How to paint like the Old Masters using modern materials
…At my lowest point, a friend of mine from the college gave me a book titled Better Than College. This book has changed my life. I took it as guidance. I stopped playing the victim and started to find alternatives to college. One day, I stumbled upon the Old Masters Academy website. There, I realized that what I really want to do is not illustration but classical oil painting. This was a big shift in my understanding of art.
As a child, I had art lessons, and afterwards our family friend taught me to paint in oils. He was a good painter, but the techniques he used and taught me were very different from what I saw in museums. …
… Shortly after enrolling in the Old Masters Academy online painting course, my approach in oil painting started to shift. I no longer paint in all-prima. Even though this technique is fast and straightforward, I want to attain in my paintings a different feel, which is only achievable with multiples glazes. I’m still learning. It takes much longer to make one portrait with this new technique I learned in the Old Masters Academy, but the result is worth it. …
… I always thought that oil painting is for the professionals. That’s why I have never even tried to paint. A few years ago I bought a set of twelve oil paints and got ready to paint canvases of various sizes, but I never touched them, as I had no idea how to start painting. They were put aside in the garage till the right moment, and every time I saw them I felt guilty. …
… I am especially proud of myself that I managed combine my college study (my parents insisted on me getting the BPharm degree) with learning painting online. …
This is an old painting. I painted it two years ago as a gift to my daughter, who is depicted together with her newborn.
I must admit I do not have enough discipline to do all the exercises from the Old Masters Academy course. I skipped some of the exercises on color theory — I wanted to paint my children and grandchildren straight away — that’s why I started from painting technique lessons. …
When I saw Vermeer’s girl for the first time on my travel to Europe, in summer 2014, I promised myself I would have this painting in my possession. As there is no chance to get the original, obviously, I decided to make an exact copy of it. …
… In this course, I have learned so many new things about oil painting techniques that were never mentioned during all that time I spent in an art college. My college teachers never told me about imprimatura, dead colors, glazings… I wonder if they knew these things. …
… Although I still consider myself a beginner, I already like my portraits done in techniques I learned from the lessons in the Old Masters Academy course.
There is a long road in front of me — my aim is to reach the level of mastery I see in paintings of the Old Masters.
In theory, I understand all instructional lessons from the Old Masters Academy, but I feel that I still lack practice—that’s why I can’t paint on canvas what I imagine, however theoretically I understand how to do it. …
