Oil Painting Masterclass: Painting Eggs in a Towel

Stephanie Weaver

Dive into our exclusive oil painting class where you'll discover the timeless Brunaille method, mastering the interplay of light and shadow. Explore the nuances of hard and soft edges, elevate your understanding of value studies, and immerse yourself in the art of capturing three-dimensional realism!

And just a bit of a heads up - this is a challenging course.

Intro and Reference Materials

I've divided this painting masterclass into bit size chunks so that you can focus on each aspect to develop the painting. Although you are not restricted to take it week-by-week, I do encourage you to take the time at each step to get the painting to the point where you like it BEFORE you proceed to the next step.

Below is what you’ll learn each week. BUT FIRST - grab all the reference materials you'll use here: LINK

Week 1: You’ll gain an understanding of:

The 6 basic shadow and light areas.
Why understanding light and shadow is important to the painting
Overview of 3 different value under-painting styles
Practical painting: paint with me in a Brunialle under-painting.

Week 2: You’ll gain an understanding of:

3 types of edges.
How to use edges to control the viewer’s eye.
What you can use to create edges.
Practical painting: paint with me and define where you want your viewer’s eye to go.

Week 3: You’ll gain an understanding of:

How to apply glazes
Why glazing takes your painting to the next level
How to apply zinc white in glazes to prevent cracking
Practical painting: paint with me, starting with glazing in the darkest areas first.

Week 4: You’ll gain an understanding of:

Patience, each layer of glaze intensifies
How to critique your work.
Practical painting: paint with me additional glazing layers

Week 1: Value of a Value Study

This week’s lesson is called “The Value of Value Study”.

The purpose of this week is to gain the following:

Understand the different parts that make up light and shadow
Create a value study under painting in one of 3 options available (note: you may need to break this up into several painting sessions to ensure the intensity of the paint matches the reference image).

In this week’s lesson you’ll find the following supporting supplementary materials:

A short document that discusses each of the above
Reference images for:
Grisaille Painting
Brunaille Painting
Sketch to trace/use as a reference
Original Reference Image

Grab the materials here:

Intro and Setup:

Toning the Canvas

Blocking In The Darks

Medium and Highlight Values:

Refine the Values:

Last Bit Sped Up:

Week 2: Value of Edges

This week’s lesson is called “The Value of Hard and Soft Edges”.

The purpose of this week is to gain the following:

Complete the value study down to the details.
Understanding of the 3 different types of edges and how to achieve them
The value of using different edges to control the viewer’s eye.

In this week’s lesson you’ll find the following supporting supplementary materials:

a short document/presentation that discusses each of the above

Concept for Week 2:

The Value of Edges

Consider Your Edges

Let's Paint

Continue Painting

Paint The Details

Week 3: Value of Glazing

This week’s lesson is called “The Value Glazing”.

The purpose of this week is to gain the following:

What glazing is and why to use it.
What considerations to make when selecting paints and canvas structures.
How to apply zinc white in glazes to prevent cracking
Practical painting: paint with me, starting with glazing in the darkest areas first.

In this week’s lesson you’ll find the following supporting supplementary materials: