Anyone who has ever wanted to try oil painting including.

• absolute beginners, late-bloomers, stifled or thwarted artists
• retired people who finally have time to follow their dreams
• busy people and moms who need some restorative me-time
• art-loving teens who want to get a head start learning real fine art training;
• artist who paint or create in other mediums who are interested in trying oils
• musicians, writers, filmmakers and actors who want an art practice they can do all by themselves without a team or big big budgets
• and all art lovers who’ve ever swooned at the thought of having an itty bitty arts practice all to themselves.
  
  Remember, everyone can learn to paint! It’s a skill and skills are learnable. If you can see shapes, you can paint!
  

Yes! Painting is a skill and skills are learnable. Also, though knowing how to draw helps, it’s not necessary because we are learning a new way to see when we paint. Stick figures and a lot of drawings are made with lines. But painters look for SHAPES. If you can see shapes, you can learn to paint!

Painting a large painting can take many many hours but a small painting can be done in about an hour or two. This makes it easy to find the time to paint. It also means you will finish more paintings. The more paintings you finish, the faster you will learn: the principles of art are the same whether you paint big or small!

To paint large all you need to do is use a larger canvas, larger brushes, and a lot more paint!

Some more benefits of painting small:

• your mini paintings can be studies for larger paintings
• they’re a great way to start selling your art
• they also make excellent gifts your friends will love receiving.

Absolutely! The principles of art are the same whether you paint big or small.

Here’s my #DumaDoArtTip: when you have created a small painting you love, you can use it as a study for a larger painting. This is what many masters have done, and still do. This way when you approach your canvas, you will feel confident!

Just use:

• bigger brushes
• a lot more paint, and
• your whole arm to paint instead of your wrist.

Also be sure to set aside more time. Bigger paintings take a lot longer to finish, which is why I recommend starting to paint small.

No! In fact many say oil painting is the easiest medium. It’s forgiving — that means you can fix your mistakes! You can cover them up or just scrape it off and start again. So, what’s the hardest medium? WATERCOLOUR! It’s transparent so you can’t fix your mistakes and that makes it very frustrating for beginners.

If you’ve tried painting but didn’t see the results you wanted, then most likely it’s because you were missing some key principles. What a beginner needs is a proven process and roadmap to follow that shows them what to do when. That’s what my course is all about: you get bite-sized lessons that excite and keep you motivated.

1: They are convenient: you get to learn in the comfort of your own home, at your own pace, with VIDEOS that you can revisit over and over. When you are in a live class situation with 14 students all huddled around the teacher’s easel, it’s hard to see. Then by the time you’ve walked back to your canvas you’ve forgotten what the instructor said and did. That’s what I found super frustrating.

2: They are very affordable: in-person painting classes are EXPENSIVE! Usually $40- $60 an hour. And art colleges in the United States average $15,000 a year? I teach the same Fine Art techniques but for a tiny fraction of that cost.

Here’s what I recommend for beginners:

• Buy my course and learn in the comfort of your home without shlepping wet oils around. You don’t need to spend the big bucks to learn how to set out colours on your palette, or how to clean your brushes. Videos are perfect for that.
• Learn my basic 10-step framework for creating a real fine art oil painting. Understand the fundamentals of painting, the elements of art…then
• When you are at the intermediate level, you can go study with others to learn their special techniques or process. You will be ready to absorb their knowledge and get real bang for your buck. And it’s really fun.
• Take the money you saved with my course and plan a week-long painting adventure in Greece or Mexico. Mmm. There are wonderful adventures happening all over the globe! So much to look forward to!

I truly believe my course is the best one out there for beginners because I created it while I still remembered what it felt like to be a beginner painter. I had so many questions that took a LONG time to answer.

I don’t mean to criticize these instructors but there is a thing called expert blindness… if you’ve been doing something a long time and are very skilled, you can forget how it felt at the beginning.

When I was starting out, I found most painting instructors just glossed over the questions that had me the most stumped! And/or I really didn’t understand what they were saying because I didn’t know the language! In hindsight these instructors would be great for intermediate or master classes.

In my course, I answer all the questions I had when starting out in simple and clear language. Questions like “can you mix brands of paint?” “When do I add medium to the piaint?” Or “what is gesso for? It’s all in this course.

My painting demos are shot in real time — no speeding up or cutting out parts. You will be able to see every brush stroke I make. And if you missed something, you can hit pause, rewind and watch over and over again until you get it!

It’s the easiest and most fun way to learn to paint! Come join us!

Yes. Once you enroll, you will have access to all the lessons and tutorials. You can learn at your own pace, without stress or pressure. If you buy the Ultimate Experience you will also get prompts and mini classes that come with the Find Your Style course, and support in the Atelier private FB group.

No. All students have lifetime access to the courses and lessons. As long as the Irene Duma Teaches Art website is active, students will have access.

I’ve designed this course to be super economical. You should be able to buy a paint set and paint medium for under $100. (#DumaDoArtTip: Watch out for sales at art supply stores. They have them numerous times a year).

An extra bonus of painting small is not only will you save time, you will save money! A 5×7 inch canvas panel costs ~$1 and your paint supply will last a long time too! If you flub a painting, it won’t hurt … (as much! )

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I teach real fine art principles. You will be learning the classic principles of art, and techniques the professionals use. So if becoming a professional painter is your dream, yes, this course will help. A lot of courses just have you learn one certain technique, or gimmick. But I will teach you to see and think like a painter does. When you learn that you will be able to paint anything.