Best seller

Realistic Oil Portraiture: Conveying Detail and Expression

A course by Alan Coulson , Portrait Artist

Portrait Artist. Hebden Bridge, United Kingdom.
Joined May 2020

Discover the vibrancy and versatility of oil paints to create an expressive portrait

Best seller
99% positive reviews (545)
13,228 students
Audio: English
English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch

Discover the vibrancy and versatility of oil paints to create an expressive portrait

Oil painting is an intricate medium for artistic expression, offering an array of opportunities for artists seeking to create vivid portraits filled with realism. Alan Coulson has made it his material of choice for over fifteen years, building a successful career by creating unique portraits filled with vivid colors and interesting details. He has received three BP Portrait Awards from The National Portrait Gallery in London and has created commissioned artwork for clients like The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Carlton Books, and more.

Discover the versatility and methodology behind oil painting alongside award-winning portrait painter Alan Coulson. Get familiar with the techniques he uses to create vivid portraits and learn the entire process step by step, without the need for any previous experience with oil paints.

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What will you learn in this online course?

19 lessons & 11 downloads

What Will We Do in This Course?
4 minutes, 35 seconds
Materials
4 minutes, 35 seconds
Exploring Features
17 minutes, 51 seconds
Tracing the Image
13 minutes, 32 seconds
Set up before Painting
6 minutes, 16 seconds
Dark and Shadows 1
15 minutes, 37 seconds
  • 99% positive reviews (545)
  • 13,228 students
  • 19 lessons (3h 26m)
  • 11 additional resources (1 files)
  • Online and at your own pace
  • Available on the app
  • Audio: English
  • English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
  • Level: Beginner
  • Unlimited access forever

What is this course's project?

Create a unique and personal portrait with oil paints by using a photo as a reference.

Projects by course students

Who is this online course for?

For anyone with an interest and curiosity in contemporary portraiture with oil paints, as well as those you like to draw or paint.

Requirements and materials

To take this course, previous experience in drawing and painting is helpful but not essential.

As for materials, you need a camera (or the camera on your phone), a laptop or tablet, a set of oil paints and brushes, oil paint dilutant, a palette, a surface to paint on (Alan will use a wooden panel), and an easel or tabletop to use as a workspace.


Reviews

13,228 Students
545 Reviews
99% Positive ratings

Alan Coulson

A course by Alan Coulson

Teacher Plus
Portrait Artist

Alan Coulson is an award-winning portrait artist from England with over fifteen years of experience using oil paints. He began a Fine Arts degree however, after struggling to articulate his creative ideas, he dropped out and began working in fashion retail.

It was the birth of his first son in 2005 that prompted him to reconnect with his artistic ideas and explore oil painting. Shortly after deciding to pursue his dream of becoming a portrait artist, Alan Coulson was awarded a BP Portrait Award from The National Portrait Gallery in London. The exposure and awards he has received have given rise to a successful career in portraiture with clients including The New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, Carlton Books, The Chronicle Review, Club Wembley, and more.


Content

  • U1

    Introduction

    • Introduction
    • Influences
    • What Will We Do in This Course?
  • U2

    Preparation

    • Materials
    • Your Subject
    • Exploring Features
  • U3

    Set up and Preparation

    • Preparing a Painting Surface
    • Tracing the Image
    • Set up before Painting
  • U4

    Production

    • Beginning Our Painting: Defining the Features 1
    • Beginning Our Painting: Defining the Features 2
    • Dark and Shadows 1
    • Dark and Shadows 2
    • Mid-tones
    • Cross-referencing
    • Highlight, Fine Details and Glazing
  • U5

    Post-production

    • Completion
    • Preservation
    • Share Your Work
  • FP

    Final project

    • Realistic Oil Portraiture: Conveying Detail and Expression

What to expect from a Domestika course

  • Learn at your own pace

    Enjoy learning from home without a set schedule and with an easy-to-follow method. You set your own pace.

  • Learn from the best professionals

    Learn valuable methods and techniques explained by top experts in the creative sector.

  • Meet expert teachers

    Each expert teaches what they do best, with clear guidelines, true passion, and professional insight in every lesson.

  • Certificates
    Plus

    If you're a Plus member, get a custom certificate signed by your teacher for every course. Share it on your portfolio, social media, or wherever you like.

  • Get front-row seats

    Videos of the highest quality, so you don't miss a single detail. With unlimited access, you can watch them as many times as you need to perfect your technique.

  • Share knowledge and ideas

    Ask questions, request feedback, or offer solutions. Share your learning experience with other students in the community who are as passionate about creativity as you are.

  • Connect with a global creative community

    The community is home to millions of people from around the world who are curious and passionate about exploring and expressing their creativity.

  • Watch professionally produced courses

    Domestika curates its teacher roster and produces every course in-house to ensure a high-quality online learning experience.


FAQs

Domestika's courses are online classes that provide you with the tools and skills you need to complete a specific project. Every step of the project combines video lessons with complementary instructional material, so you can learn by doing. Domestika's courses also allow you to share your own projects with the teacher and with other students, creating a dynamic course community.

All courses are 100% online, so once they're published, courses start and finish whenever you want. You set the pace of the class. You can go back to review what interests you most and skip what you already know, ask questions, answer questions, share your projects, and more.

The courses are divided into different units. Each one includes lessons, informational text, tasks, and practice exercises to help you carry out your project step by step, with additional complementary resources and downloads. You'll also have access to an exclusive forum where you can interact with the teacher and with other students, as well as share your work and your course project, creating a community around the course.

You can redeem the course you received by accessing the redeeming page and entering your gift code.

If you're a Plus member, when you complete a course you've purchased, you'll instantly get your personalized certificate. You can see all your certificates in the Certificates section of your profile. You can download your certificates as PDFs and share the link online. Learn more about certificates.
 Realistic Oil Portraiture: Conveying Detail and Expression. Illustration course by Alan Coulson Best seller

Realistic Oil Portraiture: Conveying Detail and Expression

A course by Alan Coulson
Portrait Artist. Hebden Bridge, United Kingdom.
Joined May 2020
  • 99% positive reviews (545)
  • 13,228 students