There are hundreds of instructional videos and painting demonstrations for purchase on the web and I don’t want to question their use. They are mostly narrated and good ones also show the palette and the colors that are used throughout the painting process. For example Cesar Santos’ video (LINK) is a very good one with hours of instruction. Also Scott Waddell’s instructional videos are very excellent and I like them very much (I wrote about it here).
But there is also a lot of free material on the web from which you can learn from. Some of them come with instructions by the painter and some are only videos with background music. But either of them show you their approach.
Here are some Alla Prima portrait painting demonstrations. Note that all go from the general to the specific! None of them starts by trying to make one eye perfect, then the other eye, then the mouth ect. They all start with a rough approximation of their subject by blocking in. The more the painting develops the more precise the brush strokes are. Remember that this is all about making corrections! You can’t make everything perfect with one stroke – a painting develops. This is true for the drawing as well as for color choices.
Have fun – but don’t forget to paint on your own. You won’t become a master without practice 😉
In case you know of other great free painting demonstrations please feel free to write it in the comments below!
Chinese Master Painter painting a life size portrait of a man – I very much like the classical background music (2:37h):
Another Chinese Master painting a young girl – not really Alla Prima but rather with a white unterpainting. Make sure to watch all of the 4 parts (over 4 hours)!
The Chinese really mean it – here’s another one (1:20h). The ‘Fine Art Academy’ channel brings new content regularly.
Check out Yupari’s channel on YouTube. He is uploading videos of ~ 1-2h length regularly. Here is one example video: