About the Class

"This is the best online course I've ever taken. Jill has provided general and detailed information in a way that is easily understood and clearly defined."

- Rebecca S.

• Over 12 Hours of Class Lecture Time

• 33 Student Resources (Downloadable)

Beginners: With a basic understanding of your chosen paint, this course introduces you to 22 methods for applying paint to your surface. It provides you with tools to draw from and shows you how each method impacts your results. If you work with a thin painting medium, such as acrylic, you will want to follow the watercolor stroking examples. If you work with thick mediums such as oil or heavy body acrylic, you should follow the oil paint examples.

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Experienced Painters: For experienced painters, this course will attach some names to strokes you've likely already been using, and introduce you to some you likely never thought of using. It also neatly organizes brushstrokes, giving you clarity on the topic. Additionally, it will show you how each stroke influences the visual impact of a piece.

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Brushstrokes are at the core of being an artist, and an individual's brushwork is one of the things that sets them apart from other artists. Using an easy-to-understand teaching method and lots of hands-on activities, I will breaks down historic and contemporary brushwork into twenty-two unique brushstrokes, using both oil and watercolor paint in my demonstrations. .

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The brushstrokes themselves are broken down by style of application, to include invisible strokes, directly painted strokes, strokes that use light amounts of paint, strokes that use thick, impasto paint, broken brushstrokes, and alternative strokes.

Our learning includes a brief history of each stroke, examples of how the stroke was used in masterpieces, visual demonstrations, and student practice exercises. One of the exercises is to create a simple painting using only the brushstroke currently being examined. By painting the same scene for each brushstroke, you will get a feel for how that specific mark influences results when you paint.

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The course ends with a painting activity where you will be asked to use five of the learned strokes to create a formal painting.

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NOTE: Demonstrations are given in both watercolor and oil paint. Acrylic painters simply have to apply the knowledge depending on how they use that medium, whether thick (like oil) or thin (like watercolor).

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