Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Portrait painting from photography, what do you need to know?
The portrait all the way at the bottom is painted from a live session. Based on this portrait I will show you what are the pitfalls in case of portrait painting from photography. Continue reading “Portrait painting from photography”
When I worked this week on a quick sketch of this portrait, again it came to mind how often I see students paint almost without any paint on the canvas. Far too thin and almost transparent. Continue reading “Portrait painters: use more paint!”
Protection of an oil painting.
When the portrait is dry to the touch, it is advisable to apply a coat of retouch varnish. For two reasons.
Continue reading “Portrait painting lessons (10) after treatment”
During the individual classes I always can rely on Luis, my favorite model for live sessions.
Here is my demo for today.
Portrait painting from photography has pros and cons. One of the major drawbacks is the inclination to copy all the details. Detailed or blurry?Apparently every wrinkle, eyelash and hair lock must be displayed faithfully. But a good portrait is not a sum of all observable details. I have said it last week: It’s not about whether it just seems real, the point is that it is true and authentic.
In his book Alla Prima ll Richard Schmid says:” In my view, detail for its own sake is a shallow goal, because I don´t think art is about how much stuff I can depict” Continue reading “Detailed or blurry”
You may have noticed I have no affinity with photorealism.
It is not about whether it just seems real, the point is that it is true and authentic.
It happens to everyone once and a while: the loss of documents in the computer. Five years ago I almost finished the editing of my third long video demonstration. By bad luck, I lost all the work. I was defeated and angry at myself for disconnecting the hard drive from my computer without the necessary precautions. Months and months of work lost! A negligence which I had to atone a longtime. Eventually the footage could be retrieved by a specialist company in Madrid, but the editing had gone forever. I am taking charge of the project again. From now I will be spending all available time behind the screens. I hope to finish the project by summer. I will keep you posted.
Sometimes I see students paint with miserable brushes because of slackness or just stinginess. A Very Bad Habit!
In my studio I have a brushes’ grave yard.
– Why not throw them all away?
– I can´t do that. They have served me faithfully.
– But they are far from being worn!
– No, but they are not good enough anymore.
Actually I should not think of a cemetery, let me call it a brushes retirement home. Sometimes I take some brushes out of that stock and I try them again, but I have to conclude that they are turned down for some reason.
What standards must a good brush meet?
Continue reading “Portrait painting lessons (3) about brushes”
This is the first of a series of 10 blog-posts, in which I will discuss ten of the most common pitfalls in portrait painting. I will publish every fortnight on each topic. Continue reading “About photography”