REVIEW:                        Rated 5.5 out of 10  

How to Paint Oils with Andre Grobler

The Goal Of The Course:

This course is designed to teach oil painting using video.

Who Will Benefit Most From These Painting Videos?

Students with advanced-beginner through intermediate skills are best suited for this course. These video lessons are probably not ideal for rank beginners because they too quickly cover the details of how to set up your painting supplies. Nothing at all was mentioned about how to set up your art studio from scratch.

This painting course is not appropriate for children.

About The Instructor Andre Grobler

According to the information on his dvd jackets, Andre Grobler is a retired, South African painter and master teacher of over 43 years. He has painted over 20,000 paintings in his long career.

A Partial List Of The Lessons

The videos that can be directly downloaded from the internet cover the following subjects:

The Fundamental Techniques; 1. Painting with Oils, 2. Tone, 3. Color Mixing

How to Paint In Oil; Nudes I & 2, Boats, Fisherman and Boats, Landscapes 1 & 2, The Blacksmith, Still Life, The Sea, Spotted Cats, Wild Life, Bay Scenes and Portraits

The same sixteen lessons listed above are also available in 2 lessons packs each containing 2 dvds. All 16 lessons (8 twin packs) can be purchase all at once for a substantial discount.

The Negatives

The downloadable version of the How To Paint Oils video series, while less expensive than the dvd versions, are too grainy, have poor color rendering and suffer from poor audio quality. It is also necessary to download and install a special free video player in order to play these versions of the videos.

The publishers website is unprofessional and confusing. It took a while to decipher what exactly was for sale and how to order. Purchasing the downloadable videos is pretty straight forward. Just click on a title on the home page and it takes you to a PayPal site where you can use a credit card or a cash balance.

The dvd twin packs are located on the second page. The prices and jacket cover photos are clear to see but it is not clear how to buy them. I can only assume that you must email the company for that information. This has to be one of the poorest designs for a commercial website I have ever seen.

The videos that deal with the fundamental techniques of oil painting are useful but, are just not thorough enough to get rank beginners off to a good start. It also appears that more teaching time could be spent on fundamentals like perspective. However, a more advanced student with some painting experience already may be able to benefit.

This course only teaches painting with oils and does not include information on acrylics or water mixable oils.

No refunds are offered for the downloadable versions of the lessons. The company’s position seems to be that electronic files cannot really be returned so no refunds. This is not a useful or standard internet business practice.

The Positives

The instructor, Andre Grobler, is the real deal. He is professional, highly experienced, talented and a thoughtful instructor.

Short sample versions of many of the videos are available by clicking on the “Free Videos” link on the main page of the publisher’s website.

Support

An email address is offered for addressing questions.

The Price

Individual videos can be purchased for immediate download over the internet for $9 USD each.

Twin pack DVDs (sets of 2 DVDs) can be purchased for $27.00 each or in a combination of 8 twin packs for $159 USD. This works out to be about $19.88 each pack.

No payment plans are available.

Guarantee:

There is no guarantee for the downloadable version of the lessons. There seems to be a return policy for the dvd version but their website gives no details.

The Bottom Line

The downloadable videos are of such poor quality that they are almost useless. As a result they are just not worth purchasing. This is really too bad because this method of delivery drastically cuts the cost and makes it possible for more students to be exposed to Andre Grobler’s vast experience and ideas.

The quality is much improved with the dvd versions of the lessons but they are still not quite as detailed as a new student might require. They are also awkward to purchase and have an unclear return policy.

Because of these problems and due to the availability of other more thorough and polished painting courses, I cannot recommend the Andre Grobler How to Paint Oils Video Lessons.

For more details about this course, testimonials, to view photos of the author's paintings or to buy, just follow this link: How to Paint Oils With Andre Grobler