Florent Farges Atelier: Classical French Oil Painting Instruction Online

Florent Farges is a French classical realist painter whose online teaching platform brings the rigorous technical tradition of the French academic ateliers to students worldwide. His instruction is grounded in the methods developed by the great French academic painters of the nineteenth century and refined through decades of personal practice: systematic construction, careful value control, disciplined colour mixing, and the patient layering of paint that characterises the finest classical oil paintings. For artists who want to understand how the old masters actually built their paintings, rather than simply imitating their surface appearance, Farges's courses offer a level of technical depth that is rare in online art education.

The French atelier tradition from which Farges draws is one of the most demanding and systematic approaches to painting education ever developed. Students in the great nineteenth-century Paris ateliers spent years learning to draw before they were permitted to paint, developing the observational precision and mark-making control that made their painting technically authoritative. Farges's online courses adapt this tradition for contemporary students, providing structured progression through the foundational skills of classical painting without requiring years of full-time study.

The Technical Foundation: Drawing Before Painting

Farges's curriculum begins with drawing, because his approach to painting is fundamentally constructive. Before students learn to mix paint or load a brush, they learn to see accurately, to measure relationships between forms, and to construct the underlying structure of a subject with precision. This drawing foundation is not a preliminary hurdle to get through before the real work begins. It is the basis on which everything else rests.

The drawing instruction covers sight-size measurement, the method used in classical ateliers to achieve accurate proportions by comparing the drawing directly to the subject at a consistent viewing distance. Students learn to use a plumb line, to measure angles, and to check relationships between landmarks systematically rather than relying on intuition alone. This methodical approach to accuracy is one of the distinguishing features of classical atelier training and one of the reasons that paintings produced in this tradition have a solidity and authority that more intuitive approaches often lack.

From this drawing foundation, the curriculum moves into value studies, teaching students to see and render the full range of light and dark in a subject before introducing colour. Value is the most fundamental element of representational painting, and Farges's emphasis on value control before colour mixing reflects the classical understanding that a painting with correct values but imperfect colour will read convincingly, while a painting with beautiful colour but incorrect values will fail.

The Grisaille Method

One of the most distinctive elements of Farges's teaching is his use of the grisaille method, the classical technique of completing a full-value underpainting in grey or neutral tones before applying colour in transparent glazes. This two-stage approach separates the problems of value and colour, allowing the painter to solve each independently rather than trying to manage both simultaneously.

The grisaille underpainting establishes the complete value structure of the painting, from the deepest shadows to the lightest lights, using only neutral grey paint. Once the grisaille is dry, colour is applied in transparent glazes that modify the value structure without obscuring it. The result is a painting with the luminous depth characteristic of old master works, where light seems to come from within the paint rather than sitting on the surface.

Farges teaches both the traditional grisaille-and-glaze approach and direct painting (alla prima), giving students command of both methods and the understanding to choose between them based on the demands of a particular subject or situation. The ability to work in both modes, and to understand the technical logic behind each, is one of the markers of genuine technical mastery in oil painting.

Portrait and Figure Painting

The portrait and figure painting courses are the heart of the Farges curriculum and the area where his technical depth is most evident. Portrait painting is one of the most demanding subjects in representational art, requiring accurate proportions, convincing likeness, subtle colour in skin tones, and the ability to suggest the specific character of an individual face rather than a generic representation of a human head.

Farges's portrait instruction covers the structural anatomy of the head, the proportional relationships that determine likeness, the colour temperature variations in skin that distinguish living flesh from painted approximations, and the specific challenges of painting hair, eyes, and the subtle transitions around the mouth and nose that carry so much of a face's expression. His demonstrations are detailed and methodical, showing the complete process from initial drawing through final glazes.

The figure painting instruction extends these principles to the full figure, covering the structural anatomy of the body, the relationship between light and form in the figure, and the specific challenges of painting the figure in different lighting conditions and poses. Farges draws on the classical tradition of painting from life, and his instruction consistently returns to the importance of careful observation as the foundation of convincing figure work.

Colour Mixing and Colour Theory

Farges's approach to colour is systematic rather than intuitive. He teaches students to understand colour temperature, the relationship between warm and cool colours in light and shadow, and the specific mixing strategies that produce convincing flesh tones, neutral shadows, and the subtle colour variations that make a painting feel alive rather than flat.

The colour instruction covers the limited palette approach favoured by many classical painters, which uses a small number of carefully chosen pigments to achieve a wide range of colours through mixing. This approach develops genuine understanding of colour relationships rather than dependence on a large palette of pre-mixed colours, and it produces paintings with greater colour harmony because all the colours share the same pigment base.

Community and Support

Farges maintains an active online community where students share work in progress, receive feedback from instructors and fellow students, and engage with the ongoing practice of classical painting. The community is international, with students from Europe, North America, Asia, and beyond, reflecting the global reach of classical painting instruction in the digital age.

The forum and community elements provide the kind of ongoing engagement and accountability that self-paced online learning often lacks. Students who share their work regularly and engage with feedback from others progress more quickly than those who work in isolation, and the Farges community provides a supportive environment for this kind of engaged learning.

The Bottom Line

Florent Farges Atelier offers some of the most technically rigorous classical oil painting instruction available online. For artists who want to understand the systematic methods behind the great European painting tradition, including grisaille underpaintings, glazing techniques, sight-size drawing, and the classical approach to portrait and figure painting, Farges's courses provide a depth of technical instruction that is difficult to find elsewhere. The combination of French academic rigour, clear video instruction, and an active international community makes this platform one of the most valuable resources for serious students of classical oil painting.