NMA - Portrait Painting for Beginners

https://www.nma.art/v3/course-catalog/courses/640269/

Welcome to the most structured and comprehensive portrait painting course ever produced. This course includes over 40 hours of video instruction, 24 self-study assignments, 27 painting demos, a color mixing guide PDF, and over 100 reference images to paint from.
Internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch teaches you everything you need to know to start making masterful portraits, including materials recommendations, how to finally nail color mixing, brushwork, and more!
This course leaves nothing to guesswork. Every concept is explained, demonstrated, and practiced until you have a handle on it, all presented in the format and quality that you have come to expect from New Masters Academy.

Instructor

Joseph Todorovitch is a contemporary painter immersed in the figurative subject matter. He explores painting through the lens of a naturalist's perspective. His work represents a breathing sense of light, space, time, and subtle narratives. His concern for the excellence of craftsmanship is balanced with the freedom to explore the playful side of paint application. He simultaneously pushes to create interest with surface abstraction and visual fidelity. The concert of the technical narrative, along with the implied theme of the subject matter, requires the viewer to complete the experience of a Todorovitch work of art.

Syllabus

1. Materials, Supports, Painting Basics
- If you are interested in learning how to paint the portrait in oils, you will need to know your materials from which brushes to buy, and how mediums work, to how to stretch your own canvases and prepare your wood panels. In this lesson, renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch will teach you how to make your […]
2. Grisaille Portrait Exercises
- Before learning how to paint with full color palettes, artists for centuries have begun using only a mixture of black and white paint known as grisaille. In this lesson internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch will teach you how to use this excellent training approach to help you learn how to mix and apply paint, simplify […]
3. Color Mixing Basics
- Color theory is a complex and often intimidating subject for artists. Without a clear road map, it’s easy to become lost and for your work to suffer as a result. Thankfully world-renowned artist Joseph Todorovitch will teach you the most essential information you need to paint figures and portraits. You will learn how to mix […]
4. Zorn and Extended Palette Painting Exercises
- How do value design and color design work together in a portrait? What is color temperature and how do you apply it? How do you keep your paintings from getting muddy, or unclear? These are many of the questions answered by internationally renowned painting Joseph Todorovitch, in this comprehensive lesson. As you did before in […]
5. Long Pose Portrait Demo
- Joseph will share his portrait painting process in a long-form demo from the live model, Joseph’s own niece. Building upon all of the previous lessons in his Portrait Painting for Beginner’s Course Joseph will now attempt to create a more finished work, in a very similar approach to how he would develop his own gallery […]
6. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Amanda
- After five lessons in the Portrait Painting for Beginners Course where you have learned the concepts, and basics of painting the portrait, it’s time to start to put it into practice with a series of timed portrait paintings, each with a new model. In this session, Joseph paints a two-hour oil portrait from life from […]
7. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Margaret
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Magaret. After a review lecture on color theory and mixing with Joseph, you will begin your portrait by using our provided reference images and following along with […]
8. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Jeff
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Jeff. This time, you have the option to paint the same pose as Joseph with the provided reference and go through the entire exercise following along stroke […]
9. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Tracey & Vanna
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Vanna (following along as Joseph paints another model, Tracey). With more painting experience under your belt, you will begin to focus on getting further in the allotting […]
10. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Ryder & Dorian
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Dorian (following along as Joseph paints another model, Ryder). You will focus on developing your focal point with more resolve than the rest of the painting. This […]
11. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Mather
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Mather. You have the option of painting the same post as Joseph, following along with the video demonstration stroke-for-stroke or you can choose your own pose and […]
12. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Amir & Brett
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Brett (following along as Joseph paints another model, Amir). If you choose to paint Amir, you’ll be challenged to work dark against a light background. Focus on […]
13. 2-Hour Portrait Assignment: Ariel
- This lesson is part of internationally renowned painter Joseph Todorovitch’s course, Portrait Painting for Beginners. In this session you will do a two-hour oil painting with our model Ariel. In Joseph’s demo this time he will begin more expressively and loosely, relying less on drawing and more on big brushwork. You have the option of […]
14. Final 4-Hour Portrait Assignment: Yoni
- In this final session, you will do a painting with our model Yoni. For the last nine poses you have limited yourself to only two hours for each portrait. This time set your timer to a full four hours and see how far you can develop your painting. Again, you have the choice to follow […]