Student Reviews & Testimonials on Social Media
These are real public posts, comments, student reviews, and independent mentions of Lena Rivo’s online art courses, including Oil Pastel Mastery and Color Mastery. They were shared organically by students and artists in public art communities such as Reddit, YouTube, Facebook, and other social platforms. Whenever possible, each review links directly to the original source.
Lena Rivo’s courses focus on oil pastel painting, gouache painting, color theory for artists, color mixing, light and shadow, painting technique, and building confidence with traditional art materials. The comments below reflect real student experiences with Lena Rivo’s lessons, online painting courses, oil pastel techniques, gouache studies, and practical color training.
COLOR MASTERY
This is my gouache painting after the new lesson from (the fantastic, did I say it already?!) Lena Rivo's painting online course.
I decided to take her online color course and haven’t looked back! Best investment I could have made. She is a great teacher, always accessible and answers questions and explains very satisfactorily.
She’s incomparable. I learned so much from her class.
I am taking a Gouache master class from Lena Rivo online. She is an extremely accomplished Gouache artist.
Lena Rivo your work is so very beautiful. I am always in awe. I have learned a tremendous amount from your masterclass. Much appreciated!
I have taken several. By far the best one is with Lena Rivo.
I’ve just signed up for Lena Rivo Art gouache lessons. I am amazed to have lifetime access to a course, because I also use other media and am scrambling to finish, varnish and frame a body if work, otherwise I wouldn’t be willing to plunk down money for it. I’m also taking other art lessons in other media, but I wanted a course specifically on gouache. She also paints water and beach scenes extensively, something I struggle with, and is very good at light and shadows and making grays from complementary colors and portraying light.
As a teacher, Lena is wonderful. She is thorough covering materials, drawing and demonstrating what she teaches. I don’t know about anybody else, but as a student I feel I have to like what my teacher/mentor can do, and I just love Lena’s work!
I’m taking it and will be referring to it often. I love her style and she’s great at explaining her color choices and how she achieves the vibrancy in her Paintings.
I took her course and read all of her materials. I just love her style! Learned so much from her, and she offers a lot of free materials, too. Very generous with her expertise and tips.
I’m in the middle of the course- love it!!!!
Yes, I took the course. It’s wonderful, well presented and thorough. She really gives good explanations.
She very good. I think you couldn't find a better teacher
You will love her course!
Lena has a course and it’s worth every penny. I did it last summer.
Lena Rivo is a master with gouache. I'm sure you'll get a lot out of the course.
I agree. Lena is terrific!
I'm in the process of taking Lena Rivo's course on gouache. It may be more than you were wanting to spend, but it is comprehensive and oh so good.
I like the course because you are able to move at your pace. At the beginning you learn how to compose and draw the painting, mix colors and she teaches all about values.
Lena’s a superhuman no gouache artist can compete with in coloring!
Personally I think this course is well suited to an intermediate painter because she does go quickly with her colour mixing in the studies. However, the course has excellent beginner content (drawing, mixing, color theory), but you may end up having to do the studies slowly and really practicing the early content, which is ok since you have the time!
This course is very impressive with over 20 hours of lessons. Lena explains the whole process from start to finish. I haven't seen a better one. :)
I like the class Lena Rivo offers. It’s called Color Mastery and it was a good investment for me.
Love your work as always Lena! I am chipping my way slowly through your colour mastery essentials course 😍
My first finished painting from Lena Rivo's Color Mastery course! Still getting used to how wiggly paintbrushes are, but I'm really happy with it.
Latest gouache painting from Lena Rivo's Color Mastery course!! This one took a lot longer than any of the others so far. Running my hand over it, the oranges noticeably stand up off the page, just because of how many layers I put on them while trying to get the color right. 😅
Second gouache painting from Lena Rivo's Color Mastery course!
I took Lena Rivo's gouache Color Mastery course, which was massively helpful to my art overall, and now I'm taking her oil pastel course which has a lot of the same information but even more in-depth and specifically for using oil pastels.
Check out Lena Rivo, she’s great. Has free pdf info and tips on her website plus a YouTube channel, and also offers a gouache course.
Pls look into purchasing Lena Rivo's Color Mastery course- I can't tell you how much this has helped me in color theory, line drawing, and painting techniques and I am not even halfway done yet.
Lena Rivo’s Color Mastery course. It is absolutely fantastic, worth every penny!
Lena Rivo! I love your work. I’m one of your students for your online course, awesome stuff!
I like the class Lena Rivo offers. It’s called Color Mastery and it was a good investment for me.
Ive been having fun with the Lena Rivo Art Color Mastery course. Trying to work through it slowly and thoroughly.
I took that course too and it’s wonderful.
Color mastery by Lena Rivo. It has everything you need. Her gouache guide is a great starting point.
I am a Lena Rivo student too. She has free guides. But the color Mastery course is fabulous especially for those looking to make art for sale.
Lena Rivo- her classes are now lifetime access! She walks you through drawing, color mixing, and painting, including blending and layering the paint. When you complete the course, you will have everything you need to move forward.
Painting from Lena Rivo’s comprehensive painting with gouache course. She has free e-books and tutorials on YouTube as well.
This is gouache week for my art goals. This is a lesson from Lena Rivo in her exquisite color Mastery Course.
This exercise took me 3 days and 2 tubes of white. 😉 Gouache on Arches Paper (Exercise from Lena Rivo course)
I loved Lena’s course. I may revisit.
I highly recommend Lena Rivo. Might be my favorite online class ever.
Lena Rivo, amazing artist and her class offers a wealth of useful information. Check her website.
One of the exercises that I´ve made for a gouache course (course is given by Lena Rivo
Lena Rivo has some great videos on Youtube and has courses you can take.
Lena Rivo - check out her posts and she runs online courses for guache!
I just finished Lena Rivo's wonderful gouache painting course. 😍 I had never used gouache before and I found her videos on Youtube when I was searching for help. It was like finding a goldmine and to make things more amazing my husband and I got to meet Lena last year when we were in Portugal for 3 weeks. That was a highlight of our trip without doubt! She is as lovely, gracious and amazing as her paintings we all enjoy!! Thank you Lena Rivo for sharing your incredible talent and knowledge in such a professional and fantastic course!
Working through the beautiful lessons in Lena Rivo Color Mastery.
A great course and tutor.
I took her gouache painting course a few years ago and I learned more than in any art class I took in college years ago. If you or anyone you know might be interested in this course make sure to check it out!! It’s worth every penny!!
I took her course on color mastery. It is worth.
Therefore it is important to state that this painting was done from a photo by lena rivo’s course on gouache. Check her out, she is a great instructor.
Pleased to have signed up for your class!
Here's my attempt at a still life from Lena Rivo's Color Mastery course.
I am taking Lena Rivo’s course and follow her recommendations for fine art.
Lena Рivo is artist who offers phenominal help.
Lena Rivo 100%
I did her course and it was really good and I liked that I could work at my pace.
Lena Rivo! Her classes are wonderful, thorough and easy to follow along. She’s an amazing artist and she provides you with instructions to download.
Lena Rivo best teacher
The course Color Mastery with Lena Rivo is helping me to mix colors so much better in other media as well. I got a great sense of satisfaction when finishing this painting.
I'm doing that course as well! Lena Rivo explains everything so well - I am learning a lot!
A figure/color value study from a lesson in @lenarivo ‘s awwwesome gouache mastery course. I’m having lots of fun learning this new medium(lessons that will apply to oil paint as well 🙌🏻), and highly recommend the course if you’re interested in gouache!
A gouache painting I did as part of @lenarivo online painting course. Brilliant artist and an excellent teacher.
I had so much fun to paint this little still life from @lenarivo online courses !
This is my work so far for @lenarivo online class , these are the ones that made the grade.
Practicing gouache painting technique, and learning from the great Gouache-Mastery course of @lenarivo
Ready with another exercise and mastering gouache painting technique (learning from @lenarivo - thank you!
I've learned a lot about controlling gouache, mixing clean and grey colours, and Lena's process on how she approaches painting from photos without making it just like a copy of a photo.
Her beautiful demos were painted with gouache, but I used oils. I learned so much in this course, not the least of which was the importance of knowing how to mix clean colors and luminous grays! I definitely recommend taking the class, especially if you want to learn from a master how to paint with gouache as well as simple and effective ways to mix beautiful colors!
I learned so much, mainly about how important it is to slow down and pay careful attention to every aspect of a drawing and a painting.
Light and shadow, color mixing. Very useful tutorial from @lenarivo
I’m finally sitting down and doing the work for my fantastic and in-depth Color Mastery class by @lenarivo. I have only the most rudimentary understanding of color mixing, hue, value, tone, composition etc, plus how to effectively use gouache, and this class explains those things.
I am more than happy to have finished this course that took me months to complete. I can finally show you the beautiful exercises that resulted from the invaluable teachings of Lena Rivo. Honestly the course was worth every penny, each lesson is pure gold for understanding color, light, values and mixing. Before this course, I had been painting for almost 10 years, and everything I knew about theory and practice was learnt on my own, until I decided to learn professionally from an artist I admire and respect. I absorbed her teachings so quickly because I felt she spoke the same language as I did, and she was able to show me the mistakes I had been making and why I wasn't getting the color mixes I wanted. Now I can understand better how to look at color and how to perfect the way I paint. All these exercises were intensive, each one more difficult than the last, I dared to paint with gouache in a way that I had never seen before, and now I know that this is just the beginning to continue with my improvement of the technique and to achieve my own paintings with such mastery. A thousand thanks Lena, for all your teachings, for your comments on instagram and for being a great inspiration. This knowledge is for life.
I find the best way to articulate my own process is to try someone elses... I'm currently learning gouache thru Lena Rivo's online course.
Oil Pastel Mastery
Hello Lena! I’ve recently taken both of your classes - gouache and oil pastels. I’ve enjoyed both immensely! If you were to put out a soft pastel class- I would sign up in an instant. Big fan.
I am taking her course! I am skipping around because I want to paint, not draw. Her lessons in her method of drawing are valuable and I will get back to them. I think this course is a good foundation in a method of using oil pastels. But there are other techniques based on the oil pastel art I've seen.
So I've just finished the Lena Rivo course and here is a selection of my drawings from it. I found it really valuable. Her teaching style was very good and the course content is really useful. I guess for me now, the question is can I remember it all and put it into practice when I'm trying to make my own original art.
I'm taking Lena Rivo's oil pastel course, which I highly recommend if you can afford it. A lot of the principles are carried over from her gouache course, Color Mastery, which was my first breakthrough into understanding how to really see and analyze colors. Both courses are really expensive, but just watching her talk through her color decisions was massively helpful.
Oil pastels are definitely a unique and challenging medium! Lena Rivo has an excellent and very thorough oil pastels course. It’s a little spendy, but it’ll keep you going for a long time and covers a lot of ground. She’s also got a free guide here.
Here's my go at the woman in the chair from Lena Rivo's oil pastel course. Really enjoying the course!!
I recently registered for Lena Rivo’s oil pastel class and am currently working my way through the material. What I will say is that it’s an incredibly thorough class and I’m learning a lot. She works in a traditional, realism style, which is great for learning, even though it isn’t the style I normally work in. I’d say, if you really want to do a deep dive, it’s worth it. The class will keep you going for a while! That said, if it’s too spendy for you at the moment, I’m sure you can find free classes on YouTube, they just won’t be presented in such a logical, thorough way.
I’ve also been doing Lena Rivo’s class and really learning a lot! I have some art background so I knew some of the theory already but it’s been so helpful to see it applied specifically to oil pastels. I did a lot of different YouTube tutorials but any serious oil pastel beginner can benefit from her class. It’s a great overview along with giving a lot of different demonstrations to practice.
This is the boat from her oil pastel course. I'm not quite getting the feel she has but I do think I'm progressing. I learned about saturating colours with grey and beige on this one which will be useful in the future I think.
Lena Rivo has an excellent and very thorough oil pastels course. It’s a little spendy, but it’ll keep you going for a long time and covers a lot of ground. She’s also got a free guide here. Blackbean CMS also has some great videos on YouTube, and his style is very different from Lena’s.
For context, I'm working through the Oil Pastel course by Lena Rivo and really enjoy the teaching style and method if anyone is familiar with it.
Thank you! I'm taking Lena Rivo's oil pastel course, but haven't gotten to the actual oil pastels section (still in the drawing section), so I've just been using stuff I learned in her gouache course and it's working pretty well!
I'm taking Lena Rivo's oil pastel course, and it has a drawing section at the beginning where she teaches contour drawing, which can be applied to anything!
So I've just started getting into art and I chose oil pastels to start. I'm really enjoying it and working though the Lena Rivo course and producing what I think is some ok stuff.
I'm currently working through the Lena Rivo oil pastel course which is excellent.
I found her oil pastel course really valuable. She's a good teacher.
... I learnt this from Lena Rivo's online oil pastel course.
BTW, Lena is an excellent teacher.
I’m so excited for your new class!!!
A figure/color value study from a lesson in @lenarivo ‘s awwwesome gouache mastery course. I’m having lots of fun learning this new medium(lessons that will apply to oil paint as well 🙌🏻), and highly recommend the course if you’re interested in gouache!
