Not about the course - but what is the Header image?

That's part of a large painting that the Instructor created, using advanced oil painting techniques.The painting depicts the spirit of a girl flying off to sleep, looking back down on her physical body, surrounded in the moment by "sleep" energy.

FAQ - Advanced Oil Painting Techniques Online Art Courses

Frequently Asked Questions

Enrollment FAQ

Why is are the courses so heavily discounted?
Two reasons. So that people who have never painted before or who are already painting and aren't achieving can express themselves in magnificent works of art, and to make it accessible as possible for them to do so.
When does my course expire?
You have a full 6 months of access to a course. That's half a year!
You can sign in at any time to view the content of the course during that period.
How long does it take to complete a course? If your oil paint dries in a normal time, you can complete a course in about six weeks.
However, most people take their time to absorb what they're learning, and take eight weeks or so.
So we've added the extra time in case an artist wants to come back and check something with their paintings after they've completed the course.
When does the 6 months period begin?
Your 6 months course access begins from the date you are enrolled.
For how long will these courses be discounted?
Hopefully in perpetuity. Both the Budget Price Course and the Comprehensive Course could be priced much more expensively, especially in comparison with what else is on offer in the marketplace.
However, to do so defeats our main purpose which is to strip elitism from the creative process, and to provide as many people as possible the opportunity to get the best.
We do not have any intention of providing these courses at a more expensive price.
Do I have to buy art materials?
Only if you want to paint!
The courses are created and presented by an artist so every consideration has been included to save you money. This means you will receive maximum benefit from minimum materials cost.
Each Advanced Techniques Course contains all the information you need to not only save money on materials, but also to make some of the art materials yourself.
Only ten tubes (different colors) of paint are used in learning the advanced techniques -- and you don't even need that to complete the course successfully. It is possible to successfully complete the course with six.
The only requirement is that the paint you use is Professional Quality because the techniques may not work with inferior quality paint.
Is it safe to purchase a course?
Definitely.
Course checkout is provided by the trusted Thinkific checkout system - which uses your choice of either PayPal or Stripe at the checkout, also giving you secure protection.
Thinkific is based in Canada and is one of the premier online course hosting companies, trusted by over 50,000 active users.
How is a course presented? How does an online art course work?
Through videos and text. Mostly videos - there are tons of video tuition and information on advanced oil painting provided in separate videos. These videos are already configured to stream on your device. (A desktop or good sized tablet is recommended if you are serious about learning from them.)

The courses are provided in the form of Chapters (like a module) and then giving the lessons within those chapters.

It's a terrific system. Once you've enrolled, simply click on the first Chapter and first Lesson (it's pretty obvious because it says "Welcome") and then the system leads you through the course. You can skip ahead, or go back, to a previous lesson whenever you wish. But if you let the system present the next lesson you don't have to do anything, just click continue when you're ready to go to the next lesson. It's all very well laid out.
We have a video on each of the course Information Pages which shows you how the inside of a course works.
What does "enrolment" involve? How do I get enrolled?
It is all done instantly and automatically.
By "enrolling" you are simply creating an account, which is the usual industry procedure of gaining access to online services.
Once you have gone through the checkout process, you'll be automatically enrolled and inside in the course of your choice.
You'll also receive your enrollment details by email, such as username and login, to keep.
You will need a valid email address.
Your course is hosted on specialised Thinkific internet servers, which is especially designed to provide the smoothest and safest course technology, and the best quality video streaming.
Please check your Spam Folder in your email if you haven't seen your course enrollment details in your inbox.
You can change your login details inside your dashboard.
Not about the course - but what is the Header image?
That's part of a large painting that the Instructor created, using advanced oil painting techniques.
The painting depicts the spirit of a girl flying off to sleep, looking back down on her physical body, surrounded in the moment by "sleep" energy.

The Music Analogy

Music Teaching vs Art Teaching. How do these compare?
How many notes or scales, and combinations of these, do you learn in music?

There are 12 notes and major scales in music.

Yet how do you think you would go, in trying to create music, if you were told that there are only 3 notes for you to use?

The music world would be in uproar at just the thought of it. Musicians would be screaming from the rooftops, saying there is more to it! More!
“Notes and scales” are the physical means by which music is created.
“Techniques” are the physical means by which artworks are created. Yet if you want to learn art, you are taught only 3 techniques by most art teachers in the world today.
Learning all of the 12 techniques of oil painting is easy. You just have to be shown how. These courses do that for you.

You want to paint your subjects your way

Why call them "Professional Quality" paintings?
Because these are paintings that strongly exhibit the fact the artists know what they're doing. The paintings have a look and an aura of exceptional character.
When you do them, these are paintings that most powerfully express who you are as an artist - your vision made physical in the best way possible.
Another consequence is that a painting created by an amateur, or someone using only the 3 basic techniques, can easily be reproduced by someone else. That painting can be copied. It does not embody exceptional or unique character, nor exhibit incomparable skill. That painting is also “worldly” just as much as a piece of furniture is worldly, such as a chair leg – it is of this world.
The professional painting, or the “advanced” painting, cannot ever be copied if that's what the artist wants to achieve. This painting is bursting with complex visual effects that are incomparable and unrepeatable. It also seems to have come from another world, or it reaches more deeply into this world. It captures more. The professional or advanced painting deals with very elusive elements that have skilfully and actually been caught and expressed.
The amateur struggles, is dissatisfied, and gets poor results or at best average and reproducible results – even though the painter may think it's exceptional. To the knowledgeable eye, the difference is obvious. Instead, the professional knows exactly how to get that image onto canvas and can be proud of the work, with full knowledge of what it captures and how it was captured.
And, whether it is important to the artist, or not, the professional or advanced painting can reach vastly superior prices, and are immediately recognised by knowledgeable collectors for achieving superior excellence in technical skill and vision.
How do I paint powerfully and successfully?
You cannot do it if you don't have the techniques.
Techniques in oil painting are the same as notes and scales in music. If you don't know your notes and scales you cannot compose masterpieces. Same with painting.
How many techniques do most artists use?
Three. There are twelve. These courses are the only place where you get them all.
If I learn every technique, I can paint whatever I want, any way I want?
Yes. But if you don't know how to combine them it will take you years to get them to work for you. (A musician can know all the notes and scales but still only produce noise.) These courses teach you how to combine them so you get masterworks immediately.
So I get all of the 12 techniques and how to combine them?
Yes. Different techniques in different combinations produces very different results. Once you learn the techniques and their powerful combinations you have the ability to choose which techniques and which combinations for any subject you want to create.
Why are these courses different?
These courses give you all of the 12 techniques, and their successful combinations. Once you learn these you can paint any subject you want, any way you want.
Other art teachers choose the subject and essentially say to you: "This is how I do it, you do it too." That means you are not being a true artist. You are simply copying their way of painting. You are merely a puppet.
Other courses do not give you the unique sovereign power to create any image you want, any way you want. This one does.
How long does it take to learn the techniques?
If oil paint dried instantly you could learn them all in a single day.
So why paint in oils?
Because acrylic, watercolor or guache cannot physically do what oil paint can do. Because oil paint has a richness and is physically capable of producing effects you cannot otherwise do. And because when you create in oils you are a part of the great tradition of history.
Great art masters are considered great because of the powerful and unique effects they achieve. Oil paint provides these effects.

What are Advanced Techniques?

What are advanced oil painting techniques? What makes them different?
“Advanced” techniques simply refers to the “actual” techniques of painting with oils. The term “advanced” is used to differentiate actual technique from all of the harmful misconceptions that exist today.
Many practices that use the term “technique” are not techniques at all. For example, other courses, workshops and art classes most often confuse “technique” with “procedure”. We have provided a brief video on each Course Information page to explain more on this. (see the section headed "Did you know?")
So the world is swamped with misconceptions and straight-out mistakes that can terribly mislead an artist, and certainly constrict them in what they create.
As a consequence, most artists use at best 3 actual oil painting techniques while believing they have more than that. There are 12 techniques. Just like there are 12 notes or major scales in music. These are the physical means by which these art forms are created.
In oil painting, a technique is the physical means by which paint goes onto canvas.
One day, we hope, the word “advanced” will no longer have to be used, as every artist will simply refer to the 12 actual techniques as simply “techniques”. Just like they do in music, when musicians refer simply to “notes and scales”.
So this is a 'way of painting' or a 'style' of painting?
Absolutely not. Each course is structured as a way of learning each of the 12 techniques, and their most significant and powerful combinations.

At every step the courses point out that you as a sovereign artist can choose the techniques you like, and their combinations, to most powerfully and professionally express yourself.
After finishing a course, people go on to create vastly different paintings, each painting a result of advanced knowledge and each powerfully expressing their unique vision.

These courses differ from every other art course because the main job of this site is simply to provide you with all of the techniques and their significant combinations (there are infinite combinations) SO THAT YOU choose which ones to use and how to use them.
Therefore, the accurate description of each course is 'a way of learning the techniques and combinations'.
It sounds complicated and difficult to use "advanced techniques".
It sounds that way. In practice it's actually easier to use advanced techniques than to struggle with just two or three like other art teachers or painters. This is because you have all of the tools for the job.
And the techniques and combinations are extremely easy to learn.

What happens is one technique naturally combines with another on canvas and the result is complex and awesome.
But if all you have are three basic techniques, it doesn't matter how you combine them, you'll only ever have a basic result. That's much, much harder to get anything worthwhile happening on canvas.
What's harder, too, is that other art teachers are essentially saying "this is what I do, you do it too." So what happens then is that students become a puppet to that art teacher's creativity, like a factory worker following instructions. That makes it almost impossible for a student to create a painting that expresses their vision, let alone expressing it powerfully.
Who else uses advanced techniques?
Very few living artists use them. Hard to think of a famous living artist whom you'd know. If one comes to mind it will be added in this answer.

Your best answer is found amongst the known artists historically. JMW Turner is by far the greatest exponent of all 12 techniques. Monet used them, too, but in very different combinations.
Currently a video is in production showing these deceased famous artist's work which explains which of the 12 techniques they used and in what combinations, because this is a very good question and deserves a more extensive answer.
Does the instructor use all 12 techniques?
Yes. An example of this is in the header image above.
What is the downside? What is hard about learning and using advanced techniques?
By far the obvious hard part is the drying time between applications. In other words: waiting. A way around that is presented in the courses.
But there are some hidden difficulties in learning and using them. For instance, people look at a painting created with advanced techniques, the finished painting, and say "there's no way I can do that."
Therefore they believe it's harder than what it is, and their difficulty is in trusting that it's actually very easy.
The techniques in combinations do it all for you.
Keeping it simple is one of the most important elements to learning to create powerfully.
Why is a painting using advanced techniques taught in four stages?
By far the best, quickest, and surest way to learn the techniques and their combinations is to use a four stage painting structure. This is where 25 years of teaching experience benefits you - each course is optimised for your success.
The four stage painting structure has been arrived at after years of trying to get it right. This teaching method does get it right - evident in the quality works immediately produced by people who have never painted before.
It has to be emphasised that this is ONLY so that you can learn the techniques and their combinations.

Once you learn them you can do whatever you like with them. You can paint in one stage, three, four, a dozen or a hundred.
Oh - and you get sophisticated works of art because of it. People who complete the course go on to full professional careers and sell their artworks for increased prices.
That easy and that quick? For TWELVE ADVANCED oil painting techniques?
Yes. That easy and that quick.
You can change your creative life, and change your entire life, by using advanced techniques, learned very quickly in four stages.
Enrol in a course and see it all happen right there before your eyes.
If you are still unsure, the Budget Price course has been created so for a very cheap price, you can have the knowledge and benefits quickly.
Then hopefully, too, you can go on to teach advanced oil painting techniques, and help clear away those constraining limitations to repeat the advanced understanding of oil painting technique.