Introduction to Classical Oil Painting

Discover the sensuous beauty of classical oil painting techniques and be guided through a series of structured exercises and demonstrations of methods and specific ways of using materials. Learn the basic skills of oil painting, including preparation of supports, coloured grounds, tonal underpainting, setting the palette, colour mixing, paint handling and structuring paint in layers.

* NAS Short Courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. The NAS Art Club is open to students from ages 15 years and over. 

* Drawing and painting short courses may be held in upstairs studios. If access to stairs is not suitable, please contact us at short.courses@nas.edu.au 

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below. 

Michelle Hiscock is an expert in the history of painting techniques, materials, and methods. She is represented by Australian Galleries and has exhibited nationally for over thirty years. Michelle has been a Painting Lecturer at the National Art School since 1998. She has also given many lectures and demonstrations, run classes on historical techniques and conducted floor talks and tours for the Art Gallery of NSW.

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

Please bring your favourite portable sketching materials for the sketching session on the first day and a pencil and paper for note-taking.

• Palette knife (diamond shaped like a trowel)
• Palette (Michelle kindly loans students a palette for use in this course)
• Tube of white acrylic paint (Matisse ‘Structure’ is recommended)
• Cotton cloth rags (old sheets are best)
• Paper towel
• Refined linseed oil at least 250ml
• Disposable gloves (optional; vinyl is better than latex)
• Small glass jar with lid
• Masking tape
• Scissors

Note: Do not bring solvents or mediums. A low-odour painting medium will be provided.

Painting Supports: Please purchase a stretched canvas of approx. 30 x 40cm.

Brushes: Please bring all the brushes you currently own. Ultimately, it is preferable to have 5 or more of each brush you like to use rather than a whole lot of completely different brushes. 

If you are buying brushes for the first time we recommend the following as a minimum:

• 3 flat synthetic or natural hog hair brushes approx. 8mm wide
• 1 round, pointed, synthetic sable brush approx. 5mm wide
• 1 flat, synthetic sable brush approx. 15mm wide

Oil paints: We are using a low-toxicity approach. Do not bring cobalt, chrome, cadmium or lead-based pigments.

The following is a suggested list of paint colours. The painting you choose to do might only require a limited selection of colours so please bring the paints you already have and discuss with Michelle before purchasing additional paints.

• Titanium white (professional grade only; e.g. Old Holland, Winsor and Newton or Art Spectrum)
• Bright yellow (e.g., Winsor yellow, Spectrum yellow – not cadmium)
• Bright red (e.g., Winsor red, Spectrum red – not cadmium)
• Yellow ochre or mars Yellow
• Venetian red or red earth
• Raw sienna
• Burnt sienna
• Raw umber
• Burnt umber
• Alizarin crimson
• Ultramarine blue
• Pthalo blue
• Ivory black

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.