Portrait Painting in Oil

Live Virtual Class
Saturdays 1-3:30 PM CT
March 1st - April 5th, 2025

Master painting realistic portraits in 6 weeks.

Learn how to capture people's essence on canvas.

Do you yearn to create portraits that look more like your loved ones than photos do, but every attempt leaves you feeling frustrated?

This class will teach you how to get an accurate likeness, show form through realistic shading, and match skin tones in oil paint. Bring your own references to class (or use the references provided) and leave with the skills to create countless beautiful portraits at home

Portrait Painting in Oil Online Class Format

Live Weekly Demos

Paint along with Lacey live every Saturday in a Zoom-like video meeting room. You can use your mic or the chat to ask questions at any time. If the live meetings don't fit your schedule, that's OK! Demo recordings are posted shortly after they conclude.

Personalized Feedback

Email photos of your progress and any questions for illustrated feedback showing corrections and your next steps. Feedback will be given both during the live meeting times and via recorded messages between sessions.

Lifelong Learning

Not only do you retain access to class recordings, you also get demos from previous classes and new demonstrations from future classes! This way you see a variety of approaches and complexions represented.

Lesson Outline

How to Start a Portrait

We will cover the basics of how to properly begin an oil painting by working in value alone.

Lesson 1: Imprimatura, Grisaille, and Drawing Basics
- Along with a discussion about identifying what is makes a good photo reference for a painting, we will talk about how to tackle the 'drawing' aspect of beginning a painting using a monochromatic brown and white painting to start.
- Although this is outlined for Lesson 1, we will continue the grisaille into Lesson 2 before we explore color theory and mixing skin tones.

Lesson 2: Foundations of Skin Tones
- Here we will step our toes into the concepts of flesh tones: What colors make up different complexions and how can we mix them? You learn a simple way to start understanding how to mix colors that represent skin.
Lesson 3: Mixing Skin Tones with Complements & Color Study
- This is where things really start to get fun! You'll explore a variety of ways to mix skin tones using bright, chromatic colors. Complete a small color study this week while your underpainting dries, so you'll have a solid plan for color in Lesson 4.

Beyond the Basics

There's more to creating a great painting than drawing and copying skin tones. Here we'll delve into how to layer oil paint and give your image that little something else.

Lesson 4: Painting in Layers and Fat Over Lean
- If we want to create a more controlled finish with greater depth of color and a more accurate likeness, we need to work over multiple sessions. Here we'll cover how to make sure that goes well and creates an archival result.
Lesson 5: How to Not Let Details Ruin Your Painting
- Sometimes it seems like that fresh beginning leads to an awkward stage and it feels like the painting has been ruined. Here I'll teach you what you need to focus on to move through this middle stage successfully.
Lesson 6: Questions to Ask When Finishing a Painting
- It can be hard to know when a painting is finished! This final class will show you how to push the feeling of realism, depth, and focus in the final work. This is what can give your painting that wow factor!