Learn and Master Painting Review

Learn and Master Painting

When I was very young, I had the dream of learning how to paint. I had attempted painting with some really cheap watercolors I got from school with mixed success, but never abandoned the idea that one day I would learn how to paint using “real” paints, namely acrylics and oils. Many years later, I discovered Learn and Master Painting. The course seemed to offer exactly what I desired to learn and I decided to give it a try.

A pleasant surprise for me was that Learn and Master Painting was that it didn’t assume any prior artistic knowledge or painting experience, unlike some books and videos I’d come across. For instance, something as simple as how and what to use to clean the oil paints from my brushes was something I had no clue about.

One thing that amazed me about the course was the fact that, although it taught all the basics (such as the parts of the brush, how to clean up after projects, how to organize your palette, etc) it took me very quickly to a place where I felt like I had sufficient know-how to begin doing my own simple paintings. By lesson 3, I’d already completed my first picture, and by lesson 6, I’d already started painting a more complex still life on canvas. Despite the fact that I had just barely picked up the brush, I liked my canvas painting enough to frame it and put it up in my living room.

Features

How the Course is Organized:

The Learn and Master Painting course has 26 lessons contained on the 20 DVDs, which you should move through sequentially, as new lessons build on the previous ones.

At the beginning of each teaching, the instructor gives a summary of what you’ll learn in the lesson, as well as a list of the supplies you’ll need. I appreciated the fact that the list came up on the screen, which gave me opportunity to pause the DVD and gather my materials at the start of each lesson.

Each lesson includes a "You're ready to move on" session which gives you a list of concepts or techniques taught in the lesson which you must have completed and have a solid understanding of in order to continue with the next lesson. It also has an assignment with each lesson that should be accomplished.

Lesson Format:

The DVDs in the course are high-quality and have three different camera views. A general, wide landscape view that shows the instructor, her taboret, and her canvas, and the same view of the latter, only from the side, and close-up views of the canvas, still life setups, or her palette. There were times in the lessons that the instructor's arm or hand blocked some of the view. The camera should've switched to a different view so I could see more clearly what she was doing. There were also a couple spots where the camera could have taken advantage of zooming in so I could see more clearly what she was talking about. Sometimes when the camera did zoom in, it was a very fast shot and I had to pause that portion of the video lesson to study what the instructor was doing. All in all though, I had very few issues with how the lessons were shot.

Lessons are divided into a chapter format, and the lessons range from around 30 minutes to around 2 hours. Since that is a large range in terms of lesson time, it would've been nice if the times of each lesson could've been printed in the lesson book or on the CD for time scheduling purposes.

There were a couple things that they added to the DVD lessons that really enhanced the course. They often used computer animations to illustrate the differences of the basic colors on the color wheel in hue, value, and chroma, which could’ve been confusing without the computerized illustrations. These illustrations were often used throughout the course, and made color concepts very easy to understand. Additionally, at times when still life was painted, they often had the still life setup shown in the corner of the screen while she painted it. I could understand what and why she was painting when I saw both views at clearly at the same tie. When the still life was shown on the screen and Gayle was emphasizing a place where light was or a certain paint shade, there would be an arrow pointing to the subject.

Definitions of types of art terms and techniques would be displayed on screen when she was initially explaining a term. Seeing the definitions helped fully cement the concepts into my head. Often, when explaining color theory or a type of technique, they illustrated the concepts with pictures of classical art.

The instructor never really has any boring or blank spots in the videos. You don't feel like you have to fast forward or just sit and wait. There's always something to listen to. Gayle continually adds her own personal insights and shares her artistic experiences which I really benefited from.

Online Community Site:

Another nice feature of Learn and Master Painting is their online community where you can upload pictures of your artwork and get critiques and reaction from other students and even instructor Gayle herself! You can also ask questions about particular lessons if you want.

Extra Tools and Features:

The course comes with 3 music CDs that you can listen to while you paint, each with a different genre of music. They are classical, contemporary and soundtrack. Definitely a nice touch.

Also included is the supplemental lesson book. I personally, found the book extremely helpful to use as a guide when following along, learning extra tips it highlights, and for referring to when I didn't want to watch the lesson over again. The book was very well put together and fun to use. It had a lot of colorful pictures and illustrations, a glossary, and a lot of the information I learned on the DVD. There was room for scribbling notes on the side or bottom of the pages.

Support

If you have customer service related questions, you can phone or email customer service at Legacy Learning Systems and get a response within 48 hours.

As mentioned earlier, Learn and Master Painting members also have anytime access to a special member’s only forum, where you can post questions about your paintings.

Ordering Information

When ordering Learn and Master Painting you are limited to the major credit cards (They don’t currently accept PayPal or Google Checkout). If you are on a slightly tighter budget, they do give you the option to buy using a 3 equal payment plan, though there is a nominal administration fee to consider.

Like all Legacy Learning System's products, Learn and Master Painting includes a 2 month money-back guarantee. If you choose to send the course back for any reason, you'll get 100% of your money back (minus return shipping fees). I personally don’t believe you’ll need to take advantage of that guarantee, but we agree that it’s always nice to have that security blanket so to speak.

Conclusion

All in all, I really loved this painting course. I found the instructor very easy to understand and I enjoyed her teaching style. It was rare that I needed to pause the DVD to catch up because she goes at a pace I could easily work with. When I did my first serious painting early on in the course, I was nervous about doing a painting on an actual canvas, but Gayle broke everything down to digestible bite sizes so I knew that I could handle it. Gayle Levee takes the overwhelming thought of doing a painting in the style of the old masters, and makes it a doable and enjoyable experience. Although some people might find it redundant how she constantly reminds the listener to do basic things she's already explained (like wiping your brush clean before you use a new color), I personally appreciated the reminders. I liked how she explained in great detail what she was doing, why she was doing it, and extra tips to make techniques easier to master.

This course gave me a new appreciation for art. I started looking at nature differently and became more aware of the different textures, colors, contrasts, shadows, and lighting in everyday life. I now look at a painting or a beautifully decorated room and know why the colors or composition draw me in and why I like it. Beauty that I see make me want to capture it and portray it on canvas or paper.

With the skills that I've learned through this course, I now have the abilities to do this. I don’t yet consider myself an amazing painter, but thanks to Learn and Master Painting I have a wealth of information and painting skills to become an accomplished artist. As with any form of art, it takes time, practice, and dedication to become a master, but I feel that Learn and Master Painting gave me a great head start and I highly recommend it!

Official Learn & Master Painting Website