Uncategorized Archives - Page 11 of 13

2 March 2014

A smiling portrait

Smiling portraits — I painted this young lady with a broad smile. For me a smiling portrait is not necessarily annoying.

May a portrait show a smile? The debate on this issue almost always gets bogged down in heated discussions with presumptuous, compelling arguments. Some pretend that a smile will eventually get bored and a timeless expression is preferred. Toothy smiles often appear static and smiles distort facial features, e. g. making the eyes smaller. Almost never you hear this, not insignificant, argument: Showing a smile betrays the use of photography. And many portraitists do not like to admit this. It may be clear, I find that it’s all nonsense. First, there is no argument against the use of photography and secondly a smiling portrait is not necessarily annoying. OK, one can have a clear preference that is fine. But let me say this again: Don´t make it a doctrine. The challenge is to make a good portrait, full of character. A painted portrait shall, reliably, report of the sitter and sometimes a smile is a part of the emotion displayed.

I notice that many beginning artists have trouble painting teeth properly. A word of advice: Never make individual teeth, paint a curved surface that turns away into the corners of the mouth.

11 February 2014

In portrait painting: be generous with paint

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Dare to use paint!

In this portrait I used a lot of paint in the boy´s face and to obtain a nice contrast, little paint in the background.

Many novice painters are stingy with paint. OK, paint is expensive, but I think the fear of getting stuck in a general muddle of paint is the biggest malefactor. Yet the power of oil paint is in bold, pure brushstrokes, and as little as possible mixed colours.

So my motto is: be generous with paint!

7 February 20146 September 2019

Backgrounds in a portrait

What to do with the background of a portrait? I see portraits with a detailed interpretation of what is to be seen in the room. And sometimes that gives a fantastic replenishment to the subject. However I often prefer a neutral background. In a manner that it supports the portrait, in a unobtrusive way, I want to depict the subject in an acceptable, suggested setting. Not a cut out paper doll, lost in some space. Backgrounds give me the opportunity to enhance colour harmony and value contrast. I have to admit that it works one time better than the other. But always the background for me is a big challenge.

9 November 2013

Good morning Chelva

It’s been a while since I took a picture of the view on Chelva. When I woke up this morning I saw the golden morning light shine on my village and I decided yet again to get my camera. I always have a fixed spot in my garden, where I make the pictures. So in the long run it provides a nice series with completely different pictures of the same village. Good morning Chelva.

26 October 2013

Drawing from memory

Some years ago, when I often travelled in the Valencian Metro, I had the habit of studying fellow passengers. I tried to remember how the head of a particular person looked like. At home I tried, from memory, to draw the head. Today I came across a sketchbook of that period with some of these doodles. I was reminded, that I had to be careful because people soon notice when you eye at them for a longer time. I am pretty sure I did at least sometimes and it must have looked strange.

Once in a blue moon I had to draw from memory during the model-drawing lessons from Father Beatus Nijs, my unsurpassed art teacher. We had to observe the model for five minutes. Then we made the drawing from memory. A great experience! I did not preserved any of these drawings. Later I participated in more than one group to study nude models. There I proposed sometimes to do the same exercise. The drawing is from the 80s.

24 October 2013

A commission to be delivered

This week I put the finishing touches to the portrait of this young lady. A commission proceeded through my gallery in the Netherlands. For this occasion I show here also the pencil sketch. Such small, basic sketches I usually show to the client, it is explicitly not meant to already judge the resemblance. The idea is that I like to show how I want to represent the model, and to clarify the cropping. Therefore I make this drawing in the most simple way possible. After all, I have a choice out of a variety of photos and the customer wants to know in advance how the portrait will look like. If I would make the drawing more detailed, it would distract from that intention. I am glad the client gave permission to show this portrait on my blog.

13 October 2013

A great day in Amsterdam

As I told you, we were in Amsterdam. Bas and I, we had a meeting with Sjef to discuss new strategies for this blog. Soon we will publish the second long video tutorial. At the same time we want to do some changes to make this site more accessible. I get huge numbers of visitors on my blog and on my Youtube video channel. And I want to expand even more that success. More information on Portrait painting open to more people. That is why we had this meeting. I made the video shots with Helma´s photo camera, so quality is moderate. You see Bas, my webmaster, at the wheel, Helma my wife and Sjef, the expert on internet affairs. After the meeting we went for a short lunch and later we dropped of Sjef at his office.

25 August 2013

Painting from photography

You often hear the rather pompous opinion that all painting, especially portraits, should be done from life. I work from photos as much as I do from life (I always take the photos myself, sometimes over a hundred).

For me there should be no secrets in art! From as far back as the days of Leonardo da Vinci and Vermeer with their camera obscura, professional artists have often used technology to assist them in the creative process. In my tutorials I want to show how to use the digital camera to provide reference material for your portraits.

David Hockney claims many famous paintings were traced using camera-like devices.”Optical devices certainly don’t paint pictures,” Hockney said. “Let me say now that the use of them diminishes no great artist. ”

To Chuck Close, who paints from photographs of faces, it was self-evident that any artist would use every tool possible to make the job easier—even if art historians don’t want to believe it. “What did we learn?” Close would ask. “That some people are amazed that their artist heroes have cheated.”

23 August 2013

Recipe Tomato ketchup

You saw Helma´s kitchen garden. Now it is TOMATO TIME.

Here is a recipe for a delicious tomato ketchup:

2.5 kilo´s of tomatoes (remove the seeds from the tomatoes as much as possible in order to make the sauce less runny)
1 red pepper
2 medium size onions
garlic clove, from the press
100 ml of vinegar
75 gr. sugar
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 teaspoons paprika
2 teaspoons nutmeg
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 clove
pepper
juice of half a lemon

Wash the tomatoes and cut them into pieces. Wash peppers and cut into pieces, remove the seeds.

Add the tomato, pepper, onion, lemon juice and garlic with a dash ofwater in a saucepan and simmer about 1 hour on low heat. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking. Add, if needed, a little bit water. Mash the sauce, off the fire with a hand blender.

Put it back on the fire and add the vinegar, sugar and spices.

Allow the sauce to simmer for another 1.5 hours, or until it has thickened sufficiently. Test it on salt and pepper. Pour the hot sauce into sterile jars. Seal the jars with a matching lid and turn it upside down to cool.

23 August 2013

Shut down

I have to apologize for the “shut down” of this blog. I want to thank all of you who sympathized and tried to help me solving the problem that had arisen entirely beyond my fault.

Thanks.