Course description

If you've always wanted to paint in oils, this course takes you from your first tube of paint to finished still lifes and landscapes, step by step, with a small kit and a safe, low-odour way of working at home.

You learn what to buy and what can wait, how to set up a safe space with fresh air, and how to paint and clean up without solvents. You learn how oil paint behaves, why fat over lean matters and how long paint takes to dry. With just six colours, you learn to mix greens, oranges, purples, greys and browns, and you learn to see and paint value, the lights and darks that make a painting read. Then you put it all together: brushwork and palette knife marks, toning a board and blocking in, a still life of a jug and lemons, landscapes with skies, trees and water, painting alla prima and in layers, and finally varnishing and caring for your work.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Endla, a part-time dental receptionist in Silsden, and Urmas, a retired sign-writer who runs a Wednesday afternoon painting group, from February to September 2026. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, example answers and a cheat sheet, plus checklists, cards, charts and drawings such as a materials checklist, a safety and disposal card, colour mixing charts, value scale sheets, line drawings of a still life and two landscapes, a viewfinder template, a layer log and a project log.

What you'll learn

• Getting started with oil paint: what oil paint is and how it dries, a starter kit on a budget, brushes, knives, surfaces and your palette, and planning your first weeks.
• A safe, low-odour workspace: fresh air and light, solvents and mediums and their labels, painting and cleaning up without solvents, pigments and good habits, and oily rags and safe disposal.
• How oil paint behaves: paint consistency, the fat over lean rule, drying times and why colours differ, mediums, and your first swatch sheet.
• Mixing colour from six paints: a limited palette, hue, value and intensity, warm and cool, greens, oranges, purples, greys and browns, avoiding mud, and your mixing and tint charts.
• Value and tone: what value is, painting a value scale, squinting and other ways to see values, a monochrome study and value sketches before colour.
• Brushwork, palette knife and blocking in: holding a brush, marks, blending and edges, painting with a knife, toning a board without solvent, the underpainting and blocking in.
• Your first still lifes: choosing and lighting a still life, composition and thumbnails, drawing and blocking in, form, shadows and highlights, and finishing.
• Landscapes, skies and light: simplifying a view, distance, skies and clouds, trees, fields and water, and light, weather and time of day.
• Alla prima and painting in layers: painting wet into wet in one sitting, building a painting in layers, glazing and scumbling, painting outdoors safely and choosing your way of working.
• Drying, varnishing and your final project: drying and storing paintings, varnishing safely, caring for your tools and disposing of waste, and a final painting of your own choice.

Who it's for

Adults who'd like to paint in oils as a hobby, with no experience needed. If you'd like to practise drawing first, Drawing for Beginners: Line, Shape, Shading and Perspective from Scratch is a good place to begin. If you've tried watercolour, Watercolour Painting for Beginners: Washes, Colour Mixing and Your First Landscapes sits alongside this course.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a home oil painting course for adults. It doesn't recommend any paint maker or shop, and it names colours by their common pigment names. The safety guidance points you to product labels and official advice, and it isn't medical advice. Endla, Urmas and every other person in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Choose a budget starter kit of paints, brushes, knives and surfaces, and know what can wait
• Set up a safe, well-ventilated place to paint at home and read the hazard labels on paints, mediums and solvents
• Paint and clean up without solvents, and handle oily rags and waste safely
• Control paint consistency and follow the fat over lean rule, and plan around drying times
• Mix greens, oranges, purples, greys and browns from a six-colour palette and avoid muddy colour
• See and paint value, from a value scale and a monochrome study to value sketches
• Use brushes and a painting knife for different marks and edges, tone a board and block in a painting
• Compose, light and paint a still life with convincing form, shadows and highlights
• Paint landscapes with depth, skies, trees, fields, water and a consistent light
• Paint alla prima and in layers, dry, varnish and look after your paintings, and complete a final painting of your own

Frequently asked questions