StretchLearn Course

From bare palette to finished painting

The complete beginner path through oil paint handling, colour, and layering

Beginner9 hr 30 minSelf PacedRegistered

Course Overview

What this course is designed to develop

Oil paint has been the medium of choice for serious painters since the 15th century because nothing else blends, holds detail, and glows quite like it. This course teaches the real craft — choosing pigments by name, mixing colour from a limited palette, controlling the fat-over-lean rule so paintings cure soundly, and working both wet-into-wet and in glazed layers. You finish able to plan, paint, and finish a coherent oil painting on your own, working cleanly and safely.

Learning Outcomes

What the learner should be able to understand, build, or execute.

Select and organise pigments, mediums, brushes, and surfaces for sound, archival oil painting

Mix accurate, controlled colour from a limited palette using value, chroma, and temperature

Apply the fat-over-lean rule across layers so paintings dry evenly and do not crack

Paint a finished study both alla prima (wet-into-wet) and through indirect glazing and layering

Build form with a value structure, edges, and a deliberate underpainting before adding colour

Work safely with solvents and oils, then dry, varnish, and present a finished painting

Curriculum Preview

Inside the curriculum: a structured path from fundamentals to execution.

Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.

Module 1

Module 1: Materials, the Palette, and a Safe Studio

Understand what makes oil paint behave the way it does, then assemble and organise an affordable, archival kit and set up a studio that keeps you healthy.

3 lessons

What Oil Paint Is and Why It Behaves That WayContent · 45 min

Preview Enabled

Paints, Brushes, Surfaces, and MediumsContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Setting Up Safely — Solvents, Ventilation, and the PaletteContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 2

Module 2: Colour Mixing and Value

Learn to see and mix colour the way painters do — by value first, then chroma and temperature — and to build neutrals, greens, and skin tones from a small palette.

3 lessons

Value First — Seeing Light Before ColourContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Mixing Neutrals, Greens, and Clean ColourContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Skin Tones, Temperature, and Limited-Palette HarmonyContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 3

Module 3: Direct Painting — Alla Prima

Paint a finished study in a single wet-into-wet session: block in masses, judge edges, model form, and pull a study together quickly and confidently.

3 lessons

The Alla Prima Approach and Blocking InContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Edges, Brushwork, and Modelling FormContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Bringing an Alla Prima Study TogetherContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 4

Module 4: Indirect Painting, Glazing, and Finishing

Build a painting in layers the way the old masters did — underpainting, fat-over-lean, and luminous glazes — then dry, varnish, and present finished work soundly.

3 lessons

The Indirect Method and Fat Over LeanContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Glazing and Scumbling for LuminosityContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Drying, Varnishing, and Presenting the Finished WorkContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Built for Application

A complete learning path, not a one-off inspiration hit.

This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.

oil paintingcolour mixingfat over leanalla primaglazingunderpaintinglimited palettevalue structure