Portraits can seem like the toughest subject to crack and you can easily be disheartened by your efforts. One wrong brushstroke can cause a subject to suddenly look ‘wrong’, panic sets in – your pencils get sharpened, charcoal out and you don’t come back to painting for a while.But you don’t want to draw anymore, you want to paint.So where do you begin? A Step-by-Step approach MaterialsWhy oil portraits?They dry slowly, and for portraits time is essential.Let us start at the beginning.I’m going to keep things simple.
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3 easy techniques to learn. 3 basic paints to use.Oil paint – for this series of demonstrations I will be using Artist quality oil paints. Raw umber. Ivory black.
Flake white (or Titanium White)Oil paints are made by mixing ground pigment (the colour) with a drying oil. Most artist quality paints are mixed with cold pressed linseed oil. Whites often are mixed with a different oil, walnut or poppy oil, as they are less yellowing than the linseed oil.I’m using Artist quality paints which have a higher pigment quality than student grade paints, you can read about the differencesI am using a mixture of brands including Michael Harding, Old Holland & Winsor and Newton.Support – ( what you paint onto)A 5 or 6mm thick piece of MDF can be a great starting point. Prepare the surface with an acrylic gesso, sanding in-between coats,Pro tip: Make sure to give all sides of the MDF board a coat of size, especially the edges which can be very absorbent to moisture.Many portrait artists prefer to work on linen rather than cotton as you can get a finer weave but for this demonstration, I am using a pre-primed canvas. The actual canvas is a Belle Arti Cotton Canvas.Brushes – For this demonstration I’ll be using:. – size 4, 2 & 10 (size 6 & 8 are also very handy to have). Rosemary & co Kolinsky Sable series 33 Round – size 3.
They put an oil painting filter on it.' Of a sort, though I didn't follow the strokes that Photoshop created; I just scribbled over the whole thing.
Rosemary & co Kolinsky Sable series 66 Filbert – size 8To learn more about brushes Coloured groundOil paints increase in transparency with age, even thick opaque colours. To test for yourself, make a few pencil or pen marks on a piece of scrap canvas or board, paint over them opaquely and then take a photograph to see the coverage, check back the next day and then the next week to see if the opacity has changed.For a tonal study, a coloured ground is a must, it helps you to establish the extremes of the painting, the darkest darks, and the lightest lights. It also makes it easier for you to judge tones and is a lot more forgiving than a white canvas.Pro tip: you can, of course, experiment with a pure white ground for creating an underlying glow to the skin. Were fond of this method. Traditionally, the white ground has been used to illuminate the transparent layers of oil colour.Acrylic or oil for the ground?I have used acrylics in this example. It is a mixture of raw umber and titanium white, notice how it has been applied quite thinly, with some of the white gesso showing through.
This is for 2 reasons:. I don’t want to lose the ‘tooth’ of the canvas.
The tooth is the grain, and texture of the canvas and helps to pull the paint off the brush. Will, what can I say, another great post!I’m really looking forward to seeing how the painting develops. The source photo is wonderful – a work of art in its own right IMHO, and it will be interesting to compare the photo with the finished painting.When painting portraits, is it your ambition to replicate the photo as best as you can, or does the process of painting allow you to ‘add something’ to the image? In other words, do you feel like you are somehow in competiton with the perfection of the machine-made process of photography, or do you consider that painting, with its hands-on human touch, has something extra about it which puts it in a different league?Please forgive the amateur philosophy, but this is something I often ponder when working from photos All the best, Dave. Hi Dave,You haven’t been reading Walter Benjamin have you?When painting portraits, is it your ambition to replicate the photo as best as you can, or does the process of painting allow you to ‘add something’ to the image? Will,Very interesting to hear that even though you are obviously a great photographer you see painting as a superior way of making an image.Unlike you, I often do feel in awe of photography, but find it too impersonal, since it could be said that the engineers who designed the camera are as much responsible for the quality of the image as the person who points and shoots (pro photographers may disagree!) With painting on the other hand I literally make every mark on the surface, good or bad Don’t think i’ve read the Benjamin book, must check it out.Thanks,Dave.
Hey David,Great to hear the posts have been helping your painting.To answer your questions,I heard that the older and more beat up a brush is the softer it is. Does that make them better?In my experience, if you’re working with Oils the older and more beat up the brush, the harder and more brittle it becomes.
Due to working with the turpentine, it kinda eats away at the brush fibres so makes them shorter and less flexible, so harder to work with if you’re trying to get a smooth blend.Even if you’re working with Acrylic paints the brushes as they age, still become stiffer due to tiny residues of paint building up over time.The brush will be softest when you first buy it and the softness is dependant on the hair that is used. E.g: Hog hair from a pig is coarse and rough, sable from a mink tail will be super soft and springy.This post about might interest you.I also would like to know if Princeton Art & Brush Co. Is any good for brushes.I personally haven’t used these brushes but having a quick look at their website they look fantastic. The synthetic sable looks a really useful brush to have, are you working in Oils or Acrylics?Hope this helps,Will. Hi Will,in my ‘colour-quest’ (colour bias) I have stumbled across your videos on youtube and hence onto your proper site. What a blessing!!!!!!
Many thanks.I have my base in graphite (photorealism), want to move to colour, and have decided to give acrylics (Lascaux) a try. Am still sitting scared here looking at the still closed bottles but found so much on your site that all I can do is attempt to start. Since my love is the human face, a portrait it will be. I know that your portrait tutorial here is for oil but I think it might be helpful for acrylics as well.Just wanted to thank you for your inspiration and help.Cheers, Reinhard. Hi Reinhard,Just starting is the best thing you can do, you really will learn loads through the process.
Even if it is just a nose, or a pair of eyes!You can apply similar techniques with the acrylics but might need to work on smaller sections at a time if you want that photorealist look.The jump from graphite to painting can seem like a tough one as often the process can seem a bit back to front. There are some amazing painters that work in acrylics to get a photorealist finish. They often have a very methodical approach. Andrew Tift is a great example for inspiration of what can be achieved. Here is another post that looks at Just take your time, with the same approach, and have a go!Love to see your results,Thanks,Will.
Hi Will.Fantastic tutorial. It’s answered so many questions.Just a quick question though: I am using the oil raw umber for the first stage and it is looking quite different to your image at this stage. I have been using the raw umber straight out of the tube, without mixing it with any medium.
I dip my brush in the OMS, squeeze it out on kitchen roll and then get a small out of the raw umber on my brush. Am I missing something here? Will it be “lean” enough?Thanks again for the great tutorial.Kieran.
Hi Kieran,Thanks, pleased you’ve found it helpful to your painting.Yes, that’s right, just dilute the raw umber with the OMS, you can add quite a bit of OMS to the mix, to apply it as thin as watercolour if you want to, I just reccomend squeezing into the kitchen roll so it isn’t too liquid or the mix will run down the canvas.Often, you’re aiming for the first consistency to be a bit thicker than milk and then the next layer similar to single cream is a good starting point.Hope this helps,Cheers,Will. This is a great website. I am like so many others. I would love to do portraits but, I have only drawn them. I have used watercolors and acrylics. I have a set of oils for a bird painting book I have. When I draw someone, I erase and redraw to try to get the eyes, lips, etc.
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How can I do this in oils? I mean, do I get the drawing just right and then proceed to the oils? I doesn’t look like you do a lot on the drawing itself. Being a beginner, I would like some advice.Thank you,Marcy.
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Hi Will,You probably won’t remember me telling you I had started up an art group here in France where I live and we are all very long in the tooth but keen to learn. Anyway, we are two weeks in and I have watched many, if not all, of your tutorials and have started a portrait of my husband. I have put on the raw umber layer and it is drying nicely in a quiet corner. I shall carry on with each stage and perhaps when it is finished – good or bad – you could take a look. I have joined the 21st century and opened a Flckr account to keep track of how I go and will try to figure out how to get the link.Just one thing though. Hubby has seen me studying your tutorial – which I printed out – and has asked that I make him look as good looking and young in his portrait as you are in yours. Fat chance!!Thank you for all the hard work you have put into your tutorials here and on YouTube.
I am inspired. Morning Will!Thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge and personal perspective about how to paint, draw, mix paints, and so on. I’ve been hiding from my charcoal and paint brushes for years. I’m learning so much more from you than I did when I studied fine arts/studio painting 30 years ago at my university.Back then, the focus was to paint in the abstract and only in oils. Acrylics were frowned upon (isn’t that strange since most painters then were using acrylics and even house paint!).I can’t thank you enough for helping me get back to painting and drawing.
Watching you paint made me really miss putting brush-to-canvas. Reading about how to paint and draw just isn’t the same as watching an artist work.Warmest regards from the US to you!. Hi Will,The video course is excellent – a really good basis for getting into this deceptively difficult medium.Just a couple of small small questions – I apologise in advance if the answers are much more complicated than the questions!Having taken the painting to a finished stage in black and white is it possible to apply coloured glazes on top to create a coloured painting. Or is it wrong to apply coloured glazes on top of white?
I’m sure I read this somewhere, but there seem to be so many conflicting opinions, on this subject. Would this involve a completely different process? Obviously, fat over lean is going to come into it.There are a lot of techniques that I have heard of, but don’t really understand, like scumbling, for example. Would it be possible for you to explain this in a few words?ThanksTerry.
Hi Terry, pleased you enjoyed the lessons and I’d be pleased to answer your questions:Is it possible to apply coloured glazes on top to create a coloured painting.Yes, you could add coloured glazes over the black & white portrait, but the lighter tones would probably be too dark. If you were aiming to create the black & white portrait as an underpainting for colour glazes you’d usually have the lights left a couple of steps lighter in preparation for the colour glazes ontop.Would this involve a completely different process?Yes and No, I’d use the same initial start to the portrait but not add as many subtle layers of glazes in the black and white, then go straight into the colour earlier on but then use different techniques, such as scumbling, (applying broken colour with a dry brush) with quite subtle colours.
As a note of caution most beginners go in way too bright too soon.There are a lot of techniques that I have heard of, but don’t really understand, like scumblingYou might find thiss helpfulThis technique shown is more for creating a finished black and white study rather than as an underpainting for coloured glazes, as getting your black and white painting right is 90% of the success of the painting.Hope this helps Terry,Cheers,Will. Hi Will,Excellent work. Could you please clarify to me from this post, if you have used Raw Umber “Acrylic” as the foreground, instead of Oils? As your post says so.
And do you still use OMS mixture with the Acrylic? What would your general suggestion be, for best results – go with Acrylics underground colors or Oils?Also – please could you tell me if it is a good idea to simply work with just1 layer of background – say, with a shaded effect of Raw Umber (Oil) with a pinch of Linseed oil? Or would i be wrong in this approach.Would appreciate your response. Thank you,Arch. Hi Arch,If you have used Raw Umber “Acrylic” as the foreground, instead of Oils? Appreciate your responses soo much Will.
Have a couple of questions though.So, if I have to devotedly follow your course, so, I would let the foreground colors dry overnight (as the post says). And the following layers (Step 2 – Step 5), I could go ahead and keep painting. So, I do not have to wait for any drying time?I might sound dumb – but please tell me. Why do you dilute the Acrylic with water? Is it to prevent cracks again?? (I am concerned ‘cos most of my earlier works I used Artists Acrylics straight, without diluting.:( )For Flake White or Titanium White, can I use Linseed oil?? (Or should I not use them in case of White?)And is a siccative must for mixing with white?Sorry for keeping you bothered with so many questions.
And thanks again for the wisdom shared!!:). Hi Archana,To answer your question:I might sound dumb – but please tell me. Why do you dilute the Acrylic with water? Is it to prevent cracks again?? (I am concerned ‘cos most of my earlier works I used Artists Acrylics straight, without diluting.Acrylics are diluted with water to thin the consistency, just like mineral spirits and linseed oil are used to dilute oil paints.
Your earlier works with acrylics won’t crack.For Flake White or Titanium White, can I use Linseed oil?? (Or should I not use them in case of White?)And is a siccative must for mixing with white?Again, you can use linseed oil, but I wouldn’t advise it as this stage for this technique of painting.The oil is the slow drying part of oil paint, at this stage I want the paint to dry quicker, so adding linseed oil would extend the drying time.Hope this helps,Cheers,Will. Hi there Will,interesting stuff.I am working on a portrait now,Need some advice.I have color charts that were mixed without linseed oil,I’m using Photoshop to find my paletteThe Computer shows a semi dark green shadow on the face because of the atmosphere the woman is standing in.The color is a perfect match on the chart and when mixed in my saucer with linseed oil,it still seems accurate.When i apply the shadow green to the canvas,it turns to a dirty mustard yellow.Why is there a difference from the saucer to the canvas?. Hello Will,Such a great web site proving to be very helpful to beginners like me.
A great service to Art!!! Keep it goingI would also like to seek you for an advice. I had done a portrait with oils, about 2 months ago. I had not Varnished it (For reasons – lack of time and lack of material). However, i had let the paining get sun dried for a week, following which, was made to dry inside a room for close to 2 full months. Now, am back after travel and i see, dust accumulated on the surface of the painting when i closely observe.
It kind of worries me deeply and wonder what should i do, to remove of those minute dust particle which has found its way, though the painting was preserved in a room. What would you advise me?
Please, suggest. I look forward to hearing you response. Thanks much in advance. Hi this is beautifully crafted articlE which I understood well and produced my own black and white painting that im incredibly happy with. My problem is moving on to colour. Every time I try I destroy what is a great underpainting and feel utterly overwhelmed. Please could you add to this a similar tutorial which is as logical and clear that deals with using colour without a massive palette or esoteric language and ill explained processes that so many books and videos seem to use.
Thank you for what you have shown us here. Thanks Will I am watching the colour portrait series righ now and it is excellent! I’m learning a lot from it, thank you. I’m hoping to translate what I learn into oil painting. I know everything I’ve learned there will help me, im particularly excited by the Zorn pallete. So many books suggest wierd and wonderful colours that lead me to complete confusion.
It is such a relief for me to find clear concise teaching that I can actually exactly follow.Please consider a follow on from the Acrylic course to help translate this course to oils.Also possibly a list of of uk suppliers that stock the materials you suggest. Neither of the two big art shops in Manchester have Golden Acrylics.My main point is that I had got stuck and despondent and almost given up on using colour at all because I was ruining so many good paintings because I was overwhelmed, now i have a clear direction and I’m back on track. Thank you so much.Luke. Dear Will,I am dumbfounded at the simplicity, clarity and the beauty of this lesson in oil painting. I wish to thank you for this. I have always enjoyed your tutorials immensely.I know I am sort of a mixed up painter who gets pulled easily in all the directions and, consequently, gets no where.I don’t know what exactly is my medium!? I seem to keep getting in and out of these.
Whenever I see a nice painting or a sketch, I want to follow it, but soon enough, comes another nice painting that distracts me and I wish to follow that. And that is how it goes on with me. But, it is OK.Kindest regards!Chander. Hi,I’m still in the process of reading this article but just wanted to make a quick comment regarding the opacity comment. I’m not sure as to how true that comment is but to find out, a test will have to be done with something other than a pencil mark to prove its waning opacity.
Pencils and charcoal have a tendency to rise through the layers of paints above it through a chemical process. This is why it looks as though the paint is becoming more transparent. In fact, it is the graphite molecules working its way through the actual painting to the top and not our ability to see through the paint. Maybe this test will be better with an archival waterproof pigment liner?.
First of all, let me appreciate you for having so much patience in giving replies to all art lovers. I feel it is more tedious than painting a subject. Your article inspires me to paint a portrait but I lost touch in painting since I left it for 30 years from now. Now I am 70 years old and inspired by your above tutorial would like to paint a portrait.
I am your subscriber and want to post my portrait for your critiques. Will you please do this favour to me, if so please tell me how and where to send my portrait. Thanking you in advance.
God bless you. Thanks for answering my question. Just an FYI, I haven’t painted since I left college with a BFA. Now as I’m nearing retirement I have decided to go back to the thing I was best at in school portrait painting.
It’s been 40 years since I last painted so over the last year I have been looking for resources to help me reacclimate to painting. I looked at and read over thirty sources most of which contradicted each other. Then I came across you on the web. Your courses are hands down the best I’ve come across and I’m looking forward to the journey.
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