Turning Heads: Intro to Oil Painting Hair

Hair has always been one of the most psychologically loaded subjects in figurative painting — and one of the most technically misunderstood. In this six-week course, you’ll learn to approach hair not as individual strands to render, but as form, light, and mass — studying braids, curls, and coils the way the Old Masters did. Working in the indirect oil painting method, you’ll begin with black-and-white grisaille and build toward full color, using the back of a subject’s head as your motif — a compositional choice with a long and quietly powerful tradition in art history.

Each class session includes a live demo, examples drawn from art history, and dedicated studio time on your own painting. Along the way, we’ll discuss the structure of the skull and neck, how light moves across complex hair forms, and what it means — emotionally and conceptually — to paint a figure who is turned away.

Open to beginner and intermediate oil painters. Limited to 6 students.

Material list will be provided upon registration.

Class Dates:

Sept. 3

Sept. 10

Sept. 17

Sept. 24

Oct. 1

Oct. 8

Class time:

6:00 PM – 8:30 PM

Price: $300 for the full series, or $65 per session