So blessed to have you as my daughter's teacher at school!

Wonderful,thanks so much for your videos,you are a master! I painted a portrait of Marlon Brando,in all the colours under the sun,but got the values right,and it looks fab!😀

You make things look so easy, great artists always do. What makes you MY mentor is the way you deliver your message and break up fundamentals into separate lessons. I can then direct my focus on the theme and really see it happen in your demonstrations. Timing of your comments paired with the execution on your paper, to see it happen as you explain it is extremely beneficial to me. For this lesson, it clicked when you said "The only difference is, it's a bigger brush!..." The simple fact that we cannot attain photo-realistic perfection due to brush size seems logical but your rendition of the "imperfect" eye is a skill that I aspire to. I am grateful to have found your lessons. Thank you for sharing your insights. My drawing skills are good and help me attain likeness to my subject, but my stubbornness in using a small brush to lay down paint on large areas make those areas chaotic with unnecessary brush strokes that draw attention where not wanted. I now will practice painting with a larger brush and hopefully will be comfortable laying down color in large deliberate strokes, it would make my teacher so happy!

my gosh you are amazing!!! I like how truthful about time and accuracy because a lot of the u-tube videos speed the time up so one never really gets an idea of how much work is put into the painting/drawing. Then when I try to do as they did I get frustrated because it is looking so bad for so long!! I struggle with Value so your videos on that are very helpful, too. Thanks!!

Brilliant as always Stan. Thank you for sharing.

You are great artist and a great teacher! Thank you!

I just love your lessons!!! You have to post more! :) thank you!

I really like your sensible approach. Thank you from a Scottish learner.

I’m so excited to find you. Your teaching is easy to follow and understand. Many thanks !

Great video, I like the emphasis on drawing, color and value. Very helpful

You are Brilliant and you inspire me …. Thank you Sir!!!

Totally impressed with your teaching style! Thank you!

"the only thing magical about something realistic is that it takes forever" 👏👏👏

U r an unbelievable artist. Awesome

Wonderful! Thanks you so much for your videos, this is what I am looking for to improve my drawing skills

I did a series of US Presidents and I just don't remember it being that tedious. God Bless you because as patient as I am, I could not hang with an entire face at this pace. You deserve a standing ovation, lol.

You are a wonderful, interesting teacher. I would like to learn more about shading . I paint in oils.

Your instructions are fantastic, but it would be great if you have better video quality ( higher resolution )!

Three dollar brush/ million dollar hand:)

A paint with me series would be great

awesome way that teach us to use water colors... thank you a lot.

thaks..i really enjoy ur videos.

Very impressive job!

Great demo ,i use the squares or rounds to paint crystal.

...That was magic!

Great lesson. Thank you

Could you recommend a good printer/copier to purchase that gives high quality presentation in copying a photo from computer to the printer for a reference photo to use in painting? Also, what type of lighting is best to use when painting?

A great course thank you

Mr Stan, When you say red, yellow, blue, on what colors exactly do you think? Thanks you so much for your videos.

wow i learned a lot !!!!!

Awesome! Thank you

hi Stan,I paint realistically and impressionistically and sometimes abstract. How do you hone in your style? I'd say in general I like painting impressionistically the best. I feel like my breath of work is so all over the place. Thanks!

lthanks by yours videos What kind of paper you work Mr. Stan? In my country only sends some hot press and rough press.. Send my regard from Costa Rica.

👏🏼💥BRAVO💥👏🏼

sir, is there any difference using a round brush and a flat? i notice you use flat brush and i must admit is quite hard to control.tq for all the lessons

is seeing colors similar to drawing hands ? (extra hard compared to other stuff) because no matter how much i practice i cant see colors accurately...

Allô Stan, i would like to know what kind of paper are you using? And what kind of watercolor paint also. I just started using watercolor for painting and thank you for your video I am learning a lot 🙏💕💐👩‍🎨

If you want to paint realism, every single micro brush stroke is done as intended. Its really a matter of how much time you are willing to spend on a tiny square section. You are constantly reassessing value and color in ever little pixel and seeing if they match up with the original. Additionally, there is no illusion of detail because the intention is immaculate exactness. An artist would have such an attention to detail that the viewer should be confused about what sort of "technique" he used to paint it all. The secret? There is no "technique". Photo-realism is hard. There are few shortcuts and generally one tries to hide evidence of any painting at all. You cannot tell where the strokes are because colors/values are blended in to obliterate any. Impressionism on the other hand uses color and value contrast for effect (to make certain parts stand out and to create movement) and varied brushstroke lengths (usually small, thick strokes) but so many layers of them that one surface stroke seems to smear several unblended colors beneath the top layer. Looking at it up close as if it were a realistic painting, the colors dont make sense but are done intentionally (and maybe less precisely) for the purpose of creating color vibration at a distance. For example opposite colors such as yellow and purple seem like a bad idea, but if they alternate, they can produce an almost psychedelic look. Neither style is more difficult than an other. When done well, both are very difficult to master. Realism requires extreme focus and patience. It is time consuming but the goal is pretty straight forward. If your painting looks "childish" and unreal, its usually fairly easy to point out parts that need work or simply become even more engrossed in the pixilation. When an artist paints in the impressionistic style, planning is very important and improvisation is (at least in my opinion) crucial because the "goal" is constantly shifting with our changing taste. Impressionism is also heavily focused on technique. Also I should note that combining the styles turned out a disaster for me and generally speaking rarely works well.

you inspire me

Nice..keep it up

I have no problem painting realistically BUT I DO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH BACKGROUNDS. It may be because I've spent so many hours on the subject I get bored and want to finish it to get on to another painting. I use watercolors and Holbein Acrylic Gouache, sometimes adding color pencil on Aquabord. I love painting birds and wildlife but would like to get back to portraits.

How to get the color right ?

I've been illustrating regularly since 2012 and mainly work in portraiture. Everything I do is by eye and although i'm accurate enough to get things whereabouts they should be I never get them totally spot on. I used that simple measuring trick you said and instantly it's helped me ten fold!! I won't use graphs because I personally see it as cheating, and tracing, well I don't feel like you learn anything from that so I pride myself on being a freehand artist. This trick you just showed feels too simple for it not to be cheating, but valuable enough to do a better job without the headache of seeing where you're proportions are off. Thank you for sharing it!!! Why couldn't I have found this out sooner hahahah. THANKS!!

very good

I have heard by some impresionistic watercolour artist that copying and spending time to get exact detail to get it realistic is not the way of watercolours.

I know you said it doesn’t matter but I am just curious 😀

I’m always impressed with realistic painting but I always say to myself “why not take a photo”. Great lesson.

Perhaps the title of the video could be changed to "photo realism to realism". That would more accurately describe the process shown. The final " impressionistic" eye isn't really in the Impressionistic style. It is just less hyper- realistic...less photorealistic than the first painted eye.i consider the photorealistic painter to be more of a technician than an artist, really. Frankly, I don't " get" photorealistic painting. The painting looks exactly like the photo. Where is the art in that? There is great skill and mastery of the technical aspect of painting but those skills have not been employed to express or interpret what has been seen. Can a photorealistic painting be done without using a photo as it's source? When I look at a painting that is so realistic that I can't distinguish it from a photograph, I feel like the painter is saying " look what I can do!". I marvel at the technique but it ends there. The real test would be to take a black and white photo and paint it using color. Then the artist would need to understand all it takes to create a successful painting. He would have to know how to choose colors that harmonize, for example. How to use contrast to direct the attention. How a color is affected by those around it. How to paint shadows etc.

Who are those people that gave dislike to this video...now i know how many stupid existed.

I don't understand "value". In real life where there's light I kinda see it... but when painting... my brain don't get it. To me a lower value red... is just a different color red. At least that's how I realized my brain works while I paint. Maybe something is wrong with me.

Makes me wonder how the old masters did it before photography! A lot of people today use projectors and say it doesn't matter that they didn't draw it themselves--that the end justifies the means. I feel they are cheating themselves by making the projector their crutch and not developing their drawing skills. I'm not sure that's considered truly original or not, but some buyers don't seem to care. I learned to draw well when getting my BFA, but used the projector as a tool to reproduce my own drawing when studying Graphic Design. I started out doing realism, but have been striving to be more "painterly." Thanks for the good lessons!

The realist part is excellent. The impressionist part certainly isn't impressionist. He seems to think that impressionism is slightly sloppy realism. He has no idea what impressionism is and should study the impressionist works.