Portraiture by Bouguereau: Painting Like the Masters

“One always learns by imitating”.
- Eugene Delacroix

This course is a great opportunity to learn how to elevate your own art of portraiture. 

We will be studying William-Adolphe Bouguereau by means of copying one of his paintings. His virtuosity of mixing the color of the flesh in such nuances that the bodies he paints seem to live and breath. Copying the Great Masters is what the Great Masters themselves had done to learn how to paint: they imitated the artists they admired; this alone should convince us that this is a good practice. If you truly want to develop YOUR style and achieve painter’s mastery, there is no better way to train your eye, enrich your palette, and develop a better technique, than by copying. Don’t let his brilliance intimidate you from your objective, which is to learn from the best. This ambition will help you become a competent artist faster.

Studying and recreating the greatest paintings in Art History is helpful not only for those who are learning, but for advanced artists as well. The word “copying” has a negative connotation for some artists; they think that their art must always be creative, but we disagree. For a growing artist that is eager to take their skills to the next level, they need to humbly “listen” to the great masters, as mentors. Then, artists will be able to take what they learned from the masters and apply it to their own art.

Suitable for all levels. Drawing experience is helpful. If you’ve completed the Essential Drawing Course for Beginners, consider yourself qualified to take this course, even if you’ve never done painting. If you’ve done the color-mixing courses at Prima Materia, this new course is the perfect follow-up that will help you apply what you’ve learned and expand it further.