About the Course

Jennifer Gennari brings forgotten animals from our country’s history back to life. The course modules address specific challenges, such as combining animal subjects with their environments (“Combining Images”) and conducting focused studies of key animal features—eyes, noses, and mouths. These skills build toward full-face portraits and in-depth studies inspired by Animals in History. The course will teach you to master both layered, luminous indirect painting and fast, direct alla prima methods. Students develop a strong understanding of how value, temperature, and saturation work together to create realistic form, convincing light flow, and believable textures such as fur or wool.

WHAT YOU GET

4

Recorded
Classes

3

Bonus
Videos

Reference

Download
and Paint

Unlimited

REPLAY
ACCESS

COMMUNITY & ACCESS

Drawing America

Your home for drawing & painting

Welcome! Post homework in the correct course thread. Live sessions, review feed, and scheduled posts are all in the left nav.

Live Sessions

Review Feed

Join Jennifer Gennari, Will Weston

Materials List

Ms. Gennari uses Ampresand Gesso Panels to paint on but you can use anything you wish. Ms. Gennari’s paints are Ivory black (Michael Harding), English red (Old Holland), vermilion (Zecchi), alizarin crimson (Michael Harding), Cobalt blue (Michael Harding), viridian (Vasari), emerald green (Michael Harding), yellow ochre (Vasari), Naples yellow (Vasari), lead white (Rublev)

About Your Instructor

Jennifer Gennari

"My mission is to elevate animal portraiture to its rightful place in the fine art world. Every creature has a story, a personality, a soul worth capturing with the same reverence and technical mastery we bring to human portraiture."

Jennifer Gennari is an influential contemporary artist in classical realism, pioneering animal portraiture that elevates pets and wildlife to the same artistic reverence as human subjects. After graduating from Ringling College in 2005, Jennifer studied at Florence Academy of Art in Italy. Under master Daniel Graves, she spent three years mastering classical methods, developing understanding of form, light, and emotional expression. Since 2014, Jennifer has transformed animal portraiture by applying classical portrait techniques to animal subjects, using the Alla Prima method to capture life, personality, and dignity with depth and authenticity. Jennifer's work has been featured in Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, television productions, and films, earning numerous awards. She extends her influence through comprehensive teaching, instructional books, and thousands of students via Craftsy and Drawing America.