Painting Portrait Tips / Lots of information about how to paint a portrait
Portrait painting business: Above an image from long time ago when I just started my career as a commissioned portrait painter.
For those who would love to do portrait painting on a commission basis, once again, I want to give some advice. The most important thing I must say is: Make sure you’re good enough. Continue reading “Portrait painting business”
More than once people asked how a novice portraitist must decide his prices. I remember I once said: If you don’t have any orders you are either too expensive, or you have too little quality. If you have too many commissions, it may be that you are too cheap.
An interesting book that I am currently reading is “The lives of Jan Six”, written by the Dutch historian Geert Mak. I do not know if there is an English translation. Continue reading “Art flows to where the money is”
More than fifteen years ago, I sent this portrait as an entry for the Royal Institute of Oil Painters´ annual exhibition in London. I delivered the canvas myself at the Mall Galleries. Continue reading “Strange stories”
‘What subject do you prefer?’ A frequent question. Actually I don´t know what to answer. Do I prefer official-portraits? Each portrait is fun to do whether it is a small child or an old lady, a professor or a lawyer. It is true that some faces are more attractive than others. A commissioned portrait never leaves me a choice and it is always exciting to see what model will appear. The same goes for official portraits. Continue reading “Official-portraits”
Portrait painting from photography has pros and cons. One of the major drawbacks is the inclination to copy all the details. Detailed or blurry?Apparently every wrinkle, eyelash and hair lock must be displayed faithfully. But a good portrait is not a sum of all observable details. I have said it last week: It’s not about whether it just seems real, the point is that it is true and authentic.
In his book Alla Prima ll Richard Schmid says:” In my view, detail for its own sake is a shallow goal, because I don´t think art is about how much stuff I can depict” Continue reading “Detailed or blurry”
https://youtu.be/jHF8Hf_HhgE
This is about oil paint and medium. But a general word about oil paint. Paint with paint; you can not paint without paint! I see students using far too little paint. Listen to me me: this is often simply out of fear. Not because of artistic viewpoints. Overcome that fear.
The problem starts at the palette. If there is too little paint there, how on earth do you get enough on your canvas? Running out of paint often occurs at the end of a painting-session. I see there is a tendency to thin the amount of paint on the palette with medium in order to gain some volume, instead of re-adding paint from the tube. ERROR!
So, do not be stingy with paint. You really need paint to obtain a painterly effect. Continue reading “oil paint and medium”
It happens to everyone once and a while: the loss of documents in the computer. Five years ago I almost finished the editing of my third long video demonstration. By bad luck, I lost all the work. I was defeated and angry at myself for disconnecting the hard drive from my computer without the necessary precautions. Months and months of work lost! A negligence which I had to atone a longtime. Eventually the footage could be retrieved by a specialist company in Madrid, but the editing had gone forever. I am taking charge of the project again. From now I will be spending all available time behind the screens. I hope to finish the project by summer. I will keep you posted.
Suppose you want to learn to play the piano. The instrument on which you start is old, not in tune and with missing keys. Would that invite you to sit down and study? No! It will turn your stomach! The same goes for learning to paint. Poor art supplies will not encourage you to make a good painting. Believe me, good stuff really makes a difference! Starting with the canvas. A miserable support base is a principal stumbling block, I can´t stress it enough.
Good stuff makes you happy!