I was fortunate to have the most fun at school in the 2021/2022 year, when I took several art-related courses, as part of a goal to pursue education in Studio Art, Graphic Design and Web Technologies at Tallahassee Community College (TCC). After taking the foundation courses of Drawing 1 and 2D Design—which I highly recommend to anyone starting down the Studio Art path—I then took Oil Painting 1, with Professor Ljiljana Obradovic-Edmiston. I was honestly a little nervous going into the class, as I only had limited experience with acrylic paints, and oils would be entirely new to me.
The Benefits of Water-based Oils – I Love Them!
One of the great aspects of the Oil Painting 1 course at TCC, is that students use water-based oil paints. These are newer from a technical perspective in the past 20 years, but have advanced tremendously in the last decade. The finer-quality, water-based oil paints, such as those made by Holbein, offer the same high-quality results as traditional oil paints, which must be used with highly-toxic mineral spirits. TCC’s choice makes for a much healthier, and entirely worry-free painting environment in school. In addition, the water-based oils also wash much more easily out of brushes—and clothes! I was very impressed that TCC was up on the latest technology in terms of oil painting mediums; there are still many artists and studios that have yet to even try water-based oils—potentially at their peril.
Learning From the Great Master Oil Painters
After taking us through the fundamentals of the color-wheel, and then painting three-dimensional shapes, the oil painting class led us to create various works on 16” x 20” canvasses. One of my favorite assignments was related to painting a copy of a master work. The Professor gave us the freedom to recreate any painting from a master painter, giving students a wide variety of options, and the ability to develop their skills in a style they preferred. I chose to recreate John Singer Sargent’s, “Dinner Table at Night,” which was a commission he did for a British couple in 1894.
Sargent is renowned as the best Western portrait artist of his generation. Research on his methods reveals that he used a base coat in grey to start the majority of his paintings. One of the beautiful aspects of oil paint, is that it can be made translucent by adding linseed oil. When an artist uses many layers of paint in this manner, light actually shines through the layers and creates a three-dimensional effect. This is why the historical paintings by master painters such as Vermeer, Rubens, or Sargent, look luminous, textural, and lifelike.
Students attempt to recreate the master work by taking a photocopy of the original painting from an art book, and then drawing a grid over it. Then they make the same grid on the canvas, and sketch out the painting, aiming to align the drawing with the original; afterwards, the fun part of painting begins!
Conclusion – A Wonderful Course in Oil Painting at TCC
I was challenged by this process but enjoyed it. I chose the painting because I loved the rich, burgundy, textured hues on the walls, and the effect of the shining lamps. Even though the face and neck of the figure in this painting occupied only three square-inches of the canvas, I spent about an hour on this part, making multiple glazing layers in an attempt to create a three-dimensional effect. This painting looks somewhat different from the original, but we were encouraged to make the painting our own and I embraced this freedom. Overall, I highly recommend the Oil Painting 1 Class at TCC to anyone who wants to develop their art skills in a positive, and encouraging environment. This was another fantastic course by Professor Ljiljana Obradovic-Edmiston!