Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Sometimes you do not want to say goodbye to a portrait. Therefore, it took a long time before I could deliver this painting. But eventually all work has to leave the studio. That´s life.
I added this post on 9 may 2012. The portrait was delivered on the 10th. The grandfather was really proud and the same evening he called his friends to invite them to see the painting. The next morning the poor man died. What a tragic message!
I also made a Youtube version:
It took some more time than I thought. But now it is available. Tutorial How to paint a portrait: Portrait of a little boy.
I hope that the information I give is clear and that the video is not to long.
Teaching method and order.
I was talking earlier about concentration and decisions.
In portrait painting we will meet a number of difficulties such as the composition, the chiaroscuro, the colours, and last but not least, the likeness. If you want to solve all these problems simultaneously, I mean, starting the portrait without any preparation, right from scratch you will have to fight on multiple fronts. Why not separate the difficulties, and attack them one by one especially if you´re a beginner.
Your brain can only make a limited number of decisions before it slows down. That has been proven. So if you break up these tasks you will reduce the number of errors. Right. Now some people say: starting from scratch makes you more open minded, and you will make unexpected discoveries. To a certain extent I agree. But still I say, learn control first, when you have more experience, you can allow yourself more freedom in your approach: Control first, freedom later.
Better to have a controlled run-up than a hit and miss attempt.
We are living for 23 years now in Spain and I still enjoy our life here very much. Nice country and nice people. I never miss Holland but sometimes when I see my older watercolours I want to go for a short walk in the polder.
I have already mentioned our trip to St. Petersburg. The first stop on this holiday was Helsinki. There in the Athenaeum Museum I saw some amazing paintings by Ilya Repin. In Groningen (The Netherlands) in 2002 I saw the work of Repin for the first time and I was really impressed. I admired Haulers on the Volga , but another painting , Unexpected Return. was different; he shows himself as a story teller like Norman Rockwell in his covers for the Saturday Evening Post.
Previously during the holidays in St. Petersburg we had seen the Ceremonial Meeting of the State Council also by Repin. In Helsinki a similar painting hangs in the museum restaurant. It’s painted after he changed to using his left hand. (I knew he suffered from osteoarthritis at a later age. From then he started to paint with his left hand, and his style changed dramatically.) The painting in the restaurant of the Helsinki museum was of exceptional size, and like the ‘State Council’, with a crowd of characters. However, in this painting Repin has lost all sense of drama and composition. I don’t think that it’s just because he’s changed hands. It’s a mysterious and monstrous piece of art, and hard to find in any catalogue.
Still, Repin is one of my greatest favourites!
Here you see some of my watercolours. People asked me if I could teach watercolour. It sounds strange but I hardly know myself what I am doing. There is to much secret in this technique. I learned a lot by looking to other artists.
See more at my site www.lustenhouwer.com
Last week I started a new demonstration in the series How to paint a portrait.
This video is of a little boy. I think to publish it before summer. Hopefully together with the demonstration of the portrait of a man.
Edouard Manet painted his sister-in-law Berthe Morisot more than once. In this portrait “Le Repose” he shows his evident affection for her. I think the speculation that Berthe and Edouard may have enjoyed more than romantic feelings is obvious.
Who knows more about this relationship ?
Sketch and final.
When I first saw this portrait of Louis Pasteur in Musée d´Orsay, Paris years ago I had not heard of the author Albert Edelfelt. The painting made a lasting impression on me. Great execution in every way. Composition, color and ciarosuro. Years later I happened to see the preliminary oil sketch in the Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki. What a discovery!
Compare the sketch to the final artwork and you see how the work has risen to great heights.
