Online Portrait Art Classes
& Artist Mentoring
Upcoming Online Course
Likeness and Beyond:
The Underlying Logic of Great Painting.
Class starts on June 6th
An integrated approach to image-making in which drawing, color, composition, lighting, form, paint handling, and strategic thinking are understood not in isolation, but in relationship to one another.
DRAWING DEMO
LAYERED PAINTING DEMO
Layered painting demo
ALLA PRIMA DEMO
Painting Instruction
A Radical Rethinking
Art is far too often taught in a fragmented way, with an emphasis placed on isolated parts rather than their interrelationship. Obviously, a deeper understanding of each part strengthens the whole. What finally became clear to me is that the reverse is also true. The more clearly you see the whole, the more each aspect is informed by it. Drawing, color, composition, light, form, paint handling, and strategic thinking are best understood not in isolation, but in relationship to one another. The result is greater freedom of choice, which is at the root of all creativity. This course grew out of that realization.Whether you are just beginning or have been painting for years, this integrated approach can deepen your understanding and elevate the quality of your work.
The more clearly you see the whole, the more each aspect is informed by it.
One of the greatest teachers ever.
Marvin Mattelson changes the lives of anyone paying attention.
Marvin's fully articulated live class demonstrations offer a glimpse into the practical working methods at the core of Likeness and Beyond: The Underlying Logic of Portrait Painting. More than a portrait course, it is a treatise in picture making through the lens of portraiture. Together, these demonstrations reflect three of the interconnected modes of instruction - drawing, indirect (aka layered painting), and alla prima (aka, direct painting) - but the course goes well beyond these alone. It is the most comprehensive class Ihe has taught to date, integrating all the essential aspects of portrait painting into a more complete whole, from process and materials to visual structure, color, and pictorial decision-making.
PORTRAIT BY MARY BETH LUMLEY
one-on-one instruction
Private Mentoring
For students seeking more individualized guidance, private mentoring offers focused one-to-one instruction tailored to your current level, goals, and working process. These sessions are designed to clarify problems, strengthen decision-making, and move your work forward with greater confidence, direction, and purpose.
learning process
Marvin's Teaching Approach
To paint well, one must learn to think well. As Michelangelo observed, a man paints with his brain, not with his hand.
Marvin considers himself a lazy perfectionist. As Carolus-Duran, Sargent’s teacher, stated, “Achieve the maximum by means of the minimum.” A skeptic by nature, Marvin has explored virtually every imaginable path in search of what is most effective. He questions conventional thinking, accepts no rhetoric on faith, and is always looking for a more efficient and productive way to achieve the strongest possible result. This applies not only to his own work, but especially to his teaching.
His teaching is rooted in the conviction that painting is not merely a collection of techniques, but an organized way of seeing, understanding, and making decisions. Technique matters, but technique without understanding can take an artist only so far. His aim is to help students grasp the underlying logic that connects drawing, structure, proportion, color, light, composition, materials, process, and strategic thinking, so that their work becomes not only more skillful, but more coherent, expressive, and alive.
Through real-time demonstration, close analysis, and practical application, he guides students toward a fuller understanding of how a painting is built and why each stage of the process matters. Although the course is taught through portraiture, the principles it addresses are not limited to portrait painting alone. The underlying logic of picture-making is universal, and what students learn here can be applied far beyond portraiture itself.
