Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Oil paint waste: What is the similarity between oil paint and a pencil? In both you use only 40%, the rest is thrown away.
When sharpening your pencil a part of the pencil always disappears. I estimate that more than half is left in the sharpener. What a pity! Continue reading “Portrait painting and waste”
The portrait below is of Kees Thijssen. Last week he died. He was my agent for more than 25 years when I was working as an illustrator.
I was about 25 years old when I went to Amsterdam with my portfolio to find an agent. There were three major illustration agencies at the time in Holland: Art Connection, Top Drawers and Art Box. For some reason I could only visit Art Box. There I met Kees. He looked intently through my portfolio. He was excited: the next day I received a first commission! And the week after two, months later a dozen and, over the years, hundreds and hundreds. We became close friends.
It has had some technical problems with the installation but now my blog features the (green) https and therefore it is more safe to visit. I was regularly asked, also because I sell products on my website.
This is safe now, so yeah, a big improvement.
You know I’m far from being an opponent of working from photography. I have received my share of criticism for this stance. That is fine by me. I know whereof I speak, take it from me. Many of my colleagues use photography. And lots for 100% of their work. Only: they do not want to talk about it! I know this phenomenon from the inside out, and I remain to tell you the truth.
But without prejudice I encourage everyone to study from observation. One of the special features is the reflection of a quest. All the elements of a face are not always immediately in the right place on the canvas. And I like to see these little changes of detail in the work. It gives the final artwork that unique charm.
When I work from a live model, I should actually take many more pictures in between to show that process well. The accompanying picture shows two shots. One after a session of 20 minutes and the other after an hour. Pay special attention to the small changes around the mouth and the eyes.
Of course it is an added problem when a model cannot sit still for more than five minutes, at least I can´t. ( I am always happy to be the painter and not the sitter) Every model tends to drift or have difficulties to hold one position. That is why I always take some pictures with my cellphone before stopping the session. So afterwards I am able to correct some features when the model had gone.
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”
Beside my palette is an egg timer. I set it to 25 minutes. For that time, I paint. Then I take a 5 minute break and then set the alarm again for another twenty-five minutes.
How did I come up with that idea? Not on my own. A few weeks ago I read an article about the Pomodoro Technique. I looked it up on the Internet and I was amazed at the amount of information. I immersed myself in it and decided to try this. And I can tell you IT WORKS! Continue reading “Portrait painting with an egg timer.”
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”
In the village where we live almost everyone has an olive grove. Or more than one. Small or large plots of land which have been family-owned for generations. The harvest is mainly destined for the production of olive oil. These weeks are picking time and the village is buzzing with activity. Whole families go out to their olives with sticks and nets, boxes and carts. And walking across the market, or queuing up in the bank you can hear always someone say ”Have you done all your olives yet?” Continue reading “Olive picking in Chelva”
Fellow artists meet with me in my studio every week. Several hours we draw or paint portrait from a live model. Continue reading “Our midweek portrait drawing session”
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.