Painting An Oil Portrait - Step by Step

August 1st, 2008 at 7:36 pm (Art Lesson, Oil Painting)

Herewith I only give some examples of my portrait painting technique. Everybody develops his own technique suitable to his painting style. Each portrait is a new challenge, an enriching experience, a very exciting one. Actually, most part of a portrait painting is still life: clothes, furniture, flowers,… all the decorum around. Of course, if you paint outdoors, the portrait would contain still life and landscape.

My colour scale is white, French ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, burnt umber, viridian (emerald green ), cadmium red deep, and sometimes I add to this scale cadmium red, Van Dyke brown, light oxide red (rouge Anglais), and permanent green light. I never use black; I mix colours to obtain a black that is more siccative (dries quickly) than the commercial tubes’ black, and comes more in harmony with the other colours of the picture. With time passing by, I surely will experiment other colours.

Here are some examples of flesh tint: white, burnt sienna, cadmium red, cadmium yellow or yellow ochre; or, white, oxide red, cadmium yellow; …you really can find the flesh colour you like best, but the first example is the basic colour. For the flesh shadows, white, burnt sienna, cadmium red only, with more sienna, or you add viridian to this, or ultramarine blue. For the flesh in lights, you add more white to the basic colour. You have to find your own mixed colours. I would not have room here to give all the possibilities. Do not forget the reflected lights in the shadows or in the lights. The flesh, like every other thing you paint, reflects the colour of what is next to it; but do not overdo that. The highlights may be pure white at the end of the picture, or white and cadmium yellow.

The photographic picture:	If my client hasn’t got a nice studio picture I usually take a picture myself. It allows me to arrange for a good composition. Take several pictures so that you can choose the one you like best or the one that is more appropriate to your aim. Working from a photographic picture allows me to work whenever I want, wherever I want, as long as I want. In the composition, the head must be high enough, near to the upper edge of the canvas. Examine the portrait paintings of the masters.
Transferring to the canvas:	There are several techniques to transfer the picture to the canvas. For example the “small squares’ technique” or the opaque projection technique. I prefer the latter because its accuracy is more liable and it takes less time then the first one. (I always think that all the great masters would also have used photography and projector if they had had that opportunity at their time.) Still, there are a few things you must take care of: I hang the stretched canvas on the wall, I prepare the projection machine in front of the picture on its middle axe; then, to make sure the projection machine is good leveled with regard to the picture I use a water level. This is of extreme importance because otherwise the projected picture would be distorted. I close the curtains, I usually wait for the evening hours for this job and I use a sharp pencil to trace the lines of the projected picture on the canvas, which must not move a bit. I also slightly trace the shadows. I try not to forget any line because if you realize that you have forgotten a line and project once more the picture, you will have a very poor chance of getting the same projection and the lines will not correspond to the first one. If need be it would be better to add those lines afterwards by examining the picture itself. Then, take your work and look through a mirror: when you look the reversed drawing, you will see all the mistakes you have made. Repeat this mirror knack as many times as you want throughout your painting time. It will help a lot to see the inevitable errors.
Lavis (wash) technique:	First, I draw on the lines with a thin water colour brush with a diluted brown colour. Then with the lavis technique ( to paint with only one very diluted colour) I paint the shadows very lightly. With other diluted colours with plenty of turpentine I paint very summarily the different colours of the picture just to give me an idea of the different spots of colours and to compare the colours between them to make sure there is a good colour harmony. I often change the colour of the clothes if they are not nice, or to match them with another colour of the picture. I always tend to the beautiful, to the general harmony of the picture.
Colours:	First of all I never use the colour black in any way in my pictures. Why? Because the commercial black colour doesn’t look natural. My black is a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt umber, or van dyke brown, it depends of what the next spot of colour is, I always avoid to mix more than 2 colours plus white, but you can add just a touch of a third colour. Otherwise, if you mix more than 2 colours the colour obtained is muddy. The white: you never have an absolute white, you have to add hues of the colours that are next to this white spot. Avoid mixing white too much and in every occasion to other colours : the colours lose their freshness. Sometimes you can lighten colours by adding yellow or other light colours. Do not add black to darken colours, use dark colours, browns, dark reds…One must really learn about colours. There are very good books on the subject.
Fabrics:	It is difficult to render the fabric of a tissue with painting. Silk, velvet, satin, fur… I am always in wonderment in front of the masters’ works. You have to examine the different colours on the fabric: for example silk and satin reflect so much light that you have to paint plain white to some area of the fabric to show this enlightenment; the shadows are proportionally dark. For brown fur, first you paint a layer of brown, more dark to some shadowed areas, and then when this layer is thoroughly dry, you paint tiny lines with light brown mixed with white, perhaps add a very small amount of yellow or red, it depends of the colour of the fur. Don’t do this to all the fur, these lines are darker or lighter in regard to their places in the composition. In the enlighten areas each hair reflects light.
Objects:	Always put a contrast between light and shade. It makes the object more vivid. I never make the edges very sharp, even when it looks sharp in my paintings! The background edge of a spot must be less clear, less sharp, for a felling of distance.
Drying and working schedule:	I always wait 15 days between each layer of paint. With my technique I achieve a picture in 6 months. If you finish your picture in one day, it’s o.k. too. But you must not paint on a semi-dry paint. It would bring the upper layer to crackle. If you want to take all your time to paint, you inevitably have to allow each layer of paint to dry thoroughly. I wait 15 days, although my layers are very thin. That is what the great masters did, so why not us? If you have thick paint, you must wait much longer. I like to give the picture time to grow, taking all my time, like the Nature, never hurrying. Of course you can use drying mediums, if you don’t want to wait…but I don’t trust them very much. I would like to see the results on the picture after several years, 5, 10, 20, 50 years and more.
Lighting:	Do care to have always a lighted area and nice shadows in the picture. Try to divide your picture into two sections: the lighted areas and the shadow areas. Each of them also is divided in two: highlights and half lights; dark shadows and half shadows. It gives depth to your work. In a portrait the forehead is the most lighted area. Don’t forget a touch of white to the under lip, tiny lights on the eyes, on the edge of the nose…
Varnishing:	In the end of the 5.month, my picture is finished and I paint some details, adding here and there some lights, deepening some shadows…that’s the moment I like most. Then I put the picture aside, to dry a whole month. Normally you have to wait a good year before varnishing a painting but as I allow my paint to dry 15 days several times during the painting time, and as I paint very thin layers, one month is enough. But if I have the possibility to wait more, I do! I then put the picture flat on a table. I put the open varnish bottle in a small pot with water in it and I warm it in bain-marie (double- saucepan) because this way the varnish becomes thinner and more fluid. Then I varnish the picture with a flat brush quickly and all in once. Pass the brush horizontally, than vertically on the picture. Carefully examine for any unvarnished areas. Not need to hurry yet the whole thing must not take more than a couple of minutes as the varnish dries quickly. Then leave your picture in this position, flat, to dry for one hour. Then it can go on drying vertically. Do care to make the varnishing in a dust free place. Within the drying hour avoid moving around the picture.