Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Almost all my commissions are portraits in oils. In in the past I made a few in watercolour. Here you see one of a boy. The other of my daughter that I made exactly fifteen years ago. If I had more time I would pay more attention to this fantastic technique. People often ask me to teach in this. But it still has too many secrets to me. Someday maybe?
This week I put the finishing touches to the portrait of this young lady. A commission proceeded through my gallery in the Netherlands. For this occasion I show here also the pencil sketch. Such small, basic sketches I usually show to the client, it is explicitly not meant to already judge the resemblance. The idea is that I like to show how I want to represent the model, and to clarify the cropping. Therefore I make this drawing in the most simple way possible. After all, I have a choice out of a variety of photos and the customer wants to know in advance how the portrait will look like. If I would make the drawing more detailed, it would distract from that intention. I am glad the client gave permission to show this portrait on my blog.
Some twenty years ago I was asked to make a number of storyboard illustrations for a big movie project. I can´t remember what the script was exactly about. Anyway the set was presented in the Mayan culture in the dense Central American jungle. If I ‘m not mistaken there were also all kinds of fantasy creatures involved. And actors like Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek were sought-after.
In 1977, my wife and I made a tour to visit the pyramids & ancient sites in South and Central America . From the Aztecs in Mexico to the Incas in Peru. Trough this I had sufficient own photographs of those locations and I could use them as the basis for the illustrations. If ever the movie was released, I don´t know but the watercolours are still here in a box and I found them today whilst clearing away my studio. Memories hence, not only to the time I still occasionally made illustrations, but also keepsakes of our trip, where we got to know each other better.
It’s 1961. I’m less than ten years old. I need a haircut. Something that I am not really looking forward to, but… at the barber´s, in the magazine rack, there is a thick stack of Panorama´s.
For me it can not last long enough until it is my turn. I handpick all editions whose covers are painted by Kurt Art. I can sit for hours examining in amazement. The images look like photographs but if you look closely you see that they are painted; illustrations! I have the idea that I am the only one who get that message, and in a strange way I feel that these covers are painted only for me. I am not even 10 years old…
It would be an exaggeration to say that this experience made me choose to become an illustrator or even an artist, but now, when I think back, I clearly rememberer that moment of sparkling light. A scintilla that would kindle a never-dying fire.
Of course by that time I never had heard of Norman Rockwell nor The Saturday Evening Post. That all came much later.
In 1987, in New York, having lunch with two fellow illustrators at the restaurant of the Society of illustrators, I was seated right under the large painting The Dover Coach of Norman Rockwell. In this restaurant you could not come in, if you were´nt invited by one of its members. I found myself inside that particular world that I began to dream of as a child, at the hairdressers in the early sixties.
Work in progress.
In this short video I put together a few shots of the stages of the painting process.
The portrait will be delivered soon, as well as the portrait that you see behind the easel on the wall. That is a gift to Rob Kietselaer, who is playing his beautiful compositions in some of my video´s.
Next week I return to Burgundy, France where students will be waiting for my portrait painting courses. Old and new faces again and this time very international. I will have to speak four languages interchangeably. I am looking forward to start again!
In addition to my previous post. I can tell you about mistakes in painting because all of them I made myself. I have been there also. Here some more reflections:
Through willpower alone you don´t make a good painting. The extent of relax is fundamental. Enjoy the journey: traveling is better than arriving.
Make a painting primarily for yourself. Don´t think about what others will say. That makes you afraid of making mistakes and this fear is a handbrake on your progress!
I often think of what Ned Jacob said: I want to continue growing. It´s false security to win success.
What are “Amber Traffic Lights” in painting?
Easily Overlooked Mistakes.
For instance:
Try to recognize these moments. In the end you will realize that losing time in preparations means gaining time in painting.
My latest acquisition: an iPad holder on my easel.
Earlier this year, one of my students at the portrait painting course in France designed an iPad holder for his easel. He ordered his tool-maker to carry out his invention. He showed me the thing, and I was very excited. I asked him to order one for me also. Here this you see the result. It is a fantastic tool. I can tilt my iPad in all imaginable positions.
But… unfortunately, he assured me there is no possibility to bring further into production this device. So don´t ask me…
See also: adjustments to my easel
Today I received a question on Youtube how I save the oil paint on my palette the night over. See this very short video, that is an excerpt from the tutorial “Portrait of a Little Boy”
You also can cover your paint with kitchen shrink wrap of course.
As I told you last week, I was in The Prado, Madrid to see the Velazquez´s among others. I had a break to see some Spanish impressionist´s in between. At the end of my visit I was exhausted. All these beautiful paintings can drive you crazy in the end. Leaving the museum I came across this portrait of Anthony van Dyck: Man with a lute. My tiredness disappeared as if by magic, believe me or not. An overwhelming experience. What a straightforward power of values and pattern! Now, at home writing this post I leafed through the book Classical Painting Atelier by Juliette Aristides. And she describes exactly the same sensation at the end of a visit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The secret is is in the simple strength of values.
Be sure to see the entire painting in high resolution at the beautiful Prado´s website.
I made two copies in photoshop. The left one to show the basic composition and the other a display of the chiaroscuro. Both of serene simplicity and power.
