Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Making a small doodle. These days my wife and I stay for a short time in Madrid. We are happy to celebrate the birth of our second grand daughter. Visiting them I made a very small doodle in pencil of the happy couple. Continue reading “A small doodle”
Not always portraits. Lately I have not been accepting every portrait commission. I want to have more time to try other things, which I never had the opportunity to do. It is a new chapter for me. Continue reading “Not always portraits”
Carpentry for portrait painting. As I get the opportunity I love to do craftwork, preferably in wood. I always wanted to be a carpenter, I have written about this before. And I’ll confess something else to you. For a long time, carpentry gave me more pleasure than painting. Believe me. Continue reading “Carpentry for portrait painting”
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”
There ain´t no cure for drawing, making doodles every lost moment. Thoughtlessly drawing, that is what doodles sketches is about.
If there is no pencil and paper near the phone, I cannot have a long conversation. I know: Drawing is a disease.
“I draw like other people bite their nails” (Pablo Picasso)
Above one of my long-call telephone doodles.
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)
