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Mark Thompson – Old Master Techniques through a Contemporary Lens (Online); Thursdays, July 24-August 7, 2025

This class was held in the past and is no longer available for registration. Please view our Online Course Catalog for current class listings.

Dates: Thursdays, July 24-August 7, 2025
Time: 10:00 am-12:30 pm Pacific Time, 1:00 pm-3:30 pm Eastern Time, 6:00 pm-8:30 pm UK Time
Level: All
Medium: Oil or acrylics

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Are you looking for a way to bring depth and lustre to your paintings? Then this is the course for you! Over our three sessions, Mark Thompson will introduce his practice, breaking the process down into what can be both a fully formed process as well as the jumping off point into further exploration. Informed by the indirect methods of the old masters alongside contemporary knowledge and application, Mark will demonstrate the formation of an image from underpainting to glazing and scumbling. Over the weeks you will become familiar with the character of pigments and mediums, and learn not just which brush to choose, but how to wield it!

Week 1: Surfaces and Underpainting – choosing both a substate and a palette, understanding warms and cools, decoding source material.

Week 2: Pigments and Glazing – getting to grips with transparent and opaque pigments, optical mixing, choosing a medium, pushing energy into the surface.

Week 3: Developing the paint and moving forward – an exploration of scumbling techniques, which brushes work best, and allowing evolution into your practice.

Throughout the course, Mark will employ his passion for art history, using specific examples to illustrate methods and spark your desire for further learning. Whilst the course focuses on Oil, most methods can be translated to Acrylics.

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