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Will Kemp Art School

How to Paint a Stunning Oil Portrait Using Classical Techniques, Even If You've Never Held a Brush

Step-by-step video courses from a QEST Scholar trained in Florence. Over 280,000 painters are already learning alongside Will.

280K+ YouTube Subscribers
24M+ Video Views
21+ Courses
Will Kemp self-portrait, oil painting
Picture this.

A Painting on Your Wall That You Made Yourself

Guests stop mid-conversation to look at it. "Where did you get that?" they ask. And you get to say, simply, "I painted it." Not from a kit. Not tracing someone else's work. A real painting, in oil or acrylic, made with techniques that go back centuries. You learned them sitting at your kitchen table, at your own pace, from an artist who studied in Florence.

A cozy artist's studio in a bright coastal cottage, paintbrushes and canvas ready

You Bought the Paints. You Watched the Videos. And Your Canvas Still Looks Like Mud.

"I followed every step. Why doesn't mine look like theirs?"

You picked up a set of acrylics from the art shop. Maybe some oils too. You found a free tutorial, squeezed out some paint, and tried to follow along. Thirty minutes later, the sky was grey-brown, the shadows had no depth, and the whole thing looked flat.

So you tried another video. And another. Each one assumed you already knew something. Colour mixing. Brush control. How to stop everything turning to mud when you blend. Nobody explained those parts. They just painted, beautifully, while you sat there wondering what you were doing wrong.

The brushes went back in the drawer. The canvas went behind the wardrobe. And the quiet thought settled in: maybe painting just isn't for you.

A frustrated beginner painter looking at a muddy, overworked canvas

The tubes get pushed aside. The canvas faces the wall. Sound familiar?

It is not your fault. The problem is not talent. The problem is that most painting tutorials skip the foundations entirely. They show you the finished product and expect you to reverse-engineer the process.

Classical painting was taught for centuries through a structured system: observation first, then materials, then technique. Will Kemp's courses follow that same path. You start with what you can see, not what you're supposed to produce.

Will Kemp at his easel in his St Ives studio Will in his studio, St Ives, Cornwall
Your Instructor

Will Kemp

Professional Artist, QEST Scholar, Online Painting Teacher

Will was born in Canterbury, Kent, and knew he wanted to paint from the age of nine, when he won a set of colouring pencils on Tony Hart's television programme for a drawing of the Taj Mahal.

He went on to study Fine Art at degree level, then trained in classical Atelier painting methods at the Angel Academy of Art and Charles Cecil Studios in Florence. In 2010, the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust awarded him a craft scholarship to study sight-size portraiture in Florence.

Before launching Will Kemp Art School, he worked as a Curriculum Development Officer in the arts, running projects with the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery, and the Arts Council. He set up a studio gallery with his wife Vanessa in a converted teapot factory. Today, he teaches from a studio by the sea in St Ives, Cornwall.

  • BA (Hons) Conceptual Fine Art
  • QEST Craft Scholar, 2010
  • Trained at Charles Cecil Studios, Florence
  • Former Curriculum Development Officer, Museums Sector
  • 280,000+ YouTube subscribers, 24M+ views since 2012
The Courses

Classical Painting Techniques, Taught Simply

21 self-paced video courses covering acrylics, oils, drawing, and portraiture. Every course breaks the process into small, concrete steps. You paint alongside Will, pausing and replaying as you go. No assumed knowledge. No skipped foundations.

What You'll Learn

Courses Built Around Real Painting Skills

Each course is a complete painting project. You start with a blank canvas and finish with a piece you can frame.

Oil Portrait Colour Glazing Course
01 / Oil Portraits

Oil Portrait Colour Glazing Course

Traditional glazing techniques and Old Master methods for portraiture. Build luminous skin tones through transparent colour layers, the same approach used by Rembrandt and Vermeer.

  • Classical glazing and scumbling methods
  • Natural-looking portrait skin tones
  • Old Master colour layering techniques
Absolute Beginners Acrylic Course
02 / Acrylic Foundations

Absolute Beginners Acrylic Course

Designed for painting procrastinators. This course builds your confidence by introducing one concept at a time, with practical demonstrations that make each technique concrete before moving to the next.

  • Overcome blank canvas anxiety
  • Colour mixing without the mud
  • Brushwork fundamentals that carry into every course
Acrylic Portrait Course
03 / Acrylic Portraits

Acrylic Portrait Course

Three different colour portraits tackling natural skin tones, with over 4.5 hours of focused tuition. Move from flat, lifeless faces to portraits with real depth and warmth.

  • Subtle skin tone mixing in acrylics
  • Three complete portrait projects
  • 4.5+ hours of step-by-step tuition
Absolute Beginners Oil Painting Course
04 / Oil Foundations

Absolute Beginners Oil Painting Course

Over 5 hours covering the essentials of oil painting. Materials, cleaning, drying times, and colour mixing addressed directly. No confusion about linseed oil, turpentine, or which brushes to buy.

  • 5+ hours of foundational oil technique
  • Materials demystified (no guesswork)
  • From blank canvas to finished painting
Simple Colour Mixing Acrylic Course
05 / Colour Mastery

Simple Colour Mixing Acrylic Course

Practical colour theory without the academic overload. Learn to mix the exact colours you see in front of you, not the colours a textbook tells you should be there.

  • Mix any colour from a limited palette
  • Understand warm vs. cool relationships
  • Stop guessing, start seeing
How to Paint a Monet Landscape Course
06 / Impressionist Landscapes

How to Paint a Monet Landscape

An Impressionist landscape study working directly from Monet's palette and brushwork. Learn to capture light and atmosphere with loose, confident strokes.

  • Monet's colour palette decoded
  • Impressionist brushwork techniques
  • Landscape composition and depth
Included Free

Sign Up Today and Get These Free

Three practical resources designed to remove every barrier between you and your first painting.

These are just example free bonuses meant to increase conversion rates on your main offer. This has been the difference between getting a 1x breakeven for my clients and getting a 4x return.

The Colour Mixing Pocket Reference

This doesn't exist yet. Vincent will build all of these for you. Scroll down to learn more.

Free Bonus

The Colour Mixing Pocket Reference

A laminated A5 reference card showing the exact paint colours Will uses across all his courses. Organised by subject (portraits, landscapes, still life) with mixing recipes for skin tones, natural greens, and sky blues. Sits next to your easel and eliminates guesswork.

Printable PDF, wallet card + full-page version
The 30-Day Painting Habit Tracker

This doesn't exist yet. Vincent will build all of these for you. Scroll down to learn more.

Free Bonus

The 30-Day Painting Habit Tracker & Studio Setup Guide

A 28-page guide split into two parts. Part 1: how to set up a painting space in any room (kitchen table, spare bedroom, even a closet). Part 2: a 30-day tracker with daily 15-minute exercises designed to build confidence before you start a full course.

Digital guide, 28 pages, printable PDF
The Beginner's Art Supply Buyer's Cheat Sheet

This doesn't exist yet. Vincent will build all of these for you. Scroll down to learn more.

Free Bonus

The Beginner's Art Supply Buyer's Cheat Sheet

Exactly what to buy (and what NOT to buy) for acrylics, oils, and drawing. Organised by course with specific brand recommendations at three price tiers and links to UK and US retailers. Includes a "don't waste your money on these" warning list.

Printable PDF, single-page cheat sheet + 8-page expanded version
Wait.

That was a redesign of your course pages based on another page I made that generates $4 for every dollar spent.

Here's who built it, and why.

Vincent Nguyen

Vincent Nguyen, Growth Ninja

Full-Service Paid Growth for Founder-Led Brands

I run Facebook and Instagram ads for founder-led education businesses.

My clients are people like you: creators and educators who have built real audiences through years of hard work, great content, and word of mouth. They come to me when they are ready to pour fuel on what is already working.

I'm selective. The business has to genuinely help people, the customers have to love it, and I have to feel proud if someone found out I was behind the ads. Will Kemp Art School checks every box.

Since January 2026

Not hypothetical. Not from three years ago. These happened in the last few months.

New York Times Bestseller.

Got a client onto the New York Times bestseller list. He had been chasing that goal on his own for over a decade. I built the campaign that finally got him there.

New York Times bestseller campaign

$1M in 11 Days.

Generated nearly $1,000,000 in revenue through Facebook ads alone for a single client, in just 11 days. Same client, same product. Better strategy, better creative, better pages.

Revenue dashboard showing nearly $1M

Sold Out a Live Event, Pro Bono.

Ran a volunteer campaign for a live event. Sold out every seat at 3x ROAS. I did it for free because I believed in the event.

Live event campaign results

Created My Own Offer From Scratch.

Launched ads in beginning of March 2026 and already grossed $26K in the last 30 days.

Own offer grossed $26K in 30 days
11+ Years Running Ads Full-time, not a side gig
5+ yrs Avg. Client Retention Longest partnership: 2017. People stay because the math works.
How I Work

100% Performance-Based. Since January 2015.

I don't charge if it's not profitable. That's not a tagline. It's been the deal for over eleven years.

"You Cover the Ad Spend. I Earn My Keep."

I take a percentage of the growth I bring in, only after the math works. After ad spend. After your expenses. After my fee. If it's not profitable after everything is accounted for, where you make more than I do, I don't charge. That's why I only take on clients I'm confident I can deliver for. I never spend just to spend.

"Full-Service. Not Just Ads."

Facebook ads management is the core, but I also build the landing pages, create the ad visuals, and develop new bonuses designed to lift conversion rates on both the ads and the offer. Everything on this pitch page, the design, the copy, the bonus kit, is the kind of work I do for every client.

"You Keep Everything. No Strings."

Every page, bonus, and creative asset I build is yours. Use it for organic traffic, email campaigns, wherever. No exclusivity clauses, no extra percentages. If something I made helps your audience through a channel I'm not running, that's a win.

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This Is What Your Ads Would Look Like

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Will Kemp Art School
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My first painting was terrible. Brown mud where the sky should have been. A landscape that looked like a dropped lasagne. But the problem wasn't talent. It was that nobody showed me how colour mixing actually works. How to load a brush properly. How to build a painting in layers instead of smearing everything at once. Will Kemp studied classical painting in Florence. He's taught alongside the Tate Gallery. And he breaks everything down so clearly that his students, many who'd never held a brush, are now winning awards at exhibitions. 280,000+ people are learning with him. The courses start at just 35 pounds.
Woman proudly holding her completed landscape painting
willkempartschool.com
Your First Real Painting Starts Here
Step-by-step video courses from a Florence-trained artist
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Email Vincent vincent@growthninja.com