Free workshop, recorded live

Use This Mixed Media Technique to Sell More Art

I underpaint in acrylic and finish in oil on top. It's the reason I can work fast enough to have paintings to sell. In this workshop I take about half the canvas into oil, so you can see both layers side by side.

Watch

Whenever you like, it's recorded

Where

The link comes to your inbox

Length

2 hours and 24 minutes

Price

Free

In You, He LivesDimitra Milan, acrylic and oil

Acrylic first, oil second

Oils don't have to be scary

You don't have to switch mediums. You add a layer. Acrylic dries fast enough that I can keep building on it in the same session, then the oil goes on top of work you already know how to do, and that is where the light comes from. In the workshop I only take about half the canvas into oil, so you'll have both stages in front of you at once.

Where I start

Abiding Gaze at an early stage: line drawing and thin acrylic washes on white canvas

Abiding GazeEarly stage

Where it ends up

Abiding GazeFinished

Same canvas, same drawing underneath. Everything that changed between these two photographs is what I teach in the workshop, except you'll see both stages at the same time instead of in two photographs.

What we cover

You'll see the before and the after on the same canvas

The canvas comes in already drawn. From there nothing is sped up and nothing is hidden, so you'll see the parts most demos skip: the ugly middle, the fixes, and the decisions I make while I'm making them. The point is finishing more paintings, because being prolific is what actually changes an art career.

Why I put the acrylic down first

The order is the whole trick. Acrylic dries fast enough for me to build on it in the same session, and oil on top does something to the light that acrylic alone can't.

Close detail of a thin washed passage of water sitting under thicker opaque paint

Detail, Abiding Gaze

The brushwork collectors respond to

How I load the brush so the stroke keeps its energy instead of flattening out. This is the part I credit most directly for my own sales.

Close detail of a peony painted in thick loaded strokes

Detail, Sultana

How to loosen up if you paint tight

Expressive brushwork is a technique you can learn in an afternoon. Where you hold the handle and how much paint you load are what decide it, and I'll show you both.

Close detail of a loose passage where paint runs and drips down the canvas

Detail, Reclaimed Realms

How to tell when it's done

Most of us overwork a painting past its best moment. Leaving acrylic showing under the oil is a choice, not an unfinished bit, and collectors will buy pieces you'd still be picking at.

Close detail where finished flowers sit beside ground that was left alone

Detail, Symphony in Bloom

My paintings

Every painting here
was built in layers

The technique came out of a deadline, four pieces a week in my mom's portfolio bootcamp. Some of these started as an acrylic underpainting. Some skip acrylic altogether and go straight into oil over a mixed media base. The layers are the constant.

Everlasting Light by Dimitra Milan — Everlasting Light

Symphony in Bloom by Dimitra Milan — Symphony in Bloom

Reclaimed Realms by Dimitra Milan — Reclaimed Realms

In Her Queenship by Dimitra Milan — In Her Queenship

Threads of Heaven by Dimitra Milan — Threads of Heaven

Following Eden by Dimitra Milan — Following Eden

Taste and See by Dimitra Milan — Taste and See

Heaven's Reflection by Dimitra Milan — Heaven's Reflection

What A Treasure You Are by Dimitra Milan — What A Treasure You Are

Garden of Grace by Dimitra Milan — Garden of Grace

Journey of the Mystic by Dimitra Milan — Journey of the Mystic

How it runs

The real session, cleaned up

I painted this live, and the recording is the real thing start to finish: the ugly middle, the parts I fix, and the moments where I stop and decide what to do next. I trimmed the parts that only made sense in the room. Nothing is sped up and there are no second takes.

Dimitra Milan painting a large floral canvas

Several of Dimitra Milan's paintings in progress, laid out on a table

A little about me

Dimitra Milan

Painter, and a teacher in the Mastery Program

I sold two paintings at my first gallery show. A publisher signed me to an exclusive contract not long after, and in the first year under it my art sold over a million dollars' worth. Then I walked away from it, because it meant someone else set my prices and controlled my name.

The technique came out of a deadline. I was painting four pieces a week in my mom's portfolio bootcamp and couldn't get them finished in time, so my parents told me to underpaint in acrylic and refine in oil on top. I've painted that way ever since.

I sell directly to collectors now, and I teach in the Mastery Program alongside my mom, Elli. This is the exact process I use on my own paintings, taught the way I'd teach it to a friend who asked.

Paintings our students made