how to paint a portrait in oil – part 3.pdf
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12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3by Will Kemp
in oil painting, portraits
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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“When you come back to your painting you’ll notice how the oil has become translucentovernight and won’t have the same coverage that you first thought.”
How to paint a portrait series. This is part 3 of a 5 part series of tutorials for beginners makingthe transition from drawing to oil painting.
Here is a quick review of what we have covered so far if you’d like to join in…
Part 1 – Establishing the drawing, including the shadow line.
This can be done in pencil or charcoal (that you can fix with fixative) try to keep the drawing linesangular to start with.
Try to establish the basic shapes if you could only use a straight line, then add the contours as thedrawing progresses. A classic beginner mistake when drawing a portrait is an over exaggeration of thecurves in the face. Everything gets ’rounded off’ and the portrait can have a cartoon like quality. Becausewe have a strong visual memory system that tells us ‘faces are round’ this can subconsciously affect yourdrawing.
We the started to scrub in the underpainting layer. To a beginner, this stage is often skipped, deemed tobe unimportant, but a good foundation is key to success with portraits.
We then have our 3 part tonal underpainting which allows you, and your eye, to become more intunewith the image, and become aware to the tones.
Part 2 – Developing the tones, adding lights.
We then worked over the top of the initial underpainting still just with the raw umber to strengthen thetones and get a better feeling of form. These layers are all painted thinly.
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The medium for this stage being a simple mix of 1 part linseed oil to 4 parts mineral spirits (artistturpentine or odourless mineral spirits) this establishes the ‘fat over lean’ rule. With each progressivelayer being slightly fatter – with more oil content.
We also added some roughed in lights with a faster drying white.
This is to help us judge the tones for the next stage so when we paint them on they don’t look to ‘out’when we add the lights.
The Allure of highlights
I forgot to emphasis at the end of part 2 that the roughed in lights are the light tonal mass, and not thehighlights.
The highlights and the very darkest parts of the painting should be the last brushstrokes to be done, butthey try and draw you in! It’s hard to resist putting them on at the early stage.
And even if you’ve read the warning, it’s amazing how, when you get engrossed in the painting, yourhand will be drawn to that lightest white.
This can seem counterintuitive if you are coming to the painting from drawing as we often erase out thelightest areas, or work on this areas that attract out attention. The white highlights on the eye have aparticular allure.
When the painting is finished these will be seen by the viewer to be painted with the most skill, however,a single dot of white can be painted by anyone, but resisting adding them takes the practice of an artist.
A note about grey
One of the students following this series let me know about Gambiln Torrit grey competition (ThanksMario!) Every spring, the paint manufacture collect all of the residue paint pigment that have beencollected by the air filtration system and recycle them into “Gamblin Torrit Grey”. You can learn moreabout the Torrit Grey painting competition from Gamblin website.
“Pigment dust should not go into the earth, water or landfill, but into paint,”Robert Gamblin.
For our grey we are going to mix a neutral using the raw umber and Ivory black.
Part 3 – First Painting
Mixing a new medium
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We now create a new medium for the next layer of the painting. Different artists vary the richness of themedium depending on their own personal preference but the next mix is a very useful one.
1 part linseed oil to 3 parts mineral spirit
You can use the pipette to measure out amounts, or if I’m mixing a larger amount I’ll use kitchenmeasurement spoons.
Pro tip: If you are doing a lot of painting it can be worth premixing a larger amount of each medium inresealable jars, label them up and then you can simple decant the medium each stage of the painting.
Mixing our black
We are now going to mix a neutral black for developing this monotone study. You can still create somelovely studies just using the raw umber and white, it is a warmer finish than the black, but you will stilllearn the importance of contrast in your paintings.
To mix the neutral we use 3/4 ivory black to 1/4 raw umber. This helps take the blue out of the black(black has a blue base, this is why you can mix lovely muted greens with black)
Ivory black
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Ivory black is a slow drying pigment, by mixing in 1/4 of the raw umber (which is quick drying) it willmatch nicely with the titanium white (slow drying) and at this stage of the painting the longer ‘open time’we have with the paints the better. Ivory black also has a lovely richness when painted thinly which willhelp out in the later stages of the portrait.
This way you will have time to work through your painting and blend and fuse edges that you needto. This is why we started with the raw umber, it dries overnight and has a cooler undertone whenworking with portraits.
Materials
Winsor & Newton artist quality Ivory blackMicheal harding artist quality Raw UmberOld Holland artist quality titanium whiteWinsor & newton Sansador ( odourless mineral spirits)Winsor & newton Refined linseed oil
There isn’t any specific reason why I use each brand, I often intermix brands as I like to experimentusing different manufacturers colours. Whatever is available where you are. The one key throughoutthem all is that they are artist quality (See: the 8 key differences between artist quality & studentgrade paint)
Paint consistency
When you are just beginning with oils, the handling of the paint can vary greatly depending on theconsistency of the paint.
Oil paint (especially the titanium white) is often too thick and stiff to work with at this stage of thepainting – straight from the tube.
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To make the paint more fluid, I slightly dilute it with the medium shown above. I use a pipette to drop afew drops of the medium onto the paint mixture and mix it thoroughly with the palette knife. Using thepalette knife for mixing your paints is a very useful technique.
The video below shows a quick tutorial on how I dilute the oil paint.
How to use a palette knife in oil painting: Beginner pale...
I often mix the colours on a separate, tear off palette and then transfer the mixture to the clean glass/perspex.
If you’re just beginning with oils you’ll notice how easily you can contaminate colours when using a fullpalette of colours, this can lead to muddy colours and frustrating painting.
This helps you to learn clean working methods. I am naturally more impatient so it is a discipline tospend the time mixing the colours as you just want to get painting but it will pay dividends.
Step 14 – Mixing our tonal colour strings
This next stage of the portrait is where we really get ‘painting’ as in, thicker, more opaque colours mixedtogether. If we look back at the last couple of weeks lessons you can see that we haven’t actually mixedany tones together yet.
We have simply been blocking in the basic tonal values, in what is sometimes called the ‘dead colouringstage’ this is because we are using a limited amount of oil in the mix, and more mineral spirits. As the
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mineral spirits evaporate the colour can appear flat, and ‘dead’ as it doesn’t have the lustre that the oilgives us.
Pro tip: When working with colour, this is also refered to as adding the ‘local colour’ of a subject. Forexample a lemon would have a local colour of yellow.
So before we start the painting we are going to premix a range of 9 value tones.
White (1) is the lightest, black (9) is the darkest. This enables us to get a mid tone 5 and split the tonesinto lights, half tones, and darks. These are called tonal strings, you can read more about them on Abeginners guide to tonal strings
Using a value strip
Print out, or paint out your own value strip.
When you are first starting, working from a print out it can be handy because the value strip will be thesame tones as your reference photograph compared to the hues of the black and white paint if you wereto paint your strip.
Just slide the value strip under the glass. This way when you are trying to match the tone you can test itby dabbing a swatch ontop of the tone underneath to determine how close you are.
The first tone I match is a number 5. It will take you a few attempts to get it spot on, this is normal.
Be aware that the black has a stronger tinting strength than the white so when I add it I’m just scraping asmall amount with the palette knife.
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I then match a light value 3
Then a value 7. With these 3 tones you can create some great value studies (which are sometimes called‘poster studies’) these allow to quickly practice and sketch out tonal compositions for future paintings.
It is also handy if you want to experiment working with a compressed value range.
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Waterseller of Seville –Diego Velazquez, 1619
If we look at Velasquez’s painting below we can see his use of the umber underpainting, and the range oftones used to direct the views gaze.
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When we look at the painting in black and white it is even easier to see how the most focus on thepainting has been placed on the subject with the broadest tonal range and the background figure has avery compressed tonal range.
9 value tones
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I then remove the value strip and we are ready to begin.
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I’ve placed the palette over the image so you can see the effect of light fall out.
Due to my light source being above the subject the light drops off as we get further down the face. When
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you look at the colour strings you can start to see how there is a subtle shift in tone as we go down thepainting. This is a key point to remember because when you take the paint swatches away it is harder tojudge the light drop off, your mind just accepts it.
The light was set up so that it was stronger on the top half of the portrait, and the value drops away. Youneed to be aware of this drop off as you progress through the tones.
This can help in getting the fall of light right, and creating a logical progression throughout the painting.
So what you can do now is remove the value strip from underneath the paint and hold it next to yourreference photograph. Make sure you have trimmed the edge of the value strip so you don’t have anywhite on the edge. This will make it harder to judge tones.
Now shut one eye, this helps to flatten your vision and makes it easier to see tone. Then flick your eyesbetween the tone and the value strip and the tone on the reference photograph until you have a match.
Pro tip: If you are finding it hard to isolate the colour the use a holepunch to punch a hole in eachsquare, this way you can use them as a viewfinder.
Solid painting
“For purposes of study there is nothing better than simple, direct, solid painting. Painting withtransparent colour, with a mixture of solid and transparent, glazing etc are all things that must be triedlater on; but for some time confine yourself to direct, solid painting.”Harold Speed
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On my image I start with the lightest part on the forehead, it is about a value 2.
I dip just the edge of my brush (number# 4 Rosemary & co ivory filbert) into the medium.
I then pull the paint from the side of the mixture and coat the end of the brush. The mixture is thickenough to cover the underpainting, but still quite thin.
You are looking to cover the colour underneath with a solid tone, but still have a fluid mixture. Gettingthe consistency right can be an art in itself, so don’t get discouraged!
We just want a small amount of paint, notice how I pull the paint from the edge of the pile.
You also don’t need much paint, just try to get the tip of the bristles coated, I work the brush back andforth in the paint so it has a coverage, yet doesn’t come up the bristles too far.
A beginners tendency is to overload your brush.
I then flick my eyes between the subject and my painting to judge the next tonal shift, I squeeze anyexcess paint into a piece of kitchen roll untill the brush is dry,
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I can then grab some of the next value down – value 3
Just to help my eye with the portrait I reinforce the white of the tshirt with value 1.
This could have been put in first, there is no real hard and fast rule, I just scan the picture with my eyes tolook for any values that are in the first 3 light range.
Adding the midtones
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I then move on to the midtones, again with a clean brush (I might dip it into pure mineral spiritsoccasionally and scrub out the pigment into kitchen roll so I have a clean brush for the new tone.
I then make my way down the tones using 4, 5, 6 . Notice how these are all still in the lights of thesubject.
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I haven’t blended any of the tones, I am just simply blocking them in with a flat tone.
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I then block in the tone on the neck, again this could have been done earlier but you’ll find the moretones you add, the easier they are to judge in comparison.
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All of the lights are now added, this has all been painting with values 1 through to 6.
We are now going to add the darks, working through 7 to 9
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Adding the darks
As the light starts to drop off, I add the darks into the shadow side of the face, notice how the tones havebeen dropping darker to the right and the bottom of the picture due to the light source being from the topleft.
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I continue adding a darker value 8 into the shadow under the chin. Notice how blue the paint appearsnext to the raw umber. The tones are still quite flat with limited blending, still just using the size 4 ivoryfilbert.
I now mix a value between the 8 & 9, you could go straight in with the 9, but I wanted to leave this forthe final part of this stage.
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I then soften the edge slightly using the filbert.
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I swap to a sable filbert for blending the edges further, as I mentioned before, I often use the Ivory filbertfor this, but sometimes, if the paint is pulling too much the sable can just give you that blend that you areafter.
Because the underpainting is now dry I’m resting by little finger on the canvas, this way I can pivot, witha stronger support. For larger scale painting, or of the background is still damp I would use a mahl stick.
This is now with the value 9, the pure black mix we have made. When this first goes on it will feel too
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dark. It’s not.
I block in this black slightly thinner than the previous paint, I’m still concerned with creating a flat tonalvalue. Notice how I’ve left a slight egde between this darker tone and the edge of the face. This waywhen I soften the edge it won’t go too dark.
A tendency when your first starting is to add, then blend, add then blend, but it will work better if youkeep the blending to a minimum.
This is easier said than done.
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Notice how light the first shadow now looks in comparison to the black.
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This stage of the painting I now have a full tonal range of opaque colour. I can now assess the referenceimage and flick my eyes between the two, looking for anything that looks ‘out’.
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The Importance of edges
I now look to soften out most of the edges. As with the underpainting, it is easiest to keep the edges softat this stage as they can easily grab a viewers attention. Sharp edges come forward, soft edges recedeback.
Pro tip: If you are having trouble pulling the paint too much – swap to the larger size 10 filbert andgentle blush over the edge.
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We’ve now finished the first stage of modelling the portrait. I haven’t worked on the features much, stilljust keeping the focus on the main areas of the form. The larger areas first, then we can add details in thenext stage.
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You might also like:1. How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 12. How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 23. How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 4
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40 comments… read them below or add one
Gunner Dave April 19, 2012
Hi Will,
I have a question about your image which shows the 9 tones of the grey colour string. Would it bepossible for you to give these 9 tones in terms of RGB (or H, S & B) values on photoshop? Thisway I could make my own grey colour string swatch on the computer and print it out.
Also, as a beginner who has limited resources, is it worth using oil painting paper instead of canvasuntil I get the hang of the technique? Are there any issues with this type of surface that I should beaware of?
Loving your work,
Dave.
Reply
Will Kemp April 19, 2012
Hi Dave,
Glad you like the progress.
Yes, if you have access to Photoshop you can create your own value scale. Matthew Innis(from Underpaintings blog) talks through how he makes a scale using the Munsell system(this is another approach for mixing and matching colours and, confusingly, used 10 stepsand the values are labelled the other way) using Photoshop – See below:
To make the scale, I began with a new image file in Photoshop, 1 inch high and11 inches long, and with a background color of ‘white.’ This I then divided into11 squares using guides. I approached each tone square as if this were a screenprinting project, choosing to think of each section as a percentage of ‘black’ (ie.Value 9, which is 90% white, can also be thought of as 10% black. Value 8would be 20% black; value 7, 30% black; and so on…). One by one, eachsquare was then selected, and filled using the color black and the Paintbuckettool. This action, however, was done each time on a separate layer, which was
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later merged with the background. The separate layers were necessary, becauseeach successive layer had a different fill percentage in order to control thedensity of black in each square (eg.The layer which represented value 8, had afill percentage of only 20%).
This, however, is for straight black and white, our mix is slightly warmer so might need a bitof tweaking.
If you, or any of the readers, have another way to make a value scale with photoshop pleaseadd to the comments.
Yes, by all means practice on oil painting paper, you might find it feels like it ‘sits’ on top ofthe surface more, but just use a thicker mix of paint.
Thanks,Will
Reply
David A. April 20, 2012
Hi Will,
I was wondering about brushes again, and would like to know what is the difference between aBright, Flat and Shader. My local art store in Chicago does not have the brands you talked about.Only Princeton ( they artist there say that they are from the UK).
I would like to know if you think that if the painting/drawing is wrong if it does not represent themodel perfectly.
David A.
Reply
Will Kemp April 21, 2012
Hey David,
The difference between them is shape, so all have different uses.
Flat:– Flat square edge.Good for broad strokes and creating straight lines. Not the ideal forportraits because we want soft edges.
Bright: Brights – The shorter, sturdier version of the flat brush, (so has less flex – if youwere working with thick oil paints a bright would be able move the paint around easier.)
Shader: I think this is just a brand name and not in general used in other brushmanufacturers. I had a look at the Princeton website and the Shader is very similar to a flat.
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I forgot to mention Rosemary & co are mail order, but in terms of the Princeton brushes, tellme your budget and I can advise which ones would be best.
There is no such thing as perfect representation, capturing a models character is moreimportant than a photo realist drawing. This all comes with practice and developing yourown style as an artist.
Don’t get hung up on it being perfect, I’ve seen so many students start portraits getdisheartened and not continue on, just out of interest Picasso produced 50,000 unique piecesof art over his lifetime.Not every piece has to be a masterpiece, the process is just as important as the end result.
Thanks
Will
Reply
David A. April 21, 2012
Hi Will,
My budget per month is $2535. I use half for painting and half for drawing.
The Princeton brushes at Blick cost between $6.2915.00.
David A.
Reply
Will Kemp April 21, 2012
Hi David,You might be interested to look at the Winsor & Newton Artist Quality oil Brushes(available at blick) these are really excellent brushes and the ones I use if I’m not using theRosemary & Co Ivory Filberts. They are slightly more reasonable than the Princeton brushesand I can feel confident in recommending them.A couple of handy sizes (if your working quite small – A4 paper size) are:Long Handle Filbert, Size #2 ($4.37)Long Handle Filbert, Size #4 ($5.14) (this is the same size as the brush I use for 90% of thisdemo)Size #5 & #6 are also handy.
Also, a small round for details with slightly softer hair, so either one of the synthetic sablesfrom Princeton (series 4000) or Winsor & newton Monarch are nice. (between a size 0 and 3depending on how detailed you work – I use a size 3 for this demo)
For blending the filbert princeton size 6 ($6.45) or 8 ($7.05) (series 4000) is closest to what Ihave used.
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You could just start with the oil brushes though and see how you get on.
Hope this helps,Will
Reply
Michelle April 23, 2012
Do you ever use a different mixture for your shadows such as mixing a red, ultramarine blue, andyellow ochre? This would be used after the initial raw umber stage on just the shadows. I amstarting to learn to paint portraits and have been told using this mixture allows the shadows toremain transparent later on, however it seems to make things more complicated than your method.Thanks for this series; it’s very helpful. Looking forward to the next part…
Reply
Will Kemp April 24, 2012
Hi Michelle,Pleased to hear you are enjoying this portrait painting series. As this techniques is focusingon the importance of tone and making the step from drawing to oil painting keeping it simplereally is the way the to go. So I will be only be using the raw umber and Ivory black.
For full colour portraits, I use a similar, simple approach. And wouldn’t initially use red,ultramarine blue or yellow ochre. I would still use a earth pigment like raw umber or burntumber.
Different artists have different approaches, but I am a great believer in keeping yourmaterials simple, so you can have more time to concentrate on the tricky part, the painting.
Hope this helps,Will
Reply
rod hulme June 3, 2012
Hi Will…everything okay here! Have started playing with Golden liquids, [10 half oz. bottles for40.00] and find them interesting! Must pick up a 40 series knife to do my mixing of the ‘heavy’, asthe spatula type I have is awkward for me, but progress, as I also found paper pallets I used to usewith oils. There is something about a clean WHITE mixing surface..that colorblind moi finds moreaccurate somehow in delineation of shades. Anyway, makes sense to me to me, and that’s just fine.Many thanks for your patience. cheers…rod
Reply
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Will Kemp June 4, 2012
Hey Rod, yes the fluid acrylics can be very effective, especially for glazing effects.Cheers,Will
Reply
Alice July 5, 2012
Hello, I don’t really understand why you need to paint first with raw umber; why can’t you justpaint with black/white straight onto the canvas? Sorry if that’s an obvious question.Thanks – Alice
Reply
Will Kemp July 5, 2012
Hi Alice,Thanks for the comment. The reason I paint onto a toned ground is because it makes it easierwhen you are first starting to judge your tones.
You can quickly establish your darkest darks and lightest lights and this will make it easierto judge the other tones in your painting. One of the biggest beginner mistakes is workingonto a white canvas. you can read more about it here: How a prepared canvas can drasticallyimprove your painting.Hope this helps,Will
Reply
David Smith July 2, 2013
Hello Will,
Enjoying working through these lessons so far. Your method produces a nice look to a portraitsimilar to Velázquez.
Regarding a value strip, I had a go creating one using GIMP (the free photoediting software). Iedited the brush colour and altered the HSV (hue, saturation, value) settings. Changing V amountfrom zero (black), 50 (midgrey), 100 (white) etc. and all the tone gradations in between.
David
Reply
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Will Kemp July 3, 2013
Hi David,
Pleased to hear the portrait course is going well, and that you could create a value strip usingGIMP, good one!Cheers,Will
Reply
Bernice Osborne November 15, 2013
I am passionate about painting the figure, but have only worked in watercolors. My question. Doyou think it best for me to begin to learn painting in oils or do you think I should work in Acrylicsfirst. I was in fine arts for 10 years before I became an art therapist. Now that I am retired I want tofocus on painting the figure…..portrait……. Can you help direct me to make the most of the next10 years. My concern is the time it will take me to master two mediums (acrylic and then on tooils). I like your demo’s and think I can start with good training….But which training to begin withis my question.
Reply
Will Kemp November 15, 2013
Hi Bernice,You might find this article helpful that goes through the differences between the two, manyof my acrylic painting techniques stem from classical painting techniques, so you areinadvertently learning skills for both mediums.
Hope this helps,
Will
Reply
Bernice Osborne November 15, 2013
Yes, thank you. I think you are saying it would be good practice and learning inacrylics before starting oils, since most of your acrylic techniques are taken fromclassical oil techniques? Correct?
Reply
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Will Kemp November 15, 2013
Hi Bernice, yes, I’ve found for learning about colour mixing and painttechniques acrylics are very forgiving because you can easily work over them,so are a great medium to learn with, can be painted anywhere, on pretty muchany surface, so are like a quick start painting. Then, when you feel moveconfident in colour mixing and brush techniques you can go into oils there andwill be less ‘mud’ mixed and more ‘aha’ moments, as many of the techniques Iteach are transferable.
Cheers,
Will
Reply
Bernice Osborne November 15, 2013
thank you so much for your kindness and expertise. I believe you illustrated thebest lesson on value that I have ever seen. Looking forward to happy days ofpainting.
Reply
Will Kemp November 15, 2013
You’re welcome Bernice, thanks for your kind words. Looking forward toseeing your results.
Cheers,Will
Archana January 14, 2015
Hi Will..
So for this layer when you add the white, (either for adding white on the t shirt or for the lightareas or mixing to get the other shades of grey), are you using as per the mixture stated 1:3 –Linseed oil:OMS ?? In Stage 1, you have advised me to go with Flake White and little OMS. So, isit okay to add in the Linseed oil here and going forward?? the reason i am asking is i keep hearingof white giving out in the long run (getting yellower) and they blame the medium for it. I assumedit was the Linseed oil causing it to yellow. Your advice on this would be much appreciated.
Reply
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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Will Kemp January 15, 2015
Yes that’s right the same medium.Cheers,Will
Reply
Archana January 16, 2015
Will, thank you for the response. But looks like I am a little confused here. Could you please helpme.
“You’ve got 2 choices, if time isn’t an issue, mix your white as we did before in Part 1 with a littleOMS, this way it will take a little bit longer to dry .” —
– I have followed this so far. So, from now on, be it the greys or white, shall I go ahead and makethe medium fat (adding Linseed oil to the medium) or would you still advise me to go ONLY withthe OMS for my Flake White? Please help me.– Can I go ahead with my Flake white for steps 3 to 5?
Apologies for keeping you bothered.
Reply
Will Kemp January 17, 2015
Hi Archana, yes that’s right just add Linseed oil to the medium for mixing the greys.Cheers,Will
Reply
Archana January 18, 2015
Thanks soooo much!!! :) for being extra patient and answering to our queries. You have been agreat help!!!! many Thanks again!!!1
Reply
Will Kemp January 19, 2015
Hope the portraits coming on well Archana.Cheers,
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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Will
Reply
Nadya January 21, 2015
Thank You Will! Happy New Year! Happy Painting!
Reply
Deborah January 23, 2015
I’ve been using a water based oil paint and walnut oil, no other medium. What’s your opinion?
Reply
Will Kemp January 23, 2015
Walnut oil can work well for a nontoxic oil painting.Will
Reply
Nicola April 1, 2015
Hi Will,Thanks for the information you have kindly shared, I’m finding it so helpful.I just have a question about blending the tones when the paint has dried, do I just add some OMSor do I need to re paint the area that needs blending with more linseed oil in the mix (fat over lean)?Thanks again,Nicola
Reply
Will Kemp April 1, 2015
Hi Nicola, pleased you’ve been enjoying the lessons, you won’t be able to blend the toneswhen the paint has dried, if you add OMS it can wipe back the paint but isn’t the best way toblend and the paint will drag and smear rather than blend, or not wipe back at all.
Hope this helps,
Cheers,
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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Will
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Dan May 18, 2015
Hi will just wondering what your thoughts were on using titanium buff instead of using titaniumwhite in portraits .? Thanks
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Will Kemp May 18, 2015
Hi Dan, it can work well if you’re looking for an overall warmer hue to the skin tones. Youcan mix your own with a touch of titanium white in Naples yellow to see if you like thecolour.Cheers,Will
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Dan May 19, 2015
Cheers will
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Louise August 31, 2015
Hi WIll,
I am trying a portrait but I think I am spending too much time on the detail. The thing is, my photohas me smiling and therefore I show a lot of wrinkles and hence many different tones all over thepicture, as well as the light and the dark. My questions is, as I am finding it hard to separate thetones because of the wrinkles, should I just block paint the tones and cover the wrinkles, adding thedetail later, or continue to paint them in? I am worried that if I paint them over, I will not be able toadd them in the right place afterwards.
Having said that, I am learning so much from this tutorial, especially about contrast, for which Iam heartily thankful.
Louise
Reply
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
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Will Kemp September 1, 2015
Hi Louise,
I would look for the big fall of light to start with and then add the details over the top, it canseem a case of painting out your drawing just to redraw it again, but the effect will be moreconvincing with the shape and forms of the face. Pleased you’ve been finding the lessonhelpful.Cheers,Will
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Louise September 2, 2015
Hi Will,
Thanks for that. You are so right. I have so many “bits” on the painting with some stillunpainted and it is hard to see the form. I will have to be courageous and paint overthe wrinkles and add them later.
Louise
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HN September 15, 2015
Hi Will, I know this is not exactly what the tutorial is for, but I am trying to paint a portrait in thestyle of Gerhard Richter’s blurred portraits, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how Ishould go about this? So far I’ve stuck to your tutorial and I was just going to blur the paint with asqueegee or something at the end of the process, but I realised that to get the effect I would need allthe paint to be workable at once, and there would need to be a reasonably thick layer, so I wouldhave to work a bit quicker and in less stages. Do you think thats right? cheers
Reply
Will Kemp September 16, 2015
Yes, that’s right you would need all of the surface to be wet at the same time, you wouldn’tnecessarily need the warm burnt umber underpainting as many of his black and whites arequite cool and you wouldn’t need the final glazing stages, so if yoou work from the blackand white tones you’d be able to achieve the effect with the squeegee, It depends on the levelof blur you’re after but you can see some of Richters squeegee technique in thisdocumentary.
12/3/2015 How to Paint a Portrait in Oil – Part 3
http://willkempartschool.com/howtopaintaportraitinoilpart3/ 44/49
Hope this helps,
Cheers,Will
Reply
HN September 16, 2015
thanks so much for this! the documentary is so helpful
Reply
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I'm Will Kemp, I'm an awardwinning professional artist and teacher.I've studied in Italy, run my own art gallery, taught in museums & schools and I'm going to sharemy professional art secrets with you.
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