Technical Studio Sessions
A structured approach to solving the problems that cause paintings to fail.
Each session isolates a specific painting problem—materials, structure, and long-term behavior—and shows how to control it in practice.
Next Session: Why Painters Use Mediums —Oct 29, 2026 10:00 AM (PT) (17:00 UTC)
This Is Not a Series of Lectures
Most painters encounter the same problems repeatedly:
Paint that sinks in or loses clarity
Surface defects in thick applications
Unexpected color shifts over time
Failures that originate below the paint layer
These are not isolated issues. They follow predictable patterns. Because these problems follow predictable patterns, they can be anticipated and prevented.
Each session isolates one problem, explains why it occurs, and shows how to control it in practice.
These Sessions Solve Painting Problems
Most painting failures can be traced to one of these three areas.
Supports and Grounds
Where many failures originate—canvas preparation, ground layers, and structural stability.
Paint Structure
How paint behaves as a material—thickness, drying, pigment interactions, and film formation.
Surface and Appearance
Why paintings change visually over time, including darkening, sinking-in, and gloss variation.
Why These Problems Matter
- Many painting issues do not appear immediately.
- They develop over time—sometimes months or years after a painting is completed.
- Understanding their causes allows you to prevent them, rather than attempt to correct them later.
Upcoming Sessions
The Working Studio: Solvent-Free Practice, Paint Storage, and Longevity
December 3, 2026 10:00 AM PT (18:00 UTC)
Note: This session runs on the Thursday following Thanksgiving week.
Many of the choices that affect a painting’s longevity are made before the brush touches the canvas: how the studio is set up, what is on the palette at the end of the day, how unfinished paint is stored, and whether solvents are part of the workflow at all. These decisions get less attention than technique, but they have material consequences for the work and for the painter.
This session examines solvent-free oil painting as a practical method rather than a marketing category — what it actually requires, where it works, and where it breaks down. We will also look at paint storage between sessions, palette management, and the studio conditions that affect drying and film formation. The goal is a working studio practice that supports both the longevity of the work and the health of the person making it.
Oil Over Acrylic: Adhesion and Mixed-Media Best Practices
December 17, 2026 10:00 AM PT (18:00 UTC)
Note: This session runs on the third Thursday rather than the last, to avoid the Christmas holiday.
Painting oil over acrylic is one of the most common mixed-media combinations in contemporary practice, and one of the most likely to fail without warning. The two films behave differently — in flexibility, in surface energy, in long-term dimensional response — and the interface between them is where problems develop.
This session examines what acrylic grounds and underlayers actually present to oil paint: surface chemistry, absorbency, and mechanical compatibility. We will look at which acrylic preparations support a stable oil layer and which do not, how to test for adhesion before committing to a full painting, and where common shortcuts — oil directly on unsealed acrylic gesso, oil over heavy acrylic texture — introduce risk that may not appear for years. The objective is a clear set of conditions under which the combination works, and a clear set under which it does not.
2027 Technical Studio Sessions
| Date | Session |
|---|---|
| Jan 28 | Grounds: The Most Important Step You’re Skipping |
| Feb 25 | Canvas: Materials, Stretching, and Long-Term Behavior |
| Mar 25 | Rembrandt’s Palette and Painting Method (2nd master deep-dive) |
| Apr 29 | Paint Making: From Pigment to Tube |
| May 27 | Drying Oils & Resin Mediums: A Decision Framework |
| Jun 24 | Van Gogh’s Palette and the 19th-Century Pigment Revolution (3rd master) |
| Jul 29 | Solvents in Oil Painting: Turpentine, OMS, Solvent-Free |
| Aug 26 | Make Your Own Gouache, Tempera & Emulsions |
| Sep 30 | Velázquez’s Palette and Bodegón Technique (4th master) |
| Oct 28 | Modern Oil Paints: Chemistry and What Has Changed |
| Nov 18 | Painting on Panels and Copper |
| Dec 16 | Raphael’s Palette and Renaissance Materials (5th master) |
Past Sessions
Why Painters Use Mediums: Purpose, Dose, and What Remains
October 29, 2026
Painters use medium for many reasons: because a teacher made it part of the method, because they prefer how the paint handles, to control drying or assist with glazing, to avoid or reduce solvent use, or simply because medium has become part of their routine. Yet what painters call “medium” may be a drying oil, alkyd, resin solution, wax, gel, or a proprietary mixture of solvents, binders, driers, and other additives whose composition is only partly disclosed. Additions that produce similar handling may leave very different materials in the paint layer.
Drawing on practices reported by painters in the Painting Best Practices community, measured studio demonstrations, and published technical evidence, this session examines four questions: Why is a medium being used? What change does the painter expect? What evaporates, what remains, and what continues to react? How much is being added, and in which passages and layers?
We will consider when a medium solves a specific problem, when it serves a legitimate handling preference or working constraint, and when routine use changes the paint without a clearly defined purpose. The goal is not to prescribe a particular medium or rule out their use, but to make each addition deliberate, informed, and appropriate to the job.
Lead, Titanium & Zinc White: What They Do to Color—and to Paint
September 24, 2026
Lead white, titanium white, and zinc white are not interchangeable. Each changes color, opacity, handling, and drying in different ways—and those differences continue to influence the paint film after the brush leaves the surface.
This Technical Studio Session examines why the three principal whites used in oil painting behave so differently and how those differences matter in practice. We will compare their tinting strength, hiding power, color temperature, drying behavior, and interaction with other colors, using studio drawdowns, spectrophotometer measurements, drying tests, and published research.
We will also look beyond the pigment name on the tube. Modern white paints may contain mixtures of pigments, extender pigments, different drying oils, and additives used to control opacity, yellowing, rheology, drying, brushwork, and cost. This becomes especially important with zinc oxide, which has historically been added not only to white paints but also to many other oil colors.
The goal is not to declare one white best for every purpose. It is to understand what each white does so you can choose—or mix—the properties you need for a particular passage, layer, or painting method.
Caravaggio’s Light: How Ground and Palette Built the Effect
August 27, 2026
The first in a recurring series of master-palette deep-dives. Caravaggio is the right place to start: his palette is unusually well documented through technical analysis of works in Rome, Naples, and Malta, and his method places extreme demands on a small number of pigments.
This session works from the conservation literature on specific paintings — what has been identified by XRF, cross-section, and pigment analysis — to reconstruct what Caravaggio actually used and how those materials behave in the layer structure his work depends on. We will examine the role of mestica grounds, the limited earth-and-black tonal foundation, the lead white handling in the lights, and the specific reds used in the warm passages. The objective is not imitation of style. It is understanding why a constrained palette of well-chosen materials produces results that have survived four hundred years.
Earth Pigments Masterclass: Why a Working Palette Still Starts Here
July 30, 2026
Earth pigments are often treated as a starting point for beginners and set aside in favor of more saturated modern colors. The conservation record tells a different story. Iron-oxide-based earths are among the most stable, lightfast, and structurally well-behaved pigments available, and they appear in nearly every documented historical palette for reasons that go beyond availability.
This session examines the iron oxide family — yellow ochres, red earths, raw and burnt umbers, siennas, green earths — in terms of particle structure, oil absorption, drying behavior, and tinting strength. We will look at why earths dry the way they do, how they interact with other pigments in mixtures, and where they outperform modern substitutes in a layered painting. The goal is to see earths as a working system, not a default.
Oiling Out & Sinking-In: What's Happening and What to Do
June 25, 2026
A passage goes flat overnight. The darks lose depth, the surface looks chalky, and the painting no longer reads the way it did wet. This is sinking-in, and it is one of the most common reasons artists reach for oiling out — often without a clear picture of what either condition actually is.
This session examines sinking-in as a material event: oil migrating into an absorbent layer below, leaving pigment particles less optically saturated at the surface. We will look at what makes a ground or underlayer absorbent, when oiling out is the right response and when it introduces new problems, what to brush on and how thin, and where retouch varnish fits in. The objective is a working decision framework — not a single recipe applied to every situation.
Glazing Like The Old Masters
May 28, 2026
Glazing is often described as applying thin, transparent layers. That description is incomplete. What matters is how light moves through the paint film and how the medium controls that behavior.
This session focuses on the relationship between pigment properties, refractive index, and medium selection. We will examine why some glazes remain clear while others become dull or cloudy, how absorption into lower layers affects saturation, and how to manage drying between layers. Historical methods are considered in terms of what can be supported by material evidence, not studio mythology.
Fat Over Lean: What Artists Get Wrong
April 30, 2026
Fat over lean is one of the most repeated rules in oil painting. It is also one of the least understood. Most artists are told to follow it. Few are shown what actually changes in the paint.
This session examines how oil content, solvent use, and absorption affect the formation of the paint film. We will look at how flexibility, shrinkage, and internal stress develop across layers—and why simply adding more medium does not reliably make a layer “fat.” The goal is to replace rule-of-thumb thinking with a working understanding of how layered paint structures behave over time.
Impasto Without Regrets
March 26, 2026
Impasto is one of the most visually compelling techniques in oil painting. It can intensify light, reinforce form, and give a painting a physical presence that cannot be achieved with thin paint alone. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Many of the problems associated with impasto—cracking, wrinkling, sinking, or long-term instability—do not arise from a single mistake. They result from how thick oil paint behaves as a material system.
Varnishing Oil Paintings: When, Why, and What to Use
February 26, 2026
Varnishing is one of the most debated stages of oil painting.
Artists are commonly told that certain varnishes allow paintings to “breathe,” that retouch varnish is a safe interim solution, or that a painting is ready for varnish once it is dry to the touch. This session examines varnishing through conservation science and material behavior rather than studio lore.
The session provides a decision framework for artists facing real-world pressures — exhibitions, commissions, deadlines — without introducing avoidable structural risk.
Session Format
Each session is structured to move from explanation to application.
45–60 Minutes—Core Presentation
A focused breakdown of the problem, including its causes, material behavior, and where it typically goes wrong in practice.
15 Minutes—Studio Problem Clinic
When selected submissions are availabile we to show how these issues appear in real paintings and how to address them.
30 Minutes — Open Q&A
Participants can ask questions about their own work, materials, and method.
Members may submit studio problems in advance for possible inclusion in the session. Selected submissions are used to demonstrate how these issues appear in real paintings—not just theory.
Access to Previous Sessions
Each session builds on the same underlying principles. Over time, these sessions form a connected body of knowledge—not isolated topics.
Access to previous sessions allows you to revisit key concepts, see how problems connect, and avoid repeating common mistakes.
Full access to session replays is included with Artisan membership.
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