Introduction to Realistic Oil Portraiture

Start the course by getting to know your teacher, Laura Cuadros. She tells you about her professional background and artistic influences, especially other painters and what she admires about their work.

Dive straight into the materials and get familiar with different types of brushes, canvas options, mediums, and paint qualities. Discover what factors to consider when choosing your model and study the structure of the face to better understand facial proportions.

Laura then walks you through how to create your first portrait. Transfer your image to your canvas and experiment with mixing basic colors into a color palette and using a simple technique to create more complex tones.

Now it's time to paint! Start by priming your canvas and then apply the first and second layers of colors following your teacher's advice. Finally, learn how to get an impeccable finish using her glaze technique.

To round out the course, Laura shares some of her professional secrets on how to protect and preserve your art using varnish as well as clean and care for your brushes to make them last longer.