Old Masters Academy review by Mia Anderson

Artworks Before and After the Old Masters Academy course

I’m thirty-seven years old and a mum of two. My life is full of domestic duties and obligations. I also work part time in a nursery. What could be more routine than my life? I do love my family and my work, but honestly speaking, I had expected a different life for myself.

I made attempts to change my life. From time to time, I attended life drawing classes. The problem I faced is that I just don’t have enough time to properly draw a model, but a tutor encouraged me to draw with bold, confident lines. I do not understand how can I draw confidently if I can’t draw at all. I quit classes. I was frustrated.

One day I saw a live stream on Instagram — a time-lapse painting by Natalie Richy painting Giorgione’s “Venus.” I was hooked immediately. I understand that this was a sign — just two months previously I came from Dresden, where I meditated on Giorgione’s “Venus,” imagining if someone could explain me how to paint like Giorgione and Leonardo.

As a student of the Old Masters Academy I watched all videos, some of them many times. I was overwhelmed with all the information — new terminology that no one had told me before, all those cross-sections of famous paintings. What’s that? How can I implement that in my paintings? I was lost at the beginning. But the more I watched the videos, the clearer the whole system of painting seems to me.

I’m not afraid of oil painting anymore.

I tried to mimic Bouguereau’s painting, and I am satisfied with what came out. When I copied this painting many years before, I could not mix the paint well, and the skin looked dirty and unpleasant.

Now I paint in layers. Thank you, Old Masters Academy!

Learn time-honored oil painting techniques of the Old Masters!