Alla Prima: Painting in Oils from General to Specific

Colors I use:

Panels I work on (use code ARTHUR10 to get 10% OFF)

Follow me on socials:

[michaeljohnangel]

An excellent video, and a beautiful painting. Is it for sale?

[gg]

Looks amazing. I had a small chuckle when I saw you mix so much paint in the end and using it for just 2 quick dots/hightlights on the eye, blob blob haha

[malman]

I come from a photography background. I always appreciate watching videos like these. Really stresses to me that these two visual mediums are just two different ways of seeing the world and presenting that vision to your audience. Love this and the attention to detail!

[Elf-yw]

This depth is very beautiful. There is depth in the Renaissance paintings I looked at on Pinterest recently. I love the velvety texture and depth. It is difficult to give this effect and it is perfect.

[Korczys]

Thanks for sharing this! In a world where it is not known what is art now, good painting will always defend itself.

[davirosa]

Hey Arthur, gorgeous painting and demonstration - And I think you nail making her gaze straight to the viewer.
I find that your approach talking about the paint evolution/process - it has a humble and true feel - meaning that you encourage us to try and keep us alert about corrections during the process - I appreciate it.
Thank you for your videos - I like to watch them!
Hugs from Brazil!

[patriceschelkun]

It was very helpful to watch you paint this from start to finish, with explanations along the way! Thank you!

[shay]

this moved me so much. I haven't painted in a while and this video reminded me how magical it is to paint with oil, I love the medium so much. Will definitely try this, maybe do a self-portrait. Thank you for the inspiration <3

[JaneIndigoMoore]

That's a fantastic expose of your process - amazing to see the face come to life in this way. That last bit with the eyes was remarkable - so unexpected - and such a perfect result!

[deborahcooper]

Excellent video great instruction. Beautiful painting very inspiring thank you

[atroutflycrazy]

Thankyou this was awesome, so many great tips and advice .
Loved the way you spoke about exact photo replication doesnt always make a great painting.
A great painting should turn out better than the photo copied.
Your portrait of her is much better than the photo.
Finding the balance between detail and still look painterly .

[goldfishzzz]

Thank you so much for this video. As a art student I learned a lot from it and made a successful self-portrait painting from using the alla prima method.

[ronschlorff]

Another nice one, but it makes me chuckle a bit I must admit. I am a retired wildlife field biologist, that was my "real job" for 33 years, as I did art on the side, since being in grad school for that science profession. Art school at that time did not interest me as I'm a realist not a whatever they call that other stuff, so I pursued a science career knowing I could paint too whenever I felt like it. Just like Leonardo did too, LOL. I started in 1974 painting in oils, portraits too, just different species of animals, antelopes, bears, lions, tigers, and many many bird species, etc. I did do a gorilla portrait once, so, I guess that is close enough to us humans. LOL. But recently been doing some girl portraits, as practice for the eye, as a landscape painter, now more or less full time. I like the idea of the "exercise" needed to do portraits, lots of subtleties, but really just sketches at they are not fully refined like yours are, except a couple of Vermeer "master copies". Very amazing work, you do but the reason for my "mirth" on this one, she looks like an exotic bird, many have those "ruffs", they call them, ornithologically speaking that is, on their necks for displays of aggression or sexual attraction. She is beautiful, and very sexy (so the ruff is working), LOL, none the less, but it is distracting to one who has had as many ornithology identification, classification, ecology, and behavioral courses as I've had at University, LOL. Who came up with this idea for that get up, yours or hers? I think I know, but Mr. Sargent often chaffed at the costuming of his models, that's why, although masterfully painted, they look just dashed off.

Again, good work, Arthur, and thinks once more for the little laugh on this one!! LOL ;D

[SlickOils]

I use the Ala Prima method when I paint my movie stills, nice work!

[ЧакНиколаевич-нк]

Отличная работа! получились более выразительные глаза, чем в референсе 👍

[annachung]

Thank you so much for sharing your process with us. As an aspiring beginner I would love to paint like you someday. Thanks again.

[donnybeegoode]

Really nice. Somewhat reminds me of John Sargent with a psychological touch of Olga Boznańska

[johnnyk]

Dear Mr Gain, I followed your video over the past month and painted two portraits with your subject to practice portraiture painting. Why? Because your video teaching is instructive and your style reminded me of British painter John Sargent. Thank you for your time and effort to produce this video.

[MANIAKRA]

Love this so much, thank you for the narrated demo. I really want to try painting with oils!

[ophanap]

Beautiful piece! Thank you so much for the explanation of your process, I’ve just started learning oil painting and have stumbled across alla prima and this has been one of the best demonstrations I’ve seen so far. Just a little tip from me if you you weren’t already aware; you mentioned not having the correct reference for the eyes, personally, I use one of the newer photoshop features to correct my references before i start a painting. If you use the liquify tool on your portrait reference it’ll allow to to adjust the facial features, including the position of the eyes. It’s not always perfect but it’s often pretty useful!