Every painting starts with a number of preliminary drawings. This lesson focuses on the fundamentals of drawing as they relate to oil painting. You'll look at methods for accurately representing objects in your sketches by using perspective for interest and depth, and applying believable shadows and highlights. Get your sketchbook and some household items ready for the first exercise, where you'll prepare a still life arrangement and explore your subject by drawing it from different perspectives.

LESSON 2: Materials, Workspace, and Canvas The range of paints, brushes, and surfaces that can be used by oil painters is almost infinite. In Lesson Two, you'll learn to sort through the options and choose the materials that are best for your needs. Solvents, canvas types, and equipment are explored, along with techniques for safely handling them. Then you'll learn to load up your palette and mix colors. In the exercise, you'll prepare your canvas for your first painting and create the underpainting that will guide your work.

LESSON 3: Light and Value Value doesn't just mean how much your art is worth in the marketplace—it refers to the amount of light that is present in your subject. Painting is all about representing light values with color, and accuracy is key. In this lesson, you'll learn about the techniques artists use to represent light and dark with paint and how to capture depth through your color choices. You'll create a value scale in paint and a monochromatic still life in this lesson's exercise, paying close attention to highlights, midtones, and shadows.

LESSON 4: Combining Color in Paint This lesson takes your study of light to the next level, exploring the color wheel, color harmonies, and color contrast. You'll learn how colors relate to one another, and how to use these relationships to create interesting effects. You'll mix paints to make your own color wheel in the exercise and also create a full-color still life painting, learning to use color as value.

LESSON 5: Painting Techniques Using color and value, you're on the right track to bringing your paintings to life, but you need another major component: technique. Painters use a wide range of practical and stylistic techniques to develop their signature works. You'll learn about some popular historical approaches and styles in this lesson and explore a start-to-finish process for creating a painting. In the exercise, you'll practice this process and the styles of your choice in two still life paintings.

LESSON 6: Making a Painting In Lesson Six, you'll wrap up the course with a look at the creative side of painting: How to communicate your ideas in paint. Three painting case studies are explored, teaching you about visual metaphors and how to create intriguing compositions as you explore the beauty in everyday objects. You'll also learn techniques for painting in natural and artificial light. In the exercise, you'll practice everything you've learned to create two final paintings.