Learn the best practices for painting

The choices you make of painting materials and techniques have consequences for the longevity of your work. The online courses are for anyone who wants to create paintings that last. We present the latest understanding of these materials and techniques from conservation and materials research that help you make the best choices.

Why learn with Painting Best Practices

Painting Best Practices is an information-packed online curriculum that includes all aspects of painting from the support and ground to the final layers and varnish. Practical procedures are clearly explained and demonstrated on how to build paintings based on scientific research. The courses are designed for painters of all mediums with special emphasis on the most popular painting mediums.

Expand your skillset in painting best practices

Expand your knowledge

Learn how materials are best used in painting and when to use them properly in your artwork.

Make your works last

Use the best practices in your work to make long lasting paintings.

Paint with confidence

Develop the confidence to use the right materials for each project—eliminate guesses.

Choose Your Course

$25.00
De Piles Palette
1 Lesson

A Rational Approach to Color Palettes

The palette is one of the most important tools in the history of oil painting. Yet its effect is one of the least studied aspects of art history. The method of setting the palette has an important history and its development is relatively easy to trace in pictures of artists at work.

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Art Insights
Changes in Binding Media
1 Lesson

Changes in Binding Media and the Search for the “Lost Secrets” of the Master

Dramatic changes in the techniques and materials used by artists began to occur in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the binding media was given much more attention than in previous centuries. This is related to the rising professional status of artists and the formation of academies for training artists, especially in Britain. Rather than using well tested and reliable methods and materials, which were based on studio practice and apprenticeship, artists began trying out new processes. This in turn is related to the vain search for the “secrets of the old masters” that led to even more experimentation and even scandals, such as that experienced by the Royal Academy of Arts and its president, Benjamin West, at the turn of the nineteenth century.

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$10.00
Cleaning oil paintings
4 Lessons

Cleaning Paintings

This course provides artists with practical and safer methods to clean their own paintings than what is currently practiced by artists who clean their paintings with household cleaners, solvents and oil mixtures, and anecdotal advice from well-meaning artists. The cleaning methods demonstrated in this course apply specifically to oil paintings, but the techniques and materials can also be used with additional precautions on gouache and tempera paintings.

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Art Insights
1 Lesson

Discover the Depths of Chromatic Black in Oil Painting

Dramatic changes in the techniques and materials used by artists began to occur in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the binding media was given much more attention than in previous centuries. This is related to the rising professional status of artists and the formation of academies for training artists, especially in Britain. Rather than using well tested and reliable methods and materials, which were based on studio practice and apprenticeship, artists began trying out new processes. This in turn is related to the vain search for the “secrets of the old masters” that led to even more experimentation and even scandals, such as that experienced by the Royal Academy of Arts and its president, Benjamin West, at the turn of the nineteenth century.

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Practice makes perfect

We know about your hectic schedule. We also know the only way you truly understand a subject is by practicing it in a real environment. This is why we’ve set an area that’s full of hours of exercises, questions and challenges.

Learn on the go

The online classroom is optimized for viewing on tablets and smartphones, so you can learn on the go. Each course consists of lesson where you can track your progress through each.

Complete information

Each online course gives you the needed information to make the best choices of materials and techniques. After completing the courses you will have confidence to complete a painting knowing you’ve done it correctly.

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