Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Looking back on some of my portrait commissions from the old days, I sometimes do with trepidation and mixed feelings. More than once it just happens that I´am no longer completely satisfied. These works I will not show you of course, haha! But occasionally I see something and I think: Not that bad.
When I was 11 years old I received my first drawing lessons from Beatus Nijs. I´ve written about him before. To him I owe much of the success of my entire career. He was like a father to me. He encouraged me enormously and made me draw everything that was available. He once gave me a table leg to study as homework. I found a drawing pad of mine from 1964 with this pencil drawing. I was 13 years old. If you look closely you can see on the right side Beatus´ drawing correction. Continue reading “I loved all kinds of drawing”
I have never been very stocky and my weight has never made me any concern. But now I see the studies that I made in front of the mirror when I was twenty years old, I do see a very skinny body. However, I could see enough muscles to name them.
I will not reveal my actual weight…
I’ve never been very stocky and my weight has never made me any concern.
But now I see the studies that I made in front of the mirror when I was twenty years old, I do see a very skinny body. However, I could see enough muscles to name them.
I will not reveal my actual weight…
In addition to my previous post.
I was a young kid, maybe ten years old. I really wanted to learn to draw. I practised a lot. But I already knew that exercise alone was not enough. I would also have to purchase study books. However it still took some years before I would convert my plan into action. Money was scarce at our house: we were eight children. Eight mouths to be fed; eight children to be clothed. One day, the sixties had dawned and a fledging financial relief appeared on the horizon: I received my initial pocket money! (The first 10 cents I spent on a bag of new nails. I liked carpentry and was tired of straightening and reusing the rusty, bent nails as my father showed me.)
After months and months of saving I gathered enough capital to proceed with the purchase. I remember I walked into the book store. I went straight to the small section arts and crafts, right to the book that I had already browsed through so many times: ZO LEER JE TEKENEN (This way you learn how to draw). I settled the bill, the book was neatly packed, and I left the shop. Proud as a peacock I went home.
I really don´t remember if I studied a lot from that book. I will have examined the pictures, but much text I will have skipped. I had mild difficulty with written text. And for many theories I was too impatient. Still the book is in my library and occasionally I look through it. The work is far too difficult for a young kid, I know now. Later genuine drawing skills I learned from Beatus Nijs. I am still grateful to have had the opportunity to follow his classes. (see below)
I was about four years old. In the parish house of our village, around Christmas time, a performance was organized for the children of members of the Catholic Labor Union. I was late, the show had started already. In the half-light I found an empty seat in the back of the hall. On the stage stood a man in front of a huge desk with a large sheet of paper. In smooth lines he drew all kinds of everything on the paper. First a seat and, right beside, a table. At that table he draw a lamp. Even more to the right and slightly above the lamp he drew a light switch. What he did then I shall never forget in my whole life. He pressed on the drawn switch and turned on the lamp!!! Real electric light came shining from the drawing paper! I was ecstatic! I felt a sort of sensation I could only put into words years later. This man did his show for nobody else other than me! As if I was the only boy in the hall.
Then he said, he would make a quick drawing of someone from the audience, I thought he must have me! But I was way in the back of that dark hall. In a reflex, I stood up and leaned against the back wall. That was the right move! The man looked into the hall and said, “That little boy back there,” and pointed at me. I was chosen and had to come on the scene! He quickly drew in a few surefire lines my face in profile.
I kept the drawing for years. The experience of that day has always remained with me crisp and clear. The blissful feeling of being elected and becoming part of the great secret of the art of drawing, determined my direction.
Years later, I met the man by chance. I talked about that day, but he could not remember me. Obviously. But he is etched in my memory. His name was Father Hilarius.
It is not always as difficult as it seems.
As a child I drew many portraits from magazines. We could not afford a variety of periodicals, so my selection of images was limited. HoweverI made dozens of small sketches and I’ve learned a lot doing so. Now times have changed. If you want to study portrait drawing and models or magazines aren´t available, then do this: Search in Google for “faces”. The section images gives you a choice of thousands of faces. People with fair skin, dark skin, young, old, happy, angry etc. Never it was so easy to practise your drawing skills. So, no excuses anymore! Sit down behind the screen (put on your favorite music) and start drawing. Have fun!
See also this post.
One of the first people I met in Spain was Sento Llobell a fellow worker in art. Over the years he and his wife have become very good friends of ours. Sento is a famous cartoonist, he has published quite a few albums of his own work. He received international recognition for the graphic novel “Un Médico Novato” for which he won the Premio Internacional VI Fnac Sins Entido. The story is based on a true narrative of Sento’s father in law Pablo Uriel, who was starting his career as a doctor during the civil war (1936-1939). Under his own auspices Sento has published the second part of this history “Atrapado en Belchite” and yesterday the book was launched in Belchite, a town in Zaragoza where in 1937 a bloody battle took place between the republicans and the army of the future dictator Francisco Franco. For propaganda reasons Franco never rebuilt the place and to this day it is a gruesome reminder of the Spanish Civil War. Part of Sento´s story takes place in this city during that combat and hence he chose this place to present the book.
I admit it: I had a prejudice against art historians. I would prefer to look for myself rather than listen to someone else talking about it. My stupid shortsightedness! Last Friday I attended the conference “American Impressionism”, organized by and at the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid. I enjoyed tremendously the lectures and the expertise of the lecturers! The starting point of the conference was the influence of the French impressionism on the American art of the late 19th century. Continue reading “American impressionism in Madrid (2)”
It’s been 25 years since we arrived in Valencia. We came for one year but never left. Since then I could work exclusively with portrait painting. One of the first contacts we had in Valencia was the German Consul. I remember he said: “Ben, if you want to integrate well here, you should know whether to talk on Monday morning about football or paella“. I think we are very well integrated, but whether it was due to the advice of the consul I do not know. I do love football and paella though. I myself think that making friends is one of the most important things that you need to do to feel at home in a country. And we have made countless friendships in the recent decades. One of our many friends is Maria. She is a pianist and teaches at the conservatory. Last year I made a short video when she played Camille Saint-Saëns with her friend Carla.
This weekend we were guests of her parents. Vicente, Maria´s father, is a specialist in making paella in the traditional Valencian way. Below is a photo report, and a link to the recipe of traditional Valencian paella.
