Quality oil painting lessons online

December 15, 2013 10:28 AM

I am an amateur painter. Never taken lessons, but I really enjoy it. I am looking to improve my technique - particularly working with texture and light. My paintings are pretty flat now. I want to learn how to add depth and contour. I want to paint in a realistic style, not abstract or impressionist. Looking for some good starting points for online videos and resources to get me to the next level.
posted by SarahBellum to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (3 answers total)

Start with wetcanvas.com. The oil painting forum will be able to point you to some resources.
posted by bunderful at 1:22 PM on December 15, 2013

You might want to look at the glazing techniques used by the pre-Raphaelites. Rossetti worked on this quite a bit in his later career.

So if you Google "Rossetti glazing technique," you will come up with some YouTube hits and also some other Wetcanvas forum talks about this. They started with a white background and thin layers, etc. It's really great seeing these paintings in person, if you can. I've seen them at the Tate and there are a few US museums holding pre-Raphaelite collections as well.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 2:31 PM on December 15, 2013

My recommendation would be Watts Atelier. They just launched an online site earlier this year, and they've got loads of painting tutorials up. It's $99 a a month, which is pretty pricey, but you get access to loads of resources right away. You could always try it for a month and see if it's your cup of tea. The painting instruction is solid, and it goes over a lot of traditional techniques and various palettes. The school has put out a ton of great artists, and it's a great resource if you're wanting to paint realistically.

This is not online, but this is a book I've been curious about that I've heard is pretty useful.
posted by wander at 11:17 AM on December 20, 2013