With every tutorial we produce, I learn from that experience and take from that knowledge where we want to go next. However, with the release of our Intro to Oil Painting course, it does feel like we are breaking new ground in a more dramatic way than usual.
When Artprof.org launched in February 2017, we had one video course; today we have over thirty! (That number still feels like barely a drop in the water though) When we had very few courses we prioritized producing courses that were beginning level, it didn’t make sense to start the site with the more complex courses.
There are still many gaps in beginning topics that we have yet to address: we need to cover linear perspective (1 point, 2 point, and 3 point) we have yet to produce a pencil drawing course, and we still haven’t gotten to basic topics like plein air painting.
We’ve made an effort to produce courses that demonstrated relatively inexpensive, more easily accessible art supplies. Which is why this oil painting tutorial definitely feels different. Compared to say drawing on paper with a pencil, oil painting is not remotely as accessible. The supplies are expensive, disposal is complicated, and you need a facility to work that will provide adequate ventilation. On top of that, the process and techniques of oil painting are not simple and require lots of attention to detail.
Which is why the course ended up being almost 2 hours long, an epic tutorial compared to all of our other tutorials which range from 10 minutes to 40 minutes. All of our tutorials are time consuming to produce: the planning, shooting, editing, the post production work, etc. is never quick. This oil painting tutorial was the usual work load times ten, there were honestly moments where I thought I would never see this tutorial make it online!
Despite my initial reservations about producing a tutorial this complex about a technique that not that many people will ever get to do, the response has been really strong. I’ve never gotten so many comments on our YouTube channel within 24 hours of releasing a video.
Perhaps despite how relatively inaccessible oil painting is, we should aim to produce more video tutorials along the same vein? Would you like to see more of these “epic” tutorials from us, even if it’s in techniques that you may not be able to do yourself? Or does that take away from our mission to provide accessible content for everyone?
Artprof.org is a free website for learning visual arts which features video tutorials, art critiques, and more.
Clara Lieu 