PAINTERLY PORTRAIT COURSE STORIES OF TRANSFORMATION
Real stories from artists who have experienced breakthrough in their work!
IF THEY CAN DO IT
YOU CAN DO IT!
"I learned more than I expected!
I am much more confident and enjoying the process!
This course offers a way of seeing that deepened my understanding of the world. It will open up your eyes, mind, and heart. You will appreciate people in a different and more sensitive way."
Graciela
"I had never attempted portraits before. I have always loved soft pastels, but was too afraid to attempt a pastel portrait.
With this course, I have learned so much!
I love that Alain has broken everything down very clearly into steps. I have learned more in this course than I imagined I possibly could. I love the positive support from Alain, the mentors, and my fellow students. Extremely well done!"
Joan
Nirani
This course has been instrumental in improving my art skills,
particularly in the areas of measurement and proportion, as well as teaching me valuable techniques like thumbnail sketching, color theory, and dynamic backgrounds.
Now I feel like I'm an artist.
This is the most valuable portrait experience I've ever had in my lifetime. Really wonderful experience and an awesome learning experience!
Ajay
"This course helped me accomplish my goals to
learn and improve visual techniques in sculptural mark making to produce lifelike portraits with strong likenesses in less time and build creative confidence.
I would fully recommend Alain’s portrait course. It is well organized and structured into milestones and road maps for the achievement of expressive, vibrant portraits."
Cindy
"I wanted to learn a strong process for creating a portrait.
I am so much more confident in beginning the portrait and working through it.
This is a comprehensive course in pastel portrait painting. Alain is an exceptional instructor, and you will learn a great foundation in the use of pastels, as well as how to begin a portrait and work to completion.
The skills learned in this course will be useful in other subjects as well."
"I wanted to learn to loosen up instead of being so perfect in my work.
This course helped me do that and more than I’d never even thought of!
If you are interested in portraiture at all, take this course. It will teach you the right way, in the right sequence, and get you so far ahead of where you would be on your own that you will not believe it."
Dolli
"After taking Alain’s course I am now creating better likenesses in my portrait work."
"I can now paint skin tones better, and through an improved understanding of materials and how to apply them I am painting stronger portrait compositions with a variety of broken and soft edges and exciting backgrounds.
Alain is a very supportive teacher!"
Judith
"I wanted to be able to paint human portraits in a more expressive, painterly manner, and make portraits that really look like ‘paintings’ and allow the subject’s spirit to come shining through.
Since taking this course I have created real ‘artwork’ for the first time, in my opinion.
I have learned not to be afraid of color and that a human face can still look very realistic, despite ramping up the colors. I've never learned more in such a short time."
Toby
Ronald
"My goal in taking this course was to learn the step by step process of developing and completing portraits with confidence. By working through Alain’s detailed exercises I have developed my ability to see shapes, lights and darks, and improved my tonal awareness. You can go at your own pace and the techniques learned are a great foundation for future advanced learning."
Debra
"The course is a remarkable learning curve full of inspiration and goal achieving capabilities.
It helped me to gain insightful knowledge to fuel my creative desire to learn and inspired me to paint accurately and freely."
Dana
"I am so much more knowledgeable about soft pastels only having Rembrandt ones before this course. My mark making is much more vibrant and colorful than before. Also, I had never used sighting methods and I learned so much. I could actually get to a finished and somewhat believable portrait by following Alain's Portrait Roadmap and Visual Dashboard."
"I love drawing people, and I fell in love with pastels.
After taking the course, I can measure more accurately, producing better likeness, how to use various hardness of soft pastels effectively, and so much more.
Alain’s demonstrations were illuminating. The course is well organized, well defined, easy to digest, and not releasing everything at once gives you more of a step-by-step approach to learning."
Junko
"My aims in taking this course were to become comfortable drawing portraits without the use of a grid, to paint skin tones and backgrounds better, and to learn a looser, more painterly method.
I learned all this and so much more, from photography, lighting, and setting up a studio to the use of color in depicting the face.
This course offers so much information to absorb, but there is no need to worry about that since the class has lifetime access and the downloads are so helpful.
I’ll never look at a face quite the same way again!"
Beth
"Before I took this course my portrait paintings often seemed bland and flat, even though I wanted them to sparkle.
Now my work has truly gone up a level!
I feel free to embrace my love of form and color to create strong, dynamic portraits that reflect the subject's personality. The course absolutely helped me, especially the techniques demonstrating lighting and photographing the subject. Alain’s teaching has encouraged me to embrace my love of color and I now feel empowered to experiment with various colors and edges, and will use this knowledge throughout my work."
Gigi
"I wanted to learn how to achieve more likeness in any portrait I do. This course teaches the foundations of measurement and how to use thumbnails, value sketches, and color studies successfully in planning the entire process.
This was a real WIN for me!
"Alain is thorough, patient, encouraging and has the knowledge to move anyone who takes his course seriously to a much higher level of expertise".
Darlene
Margaret
"I was excited to follow through on the lessons and finish two portraits to the best of my present ability. I'm not as intimidated by how to choose and apply skin colors, and I have more confidence in rendering with measuring. I would recommend this class to anyone at any level. The information and demos are so full of content and direction."
Jenifer
"This course helped me tremendously! I stepped way out of my comfort zone, tried new things, and had a blast doing it. Alain makes the process of portrait painting with pastels so enjoyable, quickly building my skills and confidence."
Marilee
"Although I have painted in pastels for over a decade, I was always afraid to tackle portraits. I got the courage to sign up for Alain's course and was rewarded by a more complete understanding of how to not only create a reasonable likeness, but also how to paint the face by adjusting the values. Now I have a reliable pathway ahead to keep on learning. I have wanted to learn how to do this all my life!"
Liza
"I've progressed greatly since before the course."
I can't believe it now takes me an hour or two to draw a portrait with good likeness instead of weeks. That's incredible right there. My color and value understanding went from zero to WOW.
Alain’s encouragement and the Facebook group really kept me motivated and driven to post every week's assignment. I spent between 3 and 10 hours a week painting.
Never in my life have I been able to do that before. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who seriously wants to improve their skills.
"I was captivated by the portraits Alain has painted and took this course because I wanted to learn to capture the essence of a person and tell their story with a picture.
The techniques I learned helped me to capture the likenesses of my subjects and that was a win for me.
Facial features are so much easier to express with value changes instead of hard lines and the extra lessons Alain gave on facial features were terrific. The step by step structure of this course and Alain’s great feedback will help you to overcome any fear of trying portraits.
I have already recommended this course to my friends!"
Cheryl
I took this course because I wanted to learn how to paint vibrant and painterly portraits in pastel. To help me achieve this goal, the course has taught me so much.
I have learned how to sketch proportions and angles without using a grid, and how and why thumbnails are so important in designing a composition.
It has also helped me to understand color families, how to apply pastels more thoughtfully, and how lighting can make a portrait exciting and dynamic. The roadmap Alain provides help in deciding when a painting is done, or whether it needs a bit more work. I would highly recommend this course.
Jennifer
"The work on skin tones was very helpful.
The most important thing for me was the work on values as I am really looking at portraits differently now because of the lessons.
I also understand the anatomy of the face better, especially the way the eye fits into the socket.
You will love the clear instruction, the demonstrations, the detail, and the amount of materials that you can go back to as often as you need."
Carolyn
Elizabeth
"The course is fabulous, and my painting has improved dramatically. Alain is an excellent and patient teacher who gives honest and positive feedback. I learned new skills and was encouraged to paint subjects I had no idea I could or would ever paint. Words cannot express my gratitude to Alain for his continued interest in new and developing artists at all levels and stages of learning."
Amber
"This course was amazing!!! I had never painted a portrait, nor did I even draw a face before. Alain's instruction and demonstrations were excellent. Before I didn't have any confidence in my artistic abilities and hid a lot of my work away. My confidence and eagerness to create have grown significantly. It is an excellent course and gives you all the tools you need to create a beautiful portrait from start to finish."
LLeanna
"This course helped me learn to paint faster and more confidently and to not rework a piece to death! I was able to paint 4 paintings that I love in a fraction of the time it would have taken me to produce just one. Whatever your skill level, you won’t believe how much better you will be at the end of this course."
"This course has given me the tools I need to reach my goals in portrait painting.
Though I've taken portrait training courses before, this course has more complete content and teaches technical skills more fully than I have received elsewhere.
This course is a MUST for portrait artists. It provides what you need, not only to execute the portrait, but to organize your studio, set up lighting and materials, plan your portrait, etc. Additionally, it is flexible, so that if you can't do the lessons at the time they are first offered, you can still go back to them later, and even repeat them many times if necessary. I also appreciate that you do not have to travel anywhere to do this, so you can schedule it in, one way or the other. It's worth many times the money and time invested! Wonderful!" Karla
"Although I have had the pleasure of working with several teachers over the years, this was a whole new experience.
I had been restless with my pastel portraits which were becoming tight and lacking energy and sure came to the right place to learn how to make them more expressive and exciting!
This was the most comprehensive, thoughtfully developed course I have ever taken and I cannot say enough about it. Alain has created a unique, nurturing, encouraging environment for Artists of every level.
It truly was one of the most uplifting experiences of my Art development and my personal life." Marcia
"I would recommend this course to artists of all levels.
This is a fantastic course that gives you fundamental knowledge and a complete roadmap to follow for creating painterly portraits.
I admire Alain for his beautiful art and teaching methods. I learned a lot about composition, design, pastel application, using skin tone color, sculpting and turning the form with tints, tones and shades, lost and broken edges and the painterly style." Nataly
Catherine
"This course fills in the places that we didn't know needed filling in: the knowledge about color, backgrounds, thumbnails, planning a portrait. Each person will find something that will make them a better painter."
I can see that my portraits have more accuracy. The faces have volume. I'm much better at suggesting a feature rather than drawing it in. I have a much better sense of how to find a good photo and emphasize the lights and darks. I have a lot of little faces that I did prior to this course to compare my current work to.
"I have moved to a different level in a very short time."
"This course has been incredible. It is so well structured, clearly demonstrated, and flexible to meet the individuals' needs. The feedback and support is very good.
My portraits have improved in the 3 dimensional aspect and I can draw the features of the face with better accuracy.
I have seen a huge improvement in my work and the work of my fellow artists from doing this course."
Annmarie
Linda
"I have struggled with creating interesting backgrounds, so I can say I experienced an aha moment with Alain's instruction on creating backgrounds that enhance the subject.
That was definitely helpful. I find that I am able to paint looser and more expressively with pastels than I am acrylics. I experienced wins in many ways, but most importantly in the more painterly approach and the ability to create more likeness of the subject."
Katrina
"No matter what level you are starting at, you will be able to see improvement during one of Alain’s courses if you do the work. Alain and Mirjam are pros at creating a welcoming and supportive course atmosphere full of joy and celebration of you as an artist.
I've seen improvements in my painting, and I'm no longer intimidated by rendering people."
Mitch
"With Alain’s direction and encouragement, I have taken immense steps forward with my paintings, my knowledge of materials, my ability to choose a cohesive color palette, and my approach to the subject with meaning and thought.
I have watched my painting skills grow in leaps and bounds as I learned techniques in mark making with linear and side stroke marks. I finally painted a portrait of my wife that she really likes. A big thanks for that, Alain."
"My confidence was zero on week one, but now, I feel very confident when I approach the easel and ready to tackle a project.
The biggest thing I learned is to plan my project instead of just diving right into a piece. Alain is a wonderful instructor! The course is a college level art school course and filled with pertinent and essential information for painters. Even someone who hasn't studied art, color theory, etc. would benefit from the amount of material taught in this class. And to have lifetime access to the material is awesome. I would highly recommend to anyone looking to further their artistic skills to take this class!
Lisa
