Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Develop your drawing skills.
In order to learn portrait painting properly, it is essential to develop your drawing skills. Actually that applies to all forms of realistic art. I had the good fortune to have had an excellent drawing training at a young age. However, I know that many of you do not.
After twenty-five years of commissioned portraits there are many anecdotes I can tell. I have had some peculiar portrait commissions.
I have met a lot of people. Occasionally there was something special about a job, like the two times I got an enquiry for a female nude painting. In the first one, the client was the model´s husband; the client making the other request was the model herself. She wanted to give the portrait as a present to her husband on the day of the wedding. Continue reading “Peculiar portrait commissions.”
Hieronymus Bosch and modern weird artists.
For next Monday, I have a ticket for the big Hieronymus Bosch exhibition at the Prado Museum in Madrid. I am very curious to see! Bosch is the pre-eminent painter of the most wondrous creatures and unusual scenes. Probably contemporaries considered him a weird artist. Museums and cities organize countless events and exhibitions to celebrate the five hundredth year of the Dutch painter’s death. Bosch is named after the city Den Bosch. Here he was born. He lived almost simultaneously with Leonardo da Vinci. He is buried in the cathedral of his birthplace. Continue reading “Weird artists”
I used to make detailed, preparative studies in oils for my portrait commissions. I stopped gradually. Along the way I realized I was putting my best energy in a study. By the time I made the real painting it sometimes seemed as if I was repeating myself. Norman Rockwell writes: “Be careful not to carry the colour sketch so far that there will be no fun left in the final job. ( ) I have often made the mistake of carrying the sketch too far, wearing out my enthusiasm before I get to the final job”. Continue reading “Portrait painting and sketching”
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)
