Richard Schmid

1934–2021 · United States

Researched by Daniel Bilmes, painter and educator.

Richard Schmid was an American realist painter who mastered and taught alla prima, direct painting from life. His method, set out in his landmark book Alla Prima II, is a systematic way of painting from life in a single session. He taught a strict order of fundamentals: master drawing first, then values (light and dark), then edges, and finally colour. Key exercises include exhaustive colour charts to learn your palette, and starting a painting with a transparent monochrome block-in to solve the value problems early. He pushed painters to trust their own observation and to paint with joy and authority. His legacy lives on through his writings, his instructional videos, and the Richard Schmid Fine Art Foundation, which is why he is one of the most influential teachers for contemporary realist painters.

ProcessDirect TemperamentObserver Lineage19th-Century Studio

Signature moves

Master the palette with colour charts

Worked through an exhaustive set of charts, mixing every colour on his palette with every other colour, and with white, to know his paints cold.

Why it matters · The exercise, inherited from his teacher Bill Mosby, settles colour mixing in advance. Do the work up front and you know exactly how your colours behave, their tinting strength, their temperature, so you can choose fast and true under the pressure of a single-session painting.

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II, chapter on Color, 2013

Solve values first with a transparent monochrome block-in

Began by brushing one transparent colour over the canvas and wiping out the lights with a paper towel, settling the drawing, values, and edges in monochrome.

Why it matters · This solves the hardest problems of a painting, drawing and value, by the simplest means, before the complexity of colour comes in. It forces you to think in masses and light rather than lines, and it needs a non-absorbent ground so the paint can be lifted.

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II, chapter on "The Beginnings", 2013

Use a selective start

Began with a single small point of interest, an eye in a portrait, finished it completely, then built the rest of the painting outward from that anchor.

Why it matters · This was Schmid's favourite start. It sets a fixed point for the whole painting: every later colour, value, and edge is judged against that one finished, accurate note, which keeps the picture from drifting out of key.

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II, chapter on "The Beginnings", 2013

Master the fundamentals in order: drawing, values, edges, colour

Taught a strict order of learning: master accurate drawing first, then the control of light and dark values, then hard and soft edges, and only then colour.

Why it matters · A painting with bad drawing, values, or edges cannot be rescued by beautiful colour. Schmid's order heads off the most common failures by making you build on a sound, logical foundation. Colour is the last, glorious step, not the first.

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II, 2013

Codify and publish the whole method

Wrote and self-published Alla Prima and its expanded sequel, Alla Prima II, to set down everything he knew about painting in explicit detail.

Why it matters · Rather than keep his methods to himself or to a few workshop students, Schmid spent years building a thorough, generous, accessible teaching text. That act of documentation made him one of the most influential teachers for painters outside the traditional academies.

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting, and More, 2013

Studio

Light: Both controlled studio light for the portrait and figure work, and the variable natural light of plein-air painting outdoors.
Position: At the easel, painting directly from the subject, often narrating his process for a workshop audience or one of his instructional videos.
Session length: A single session, typically around three hours for a demonstration painting, in the true spirit of alla prima.
Tools: Gamblin oils on a large 21 by 31 inch glass palette over a warm gray board · Rosemary & Co. brushes (the company offers a "Richard Schmid" set) · Thin, flexible Italian-made painting knives for precise application · VIVA paper towels for wiping brushes and lifting out the lights in a monochrome block-in · Rectified turpentine as a solvent
Notes: His teaching and painting life were closely bound up with his wife, the artist Nancy Guzik, and the community of painters they fostered, the Putney Painters. He founded Stove Prairie Press to publish his own books to his own exacting standard.

Source: Katie Swatland, Alla Prima II Companion, 2014

Palette

Ground: A smooth, non-absorbent surface for the transparent wipe-out. Also MDF panels for the chart exercises, and primed linen.
Whites: Titanium White
Earths: Yellow Ochre · Terra Rosa · Burnt Sienna · Transparent Oxide Red
Colors: Cadmium Lemon · Cadmium Yellow Pale · Cadmium Yellow Deep · Cadmium Orange · Cadmium Red Light · Alizarin Crimson · Viridian · Ultramarine Blue · Cobalt Blue Pale
Blacks: Ivory Black
Medium: Painted mostly direct, with little to no medium. Rectified turpentine as a solvent for washing and cleaning.
Quantity: Not specified; the point was mastery of a limited set of colours, not their quantity.

Source: Richard Schmid's official website and the Alla Prima II Companion, 2014

Workflow, from blank canvas

1. Establish the drawing and value
Begin with a precise drawing and a clear plan for the values, often as a transparent monochrome block-in, wiping the lights out of a thin wash of one colour.
Why: To solve the most critical problems, composition, drawing, and value structure, before the complexity of colour comes in.
2. Lay in the largest colour shapes
With the value structure set, lay in the largest, simplest shapes of colour as accurately as you can.
Why: Working from large simple shapes to smaller complex ones holds the unity of the painting and keeps you from getting lost in detail too early.
3. Connect the shapes by controlling edges
Give conscious attention to the transition between every shape, deciding whether the edge should be hard, soft, or lost entirely.
Why: Edge control is what makes form, atmosphere, and focus. It matters as much as value and colour in making a painting feel real.
4. Refine the colour relationships and temperature
Build on the first colour masses, refining the notes and watching the relationship between warm and cool.
Why: Accurate colour is a matter of correct relationships, not just matching one local colour. Catching the temperature shifts is what makes the sensation of light.
5. Integrate and finish with accents
Pull it all together, restate the focal point, and add the final highlights or dark accents that complete the statement.
Why: The finish is not about rendering every detail, it is about making sure the painting delivers its message with clarity and authority.

Refusals — what they would not do

Refused to paint without a solid drawing foundation, which he held to be the essential starting point.
Refused to put colour ahead of value and edges, teaching a strict order of fundamentals.
Refused absorbent acrylic "gesso" grounds for the wipe-out start, since they stop the paint from lifting.
Refused to lean on formulas, teaching deep observation and trusting what you actually see instead.

Reference

Primary source: The live model and the landscape. His whole method is built around direct painting from life, alla prima.
Photography: Though he was an expert at photographing artwork for reproduction, his painting method rested on direct observation from life, not on transcribing photographs.

Exceptions

The paintings in his books and videos are demonstrations of the method, made to teach.

Lineage

Every teacher and student below sits on the site-wide teacher-student map.

Teachers

William H. Mosby · 1950s, at the American Academy of Art in Chicago — A technical master of European and American realism who taught a classical approach grounded in working from life, using the methods of the Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish masters. Schmid's foundational teacher.

Influences

The direct-painting traditions of the Flemish, Dutch, and Spanish schools, carried to him by William H. Mosby.
Gianni Cilfone, a landscape painter whose plein-air approach was a further influence.

Students

Nancy Guzik, painter, his student and later his wife.
Michelle Dunaway, portrait painter, who credits him with giving her permission to follow her own voice.
Katie Swatland, his student and technical assistant, who collaborated on and authored the Alla Prima II Companion.
Daniel Gerhartz, who said meeting Schmid "changed everything" and opened his eyes to the world of fine art.
Countless painters reached through his books and videos, among them Dan Schultz, who credits Schmid's writings with shaping his own work and teaching.

In their own words

“He taught me to identify and understand what I am passionate about and then paint it.”

— Nancy Guzik, The Art of Nancy Guzik, "The Master, Richard Schmid", 2014

Schmid's wife and student on the core of his teaching: connecting personal feeling to technical skill.

“in a way because he followed his own voice he gave me permission to follow my own voice. And I know he's done that for people across the globe.”

— Michelle Dunaway, Vision X Live Art Conference, "Richard Schmid Tribute", 2021

A mentored artist on how Schmid's own example encouraged individuality rather than imitation.

Techniques and practices

alla-prima-direct-painting

color-charts

monochrome-block-in

selective-start

edges-values-color-hierarchy

drawing-as-foundation

Questions and answers

What is Richard Schmid's alla prima method?

A method of direct painting from life, aiming to finish a work in a single session. It puts a strong foundation in drawing, values, and edges before colour, and pushes a joyful, observational approach to catching light and form.

What is Richard Schmid's most important book?

Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting, and More (2013) is his definitive work. It is an expanded version of his 1998 classic and is treated as a foundational text for contemporary realist painters, covering his whole philosophy and technique.

What are the Richard Schmid colour charts?

A systematic exercise where a painter mixes every colour on the palette with every other colour, plus white, and charts the results. The goal is an intuitive, complete knowledge of how your paints behave, so there is no guesswork while you paint.

What is a transparent monochrome block-in?

A starting technique Schmid taught. You cover a non-absorbent canvas with a thin layer of one transparent colour, then use a rag or paper towel to wipe out the light areas. It settles the drawing and value structure before any colour goes down.

What was Richard Schmid's oil paint palette?

It included Cadmium Lemon, the Cadmium yellows, Cadmium Red Light, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Viridian, and earths like Yellow Ochre and Transparent Oxide Red, plus Titanium White and Ivory Black. He used Gamblin paints later in his career.

Who were the Putney Painters?

A group of artists, including Richard Schmid and his wife Nancy Guzik, who painted together in Putney, Vermont. It was an informal group built on camaraderie and mutual learning, with Schmid a mentor to many of the members.

If this painter is your match

You believe painting is a joyful response to the beauty of the world, and you want to catch it directly from life. You need a logical, step-by-step way into the fundamentals: drawing, values, edges, and colour, in that order. You learn best from a generous teacher who holds nothing back.

Borrow this: Master your palette by making colour charts. Start a painting with a transparent monochrome wipe-out to nail the drawing and values. Lay in the big shapes first, connecting them with carefully controlled edges. Trust what you see, paint with joy, and finish in one session.

Adjacent painters

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio1571–1610

A painter who blacked out every window but one, refused preparatory drawing entirely, and built each canvas back to front, painting foreground figures over backgrounds that were still wet.

Carolus-Duran1837–1917

A bravura portrait painter who threw out academic underdrawing, taught his students to attack the canvas with a loaded brush in the first sitting, and built a face from flat tones of matched value set side by side like a mosaic.

Charles Webster Hawthorne1872–1930

The founder of the Cape Cod School of Art who taught painting in colour spots, posing backlit figures outdoors and working them with a putty knife, mass before detail.

Carel Fabritius1622–1654

Rembrandt's most independent pupil, who reversed his master by laying cool, light-toned grounds, setting a sharply lit figure against a pale wall, and who died young when the Delft gunpowder store exploded.

Primary sources

Richard Schmid, Alla Prima II: Everything I Know About Painting, and More, 2013. The definitive, expanded edition of his landmark book, codifying his whole teaching philosophy and method. The primary source for his system. [link]
Katie Swatland, Alla Prima II Companion: Richard Schmid's Materials, Tools and Techniques, 2014. The exhaustive technical guide to Schmid's studio practice, written by his assistant in close collaboration with him. [link]
Richard Schmid, Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting, 1998. The original 1998 classic that became a standard text in realist art education and made his name as a master teacher.
Richard Schmid instructional videos. A large collection of videos demonstrating his process in real time, including landscape and portrait painting. [link]
Richard Schmid Fine Art Foundation. The non-profit Schmid set up to preserve and pass on his artistic and educational legacy, run by his wife Nancy Guzik and a board. [link]

See how every master in the atlas worked, indexed by method →