Dramatically Improve Your Paintings…
Without Even Picking Up A Brush
Discover how master painters plan their paintings before they start to paint… and how using the same techniques will dramatically improve your painting practice.
“The kind of teaching I have been seeking for decades.”
Jodi Shuster, Toronto, Canada
“This course has filled my life of retirement with creative purpose.”
Penny Preen, Athens, Greece
Dramatically Improve Your Paintings…
Without Even Picking Up A Brush
Discover how master painters plan their paintings before they start to paint… and how using the same techniques will dramatically improve your painting practice.
“The kind of teaching I have been seeking for decades.”
Jodi Shuster, Toronto, Canada
“This course has filled my life of retirement with creative purpose.”
Penny Preen, Athens, Greece
Do you feel frustrated with your artistic progress?
Like you’ll never be able to produce the paintings
you aspire to create?
You’re not alone. For more than 25 years I’ve listened to students say that they know something is wrong but just can’t figure out what it is.
- They make the same mistakes over and over
- They get halfway into a painting and get confused about how to finish it
- They rework, then rework some more, and end up overworking painting after painting. In a nutshell they feel stuck with their artistic progress.
Obviously this is discouraging. And when you’re in this situation, you naturally become less excited and more hesitant to start your new painting.
Painting, this activity you love and feel called to do, instead can become a source of frustration and discouragement.
It doesn’t have to be this way
My name is Ian Roberts.
I’ve been a painter all my life. I’ve taught painting for over 30 years. My book Mastering Composition has sold over 65,000 copies and my YouTube channel Mastering Composition has over 225,000 subscribers.
And I want to clear up one thing right now: Your learning to paint is not about talent. It’s not about whether you’re creative enough.
Both of those things are irrelevant.
It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
My name is Ian Roberts.
I’ve been a painter all my life. I’ve taught painting for over 30 years. My book Mastering Composition has sold over 65,000 copies and my YouTube channel Mastering Composition has over 225,000 subscribers.
And I want to clear up one thing right now: Your learning to paint is not about talent. It’s not about whether you’re creative enough.
Both of those things are irrelevant.
What matters is how you practice…
Now I’m not talking about how much you practice.
Few of us have the time to do four years of art college. We don’t have 10,000 hours to spare in order to master our craft (2 hours a day for 2 years is just 1460 hours!)
And grinding away at “miles of canvas” just grinds bad habits in deeper. What you need is a more efficient and effective way to improve as a painter.
You need a clear, precise path that will give you the skills you need to express your artistic voice.
…And how you see the world
“This is definitely the best art course I have ever taken. It’s amazing how I am now “seeing” the world so differently. You have no idea what an impact this has had on my life.”
Sue Rink
Koloa, HI
“I look at the world differently now which is exciting. How many courses can make you do that? Amazing experience that has made me more present in many aspects of life.”
Ella Garland
Port Coquitlam, B.C.
“Just so you know, I’m definitely seeing landscapes differently.
Heck, even while driving, I’m seeing values and masses along the
roadside!”
Alan Morris
West Dover, VT
“Absolutely the best art course I have ever taken. It has changed forever the way I view potential painting subject matter. I finally really learned ‘how to see.”
Liz Seaborne
Santa Fe, MN
When you practice the right way,
you’ll learn to see differently
How to Produce Dramatic Improvements
in Your Painting Skill
So how did these students feel they made such progress, in such a short time? We stripped the whole painting process down to basics.
It is very hard to improve in a foundational way when 95% of your attention remains focused on other complications, like: what am I going to paint, is it a good idea, is my drawing any good, what color should that be, shouldn’t that shape maybe be bigger, or darker, I can’t seem to get the paint to go on the way I want, and on and on and on.
You cannot build foundational practices with all that bouncing around in your head at the same time. So we stripped all that right out of the equation. Instead of painting, we drew. With pencil and paper. And the students’ drawings got better.
A LOT better. And quickly.
Each week we focused on just one or two skills that would create the most rapid progress. So students could practice and fully integrate each new skill before we moved on to the next.
And look at the results we got.
Before the course
This drawing gives you a sense of the landscape but much of what it shows is not clear.
The point of doing these drawings is to have an efficient way to think about an image visually before you start to paint.
This drawing would not go far in helping you translate the scene into paint.
Two weeks later
But this drawing, of the same subject, by the same student just two weeks later, is different. Now you can see the individual shapes of bushes and trees. You can see where they sit in space, where they overlap, where the lights and shadows are.
The drawing as a whole now has compositional structure. You, the viewer, are guided through the picture plane over to the left side. That is not an accident.
Now their chances of crafting a painting from this compared to using the first drawing, are dramatic.
As one student told me before they took the course, they thought their drawings looked like chicken scratches. Or maybe drawing feels like a waste of time. All you want to do is paint.
I get it.
But look here at a few more drawings, before the course and after the course.
A six week course.
And remember these students didn’t draw any better than you before
they started the course.
Before the course
After the course,
Six Weeks Later
Before the Course
After the Course
Six Weeks Later
Before the Course
After the Course
Six Weeks Later
In each case you can see how much easier the second image would be to paint.You wouldn’t necessarily do as finished a drawing as this. But the important point is the artist is now seeing in terms of masses and where those masses sit in space. They are seeing differently, in addition to developing drawing skills.
Here’s What Students Say About the Course
“You have opened a whole new world for me. I never imagined I could come this far in 6 weeks. I am awestruck.”
Karen Altenpohl
High Point, NC
“My only regret is that I did not come across the course much
earlier. In one word, brilliant.”
Edmund Schulenburg
London, UK
“To say this has been a transformative class feels like an understatement….it was more than that…YES, It dramatically changed how I approach my painting and improved my work in ways I could not have expected, but also, it fed my soul, it inspired my spirit, and it informed my practice. THANK YOU for such an amazing experience!!! I loved every second of it!”
Donna Stevens
Bloomington, IN
“This is the foundational course I have always sought. Instead of having regrets about never going to Art School this course allowed me to focus on rectifying that. I now have the confidence and basic skills to continue my artistic practice for the rest of my life.”
Ann DuCharme
Edgartown, MA
“Thank you very much for this class. It literally has changed the way I see myself, and for the first time in over 10 years of pursuing art, I feel like an artist.”
Andrea Baron
Timnath, CO
“No matter what your skill level is, take the course, you will not regret it. I am a more confident painter since taking it.”
Hank Maertens
Woodland Park, CO
Here is a blunt truth:
if you can’t draw it with pencil and paper,
you probably can’t paint it.
Most of the painting process is about “seeing” how you want objects to sit in space and rendering that. Clearly. Simply. Crafting your drawing clarifies the image for you in preparation for painting.
Working through your ideas for a painting, testing them, before you begin to paint will clarify your vision. Drawing can become an enjoyable part of your artistic process, something you embrace rather than avoid. If you draw an image and the idea doesn’t seem to work, you find a new way to express it. You can explore ideas efficiently and enjoyably first without just picking up a brush and hoping for the best.
When you start like that, with a good compositional sketch, your success rate will soar.
It is a time honored first step to beginning a painting. Rather than just rushing right in and hoping for the best.
Because truthfully most student paintings are ruined before the brush even hits the canvas.
Painting in the end is just drawing with a brush.
In six weeks you will see your drawing improve dramatically. So it becomes an efficient and enjoyable tool in your artistic practice.
The process is proven.
If you do the exercises, you’ll transform your drawings within a month.
I guarantee it.
Mastering Composition®
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition and dramatically improve my painting!
Here’s What My Students Say About the Program
This video is less than four minutes.
The Secret to Better Paintings Has Nothing to Do With Paint
“All good art is composition.” – Robert Henri, The Art Spirit
Painters want to paint…so it makes sense that we’re captivated by things like loose brushwork and vibrant color.
But the reality is, paintings live or die by their composition. Brushwork and color only matter once the composition is in place.
And composition is not something about the rule of thirds or having a center of interest. Nor is it something you tack on half way through your painting.
Paintings rest on a foundation of strong composition — just as when you build a house you put in the foundation first.
You can of course paint without much thought to composition, hoping it will somehow “arrive” in the process of painting.
But this is a low percentage strategy for success.
Instead if you plan your composition before you start to paint, just as a builder puts in a foundation before building, you will start to see your paintings have an exciting, newfound strength and engagement.
That’s why when you get a handle on composition,
you have the blueprint to build better paintings.
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition
and dramatically improve my painting!
Here’s What You’ll Learn and Practice Each Week of the Course
We have live Zoom calls to open and close the course. As well we’ll have live Q&A Zoom calls three times during the course.
Week 1 – Laying in Masses:
The Basic Building Blocks of Your Drawing
- The first step is learning to create smooth shapes of value so you can do this.
- These are the building blocks of the course. Everything builds off of this easy-to-learn skill of drawing using value shapes.
- Nothing will move you from “chicken scratches” to competent drawings more quickly.
Week 2 – Carving Depth in the Picture Plane:
The Foundation of Western Representational Art
- Using overlaps, scale, value shifts and gradations of value you will draw the value shapes of week one to carve the illusion of depth on your paper, the picture plane.
- You will feel yourself crafting form and space in your drawings.
Week 3 – Designing the Value Masses on the Page:
Seeing in Terms of Light and Shadow
- You’ll learn to use the big shapes of light and shadow to design your drawing.
- This will give you a radical insight into how to simplify an image, see in shapes and eliminate unnecessary detail.
Week 4 – Drawing to a Compositional Structure:
How the Eye Moves on the Picture Plane
- You learn how to find the “big picture” of compositional structure before you begin to draw.
- Understanding and using contrast of value (light and dark) you learn to lead the viewer visually, and intentionally, through your drawing.
Week 5 – Cropping and Framing for Greater Drama
- Looking at the great wide world, you’ll learn how to select and craft images for greater interest, impact and engagement.
Week 6: Exploring Compositional Structure Using Your Own Images
- Letting go of the side of the pool you’ll explore and draw your own images using everything you have learned about composition.
- We’ll explore how to find interest and drama in the everyday using sound composition and engaging value masses.
Learning to “See” in Terms of Design First
The Foundation for Simplifying Your Work and Eliminating Unnecessary Detail
Your drawings will improve rapidly and dramatically… and so too will your paintings.
But that’s not even the best part.
The hidden value of the course lies in how you learn to “see” as you draw. How you learn to see in value masses and orchestrate them on paper.
The ability to see and design value masses on your paper is the single most foundational skill you can learn to dramatically improve your painting.
When you feel yourself starting to craft your paintings as designs first, when you start to see in terms of the poetry of the value masses, then you have the keys to the kingdom.
Then your vision, your inspiration, has a vehicle for expression.
You will have structured the foundation for consistently better paintings. And that leads to enthusiasm to paint more.
Learning these skills will save you years.
Here’s What My Students Say About the Course
Graham Salisbury
Lake Oswego, Oregon
I have to tell you how wonderful your classes have been! I have been doing art my whole life and painting for a long time, and I’ve taken a lot of classes, but yours is truly unique in terms of how much value you pack in in such a short time.
Anne Greenstreet
Boulder, CO
“It was wonderful. I’ve heard a lot about composition over the years. Ian put it all in a logical sequence and built on it week by week so it really sunk in this time.
I am applying it now. Consistently. And my paintings show it. I just won an Honorable Mention in a regional juried show.”
Mary Lynch
Saint Paul, MN
“Ian is so personable, kind and encouraging in his instruction, it felt like having a friend guide me. I am so glad I found this course! I will never forget what I have learned here.”
Karina Gronnvoll
Port Orchard, WA
“I’ve been practicing art for at least 15 years, and have taken other workshops and courses, but this one class has changed me and my art in such a core way. If making good art is important to you, and you aren’t where you want to be as an artist, take this course. You will not regret it.”
Ann Green
Sylva NC
“This has been amazing. I’m a beginner, but I don’t “feel” that way anymore.”
Laura Pallas
Culver City, CA
“The most important thing I’ve gained is that painting for me is no longer a hobby that I do when the mood strikes or when I think I have time, but a practice that I engage in almost everyday.”
Carole Miklovic
Caro, MI
“Going through this course has moved me further along in my art career than I could possibly have imagined. This is the best art instruction course I’ve ever been through. Bravo Ian!”
Michael Teel
St. Albans, WV
Here’s How It Works
Each week there is a short video with an overview of the week. Most weeks there are two demonstration video lessons and practice images. Each week you’ll focus on a very specific deliberate practice. Each week layers and builds logically and sequentially on the last.
If you only have time to do one lesson each week, that is fine. The course materials will be available for a year after the course so you can practice them later if you like.
We have included answers to the most common questions for each week. You’ll also have teaching assistants who have been working with me for years to answer your questions as well.
The calls are recorded if you cannot make it.
As you engage in this practice of doing the exercises each week you’ll be building new neural pathways that change how you perceive the world. At a neurological level, you’ll start to “see” in terms of design, structure and value masses.
Developing this right-brain perception is the key to long lasting success in your artistic practice. And it happens naturally. All you have to do is complete the exercises. The rest takes care of itself.
The transformation during the course is obvious to everyone. You’ll feel motivated week after week because you’ll see your progress.
In addition we have a unique critiquing system that develops your eye and self-sufficiency in understanding what works in your drawings and paintings, and what doesn’t.
In the most recent course 90% of the students did exercises for every week of the course. Just so you get a sense of why that 90% is relevant, the average completion rate for university online courses is just 7%.
Here are some examples of the transformation that my students experienced in just six weeks. I asked them to draw the image before the course began and again at the end of the course.
Before the course
After the course,
Six Weeks Later
You can see how much easier it will be for these artists to paint from the ‘after’ drawings. Because they are now seeing more in value shapes. This is the foundation to seeing like a painter and dramatically improving your painting.
This is how I use these drawings in my own work.
The Most Efficient Way to Achieve
an Artistic Breakthrough
Based on your current artistic practice now, how long might it take to make a dramatic improvement? And how would you make it happen? Will it happen continuing doing what you are doing now?
Have you ever had the opportunity to really take your painting practice apart, introduce foundational skills and then rebuild your practice back up?
This course offers a unique opportunity to see a fundamental and striking difference in how you see, how you draw, and both of those will transform how you paint.
You will find the course enjoyable, engaging and challenging.
You will gain confidence as an artist.
You’ll gain momentum in your painting practice.
This course offers a strategic training to transform your painting.
You pay only $449
To make your drawing an enjoyable and fundamental tool in your artistic practice, change your perception and transform your painting practice.
Single payment at time of registration, $449
3 monthly payments, $152 per month
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition
and dramatically improve my painting!
Honor Your Artistic Expression
Many of my students have wanted to paint for years, but work and family obligations took up their time. Now, finally, they feel that this is their time to paint.
This desire to paint is important. You may have no idea where that deep, quiet calling comes from. Or why you want to paint.
After more than 40 years I still don’t know why I want to paint. I just know I want to do it.
Yet that desire calls you for a reason and I think it’s important to find a way to give expression to it.
Answering that call to express yourself artistically, honoring it with care and attention, may be one of the great things you can do for yourself. That at least is my experience.
If you’re ready to improve your painting and develop a new way of seeing, just click the button below to join me inside the course.
I would be delighted if you joined us.
Your Results Are Guaranteed
Take this course and you will learn to draw and see in masses, design and structure.
The foundation to learning to simplify and eliminate unnecessary detail.
If you are not completely satisfied with the course I’ll send you your money back.
The reason I can guarantee it: If you do the drawings, you will gain the benefit. It’s that simple.
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition
and dramatically improve my painting!
Added Bonuses
Your course comes with these valuable bonuses to ensure the success and momentum of your artistic practice after the course.
At the end of the course, you will be invited to join me in a 30-Day Challenge.
For the challenge, every day for 30 days you’ll find your own subjects and craft a small 4” x 5” pencil sketch, working out compositional structure and value shape designs.
Nothing will help you hone and embed your drawing skills and re-enforce all those new neural pathways than this 30-Day Challenge. Students say this challenge cemented all the lessons and skills they had learned during the course.
After the challenge on Saturdays for four weeks you’ll receive an additional lesson.
Week 1: Toned Paper Drawings
Week 2: Crosshatching
Week 3: Learn to Draw Drapery
If you paint still lifes or figures this is an essential skill to have.
Week 4: Practical Tips and Exercises to Learn Perspective
After the Challenge and the four extra lessons, then each week for 10 weeks you’ll receive a photograph with good composition and structure to use for drawing practice.
If you are coming up with your own images all the better. But this one photo each week will just give you a momentum builder if you need it all summer.
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition
and dramatically improve my painting!
Here’s What Students Say About the Course
“Ian is the best teacher I’ve ever encountered.“
Astrid Stoit
Weesp, Netherlands
“Best gift I ever gave to myself. Long term commitment to learning is not a mistake and you could not be in better hands!”
Priscilla Whitford
Lewiston, ME
“Ian Roberts’s course is the best investment in your art education and a game changer for your artistic journey. These skills will serve you for life. If you are a serious artist and want to acquire solid tools, dive in. You will not regret it.”
Christine Huszagh
Wilmette, IL
“I have taken some other online painting courses. They were all enjoyable and I learned from them. Ian’s Mastering Composition is heads above the others if you are looking for deeper insight into the creative process of painting a picture. I highly recommend this course. “
Terry Lyle
Jamestown, NY
“I am the most lackadaisical of hobbyist painters, crippled by procrastination and perfectionism, but with Ian’s course, I had the impetus to push past and overcome my doubts, arriving at a place where I now want to paint for the fun of it, taking joy in the process and not being defined by the product. Ian’s teaching is really something special.”
Miquela Faure
Beirut, Lebanon
“Regardless of medium, If you are feeling frustrated with your work and unable to take it forward on your own, this is the course for you.”
Miriam Boral
Austin, TX
“This has been, by far, the best painting course I have taken online or in person. The fundamentals I learned in this course will stick with me for the rest of my life. I feel much more confident now in my ability to compose and produce paintings that I am pleased with.”
David Hamilton
Owensboro, KY
“If you truly want to incorporate an art practice into your life and improve your skills, Ian Roberts is the best painting instructor on planet earth.”
Joan Keyes
Healdsburg, CA
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is this course for?
If you want to use your time efficiently to make real breakthroughs in your drawing and painting, then this is for you.
If you’ve hit a plateau and do not seem to be progressing, then this is for you.
If you get frustrated overworking painting after painting, then this is for you.
If you get stuck in the middle of your paintings or feel confused about how to continue, then this is for you.
If you’re serious about improving your painting, then this is for you.
I'm a beginner. Will I get left behind?
I'm a professional painter. Will this be too basic?
How much time will the course take?
To get the full benefit of the course, you’ll need to set aside 3-4 hours a week.
But remember you’ll have access to the course lessons for a year to go back and finish or review lessons if you don’t finish them during the course.
Each week there is:
- an introduction video for the week of how this week’s lessons fit into the whole course
- weekly lessons and demonstration videos
- your weekly drawing practice
If you’re serious about improving your painting and committed to making time for your practice, I would be delighted if you joined us for the course. It WILL help you make huge strides forward in your artistic practice.
You really have a money back guarantee?
Will the course be available for review after the six weeks?
Can you really improve my painting dramatically in a month?
What you get from this course depends on what you put into it. If you complete all the exercises and assignments, then you can expect significant breakthroughs in how you see and in how you carve the illusion of depth in a picture plane. You’ll learn to see what disrupts your actual drawing from what you planned. And you’ll improve your ability to assess an idea for a composition before you start. These are huge breakthroughs. And for most of my students, they translate directly into better paintings… and a better experience with painting. You also receive a series of bonuses after the course to help you cement and expand your skills (see Added Bonuses above). So you can continue to use the artistic momentum of the course and expand these breakthroughs and really make them your own. This course is the beginning of something. Not the end.
If I take the course will I be able to watch the videos again later?
Yes. You will have access to the videos and the course materials for a year.
I'm primarily a figure painter. Will this help me as well?
If my first language is not English can I take the course? Do you have translations?
What are the advantages of online courses over in-person workshops?
Composition Is the Missing Link for Most Painters
I started going on painting trips with my father and his professional artist friends from the time I was 11.
I’ve spent thousands and thousands of hours learning to craft paintings with strong compositions, thinking about compositions, studying the best painters of all time and how they structured compositions.
And I have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours teaching composition to students on workshops, refining and expanding on what actually works and why.
I was fortunate to learn the importance of composition early in life, which means I’ve had decades of practice learning to compose striking paintings.
But not everyone gets that level of exposure to this idea of compositional structure. I was lucky I’d say.
Twenty years ago North Light Books sent a questionnaire to their over 300,000 members asking what they most wanted to have instruction on. And composition was the number one answer.
As it happens I had sold North Light a video called Mastering Composition for their video club a few years before that. And so they asked me to write a book call Mastering Composition.
That book has now sold over 65,000 copies and is still going strong. It is used by art teachers all over the country. It is in the recommended reading lists at the end of many art instruction books.
The success of that book showed me painters were crying out for more practice on composition. And so for years, I taught workshops.
I taught them in Provence every year for 20 years. I taught in Tuscany, Lake Como, Taos and Maine. Beautiful places with wonderful students.
I made composition the centerpiece of those workshops. I knew that composition was the key to helping students improve dramatically.
So I used every trick in my toolbox to help them develop the ability to “see” in terms of composition…and to translate that vision onto their canvas.
I love teaching those workshops…
But in 2019 I Quit Anyway
See, I found that after a couple of days, students just couldn’t integrate and assimilate any more knowledge.
They painted and they enjoyed the camaraderie of being with other artists. But they reached a learning threshold pretty quickly.
They simply couldn’t integrate what they were learning fast enough to really change how they saw their subjects… and how they translated that seeing onto their canvases.
So I stopped offering workshops. And I started experimenting with other ways of teaching composition.
In 2019 I developed and tested a pilot course for a new online training.
I discovered the right amount of practice …done in just the right way… could actually rewire a person’s brain and how they see. This is about activating the right brain.
And it didn’t take very long! Within a month, students had so deeply integrated the principles of composition that they began seeing the world, and their own painting in terms of shapes and value masses and depth.
The quality of their work exploded.
The students and I were so encouraged by the training that I expanded and refined the course. And then offered it again four times. To more than 3200 students.
Yes, I want to learn the secrets of composition
and dramatically improve my painting!
Here’s What Students Say About the Course
“I can’t recommend the course highly enough! Be fearless. Take it! You’ll be glad that you did.”
Linda Stanier
St Leonard, MD
Molly Ann Cooley
Ridgecrest CA
“Before the course I was afraid to draw. I thought it was hard and I was too old to learn. Now doing value studies has become one of the most enjoyable parts of my process and I never thought I would say that about value studies. Ever. That course changed my artistic journey. Best art class/experience I’ve ever had. Worth every minute and every penny.”
Robin Edmundson
Solsberry, IN
“I have taken courses at art college, at university, bought and read dozens of books, purchased and viewed videos, and attended many workshops and independent classes. Nothing carried me forward like this course has. Brilliant!”
Diana Hilliard
Kelowna, BC
“I think the course has been fantastic. It has been life-changing for me. It has really given me a new excitement about my art work. I look at everything differently, looking for strong values, for structure and composition. The course has taken my art to another level.”
Kim King
Hendersonville, TN
“As a former educator, I fully appreciate the thoughtful, well-constructed, “lesson plans” and homework exercises, the videos to illustrate the main concepts, the responsiveness to student needs and the exquisitely fine balance between challenge and support.”
Vicki Diez-Canseco
Tucson, AZ