Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
The delivery of a portrait. After all these years, I am used to it. For the client, however, it´s a special moment. This time, transfer was in Amsterdam at Galerie Morren, who mediated this commission. In addition to the customer and his wife, a number of family members were also present. There was good wine and delicious snacks: portrait delivery is always a party. Continue reading “Satisfactory deliveries of some commissions”
Rarely an artist wants to talk about it and certainly not show it : A failed job. You would rather share a glorious victory, than admit your loss. Even though you’re a successful painter, every so often it happens that you might get stuck. With non-commissioned work it does not necessarily have to lead to a problem, but when it comes to a commission it surely does. The client expects a top performance from you. I assume that you yourself are many times more critical than the client. (If not, you need to seriously doubt your artistic attitude).
I speak from experience: failing is more common than you might think. I wrote recently about this and I come back to it because it is an important fact. Why? I am convinced that you learn more from your failures than from your successes. What do you do in such a case?
Don´t keep muddling on and painting like a headless chicken, hoping that the problem will correct itself with a fluke. Lay down your brushes and stop.
Don´t panic; analyze the failure.
My statement for this week: You always feel as good or bad as your last painting.
If you don´t have the opportunity to study from live nude models, the internet provides a great solution. Search for “nude models for artists”. It’s obviously not the same as far as spatial perception, but it is excellent to study proportions, masses, light and shade etc. of the human figure. It has never been so easy. I wonder what, for example Peter Paul Rubens would have said if he could have seen us studying this way! See also this post that I wrote about portraits models.
By means of this image I want to explain something that I do often.
In this portrait the light source comes from the top left. Consequently the shadow on the face is on the right side, on the chin. Sometimes it works well to have a high contrast in the values between the cast shadow and the background. That means I make this part of the background a lot lighter than the rest of the area.
When teaching I explain it this way: It’s possible to give a portrait some fresh air.
Occasionally I have a request to include a pet in a portrait. That’s usually a dog. Often the client asks, “Is it hard to make a portrait with a dog?” In itself it is not difficult. The problem is usually in the photo session. You can´t say to a dog “Sit there and look at the camera.” Some dogs are easy but not all. I have a dog myself and I know from experience how they can react. So when I’m going to do a photo shoot for a portrait in which a dog is to be included, I am prepared. I do this: I ignore the creature altogether from the moment I enter the sitters home. If not, he won´t stop trying to convince me that he is the cutest dog in the world. Which does not benefit the session pose.
Funnily enough, with children I often have a similar approach. In the beginning I don´t pay too much attention. Later I try, unobtrusively, to win their trust. At that moment I play the role of an actor, more than a portrait painter.
Soon my new blog will be launched, with a new design, and adapted to the requirements of Google for mobile phones etc. It’s a big project and I am working on it with my friend Bas in France. Apart from this project I also have a list of commissions to be painted and delivered by mid-November. So you see, I’m really busy. Barely time to write you. But what I want to tell you is that we have started again with our weekly portrait painting from life sessions. For two hours each week I work from a live model with a number of fellow artists here in the village. It’s really fun to paint together.
Portrait Painting is my daily work, you know already. I spend much of my life in my studio, behind the easel. It is therefore very important that my workplace be ideal. Not only in terms of lighting, but the spatial layout should be well thought out and the materials must be of good quality. That sounds obvious. Yet I sometimes see workplaces that are far from good. I do not understand that. Even when painting is just your hobby, plan everything that this entails in such a way that it is optimally organised.
Someone once said: “A good portrait starts with what you had for dinner last night”.Think it over
The answer to my question of two weeks ago, where in this watercolour portrait I applied two gouache strokes, is this: the bright reflected light under the chin and the blue accent on the collar of the shirt. Among the good answers I raffeld a DVD.
The DVD goes to:
Marija Gaspar from Zagreb. Congratulations Marija!
Thank you all for your participation.
Paul C. Burns says: “An artist is a visual recorder of facts, not a psychologist probing the sitter’s self.” I largely agree with him. Paint what you see before you. Still, I find it important to know something of the character of the model. It can help whilst posing. Posing is an interaction between the sitter and I. A model feels more at ease when I am patient and sympathetic. My attitude must be inviting. Only then can we create something good. In the end a model should give me something that I can give back in the portrait.
The model in this image I know well and I know her character. She is energetic and vigorous. I suppose that it has become visible. In my enthusiasm however I overlooked a small detail. I now see that the fingers of her right hand are spread too wide. The model’s energy and vigor has therefore become a little too exaggerated.
There is always a detail that you would like to change when you look back on your own work.
Portrait painting is my daily job. But don´t think that everything always runs smoothly for me. It sometimes happens to me that a portrait fails. In the case of a commission it is a big problem. Of course over the years I have developed a routine wherein I, step by step, can detect a possible problem and fix it. Needless to say, that belongs to my profession. But sometimes it happens that I desperately wonder how to proceed when I find my self in deep trouble.
Once I was in such despair that I decided to destroy the portrait on my easel. Eventually I realized that that was ridiculous. After a while I decided to start over again the next day. I went into the garden to work and have some distraction. Then, when I came back in my studio, I saw the abortive work on the easel. As the painting already was screwed up I decided, I could just haphazardly do some muddling.
And what was the result? In fifteen minutes the portrait was back on track and after an hour it was finished! I was satisfied and later certainly the customer was.
What now is the essence of my story? (Evident of course): If you tend to get stuck do not despair but take distance and relax. The solution may be within reach, but you don´t see it because you’re so wired up.
Sheer willpower can sometimes be destructive!