Introduction to oil painting
Choose a start date
- Course Code: VM879
- Dates: 12/01/25 - 02/02/25
- Time: 10:00 - 16:00
- Taught: Sun, Daytime
- Duration: 4 sessions (over 4 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Alex Hanna
Course Code: VM879
Choose a start date
Duration: 4 sessions (over 4 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
Each week we will explore an essential aspect of oil painting and image-making, through a range of exercises and studies. Methods, techniques, and artists will be matched to each theme. In the final week students will make a personal oil painting inspired by artists and research from the preceding weeks.
What will we cover?
• How to layout and safely manage materials including solvent within a studio setting.
• Priming a simple painting surface.
• How to lay out a palette.
Exercises from artists’ work and observational studies will cover:
• Light and Shade – understanding tonal contrast and painting transitions.
• Colour vibrancy and subtlety through mixing and blending.
• Techniques such as scumbling, drybrush, wet in wet and glazing.
• Complete an oil painting in stages, using a lean, to rich painting process.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Use good studio practice in relation to oil painting materials.
• Organise a palette in terms of colour and tone.
• Produce a range of small studies using paint with sensitivity to light and colour.
• Employ a range of essential oil painting techniques appropriately.
• Complete an oil painting following a stage-by-stage process.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is for beginners, or painters wanting to understand the essentials of oil painting. Students may have done a short introductory a painting course or equivalent.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions to support demonstrations, for hand-outs and for health and safety information. You will also be invited to take part in group discussion.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
• Tutor demonstrations
• Paint handling exercises
• One to one guidance
• Group discussion
• Presentations of artists.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please bring two clean glass jars with lids and kitchen towel. Basic oil painting materials and media will be provided
including paper to prime.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
You will be able to progress on to a variety of painting courses, such as ‘Painting 1, 2 or 3’, depending on your level.
Alex Hanna is an artist (painter) based in East London. His practice examines perception and the materiality of paint. He works from arrangements of objects and uses analogue and digital means as source material, whilst employing visual data to inform his creative outcomes. Many of his paintings are carried out from direct observation and within a shallow space. In 2015 he was visiting artist at the University of Leeds and has delivered workshops and a pod cast on ‘Paint Alchemy’. He has exhibited at a number of galleries including: The Discerning Eye, The Royal Academy, Marmite Prize, Salon Art Prize, Royal Society of Portrait Painters and the B.P. Portrait Award. He has works in several British and International collections including: The Paul Mellon Centre for British Art Massachusetts, University of Arizona, Prizeman Seabrook Collection and has exhibited in Poland, Japan and China. He is a member of Contemporary British Painting and is represented by Alan Kluckow Fine Art.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.