Painting a portrait from life? Do you work a lot from photography? There is nothing wrong with that, I have said so often. It gives you the opportunity to calmly create a portrait with good likeness and time to mix the colours at ease. It is also often a fantastic picture that invites you to make a beautiful painting.
But there are also pitfalls, namely that you create a too detailed reproduction of the photo. That is a missed opportunity. A painting must be your interpretation and not a copied image.Continue reading “Painting a portrait from life”
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.
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’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.
My first book. Zo leer je Tekenen. Tjomme de Vries. 1962.
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)
Male nude. charcoal drawing.Female nude. charcoal drawing.
1955. Me in the middle. Three-foot-tall and full of dreams.
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.
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!
As I mentioned earlier we get together every week to work from life. We ask people in the neighborhood to model. There will come a day when we shall have “done” half the village. This time I decided to work in charcoal and not in oils. I haven´t done this for ages and once again I’m surprised how much I enjoy this. (1,5 hour session)
Drawing a portrait from live model in charcoal. (Click to enlarge)
