In this series of 5 posts, I am going to look at the process of how to tackle painting a black & white portrait using oil paints.
So when you come back to your painting the next day, it’s a good time to reassess the drawing and have another look at the tones…
Have you been practising your portrait drawing for years, yet making the jump to oil portrait painting always seems to end in an underwhelming finish?
Or do you walk around portrait galleries in awe with the question, ‘How do they do that?’
Maybe you’re frustrated by your process and don’t know how to change it.
But you don’t want to draw anymore, you want to paint.
So, where do you begin?
When you first start painting, the vision is to squeeze out bright, vivid paint colours, a handful of paintbrushes, or maybe a beret?
But often, this approach is an illusion, an artist myth.
To get professional results, you need a professional approach.
If you want freedom and expression on the canvas, a bit of premixing can help you achieve more pleasing results, especially if you try to achieve a more realistic effect.
If you spend a little extra time preparing, your actual time at the easel will be more efficient, quicker and rewarding.
Let’s enter the world of colour strings…
If you’re trying to paint in your spare time, it can seem impossible.
You’re already struggling just to find a clear space and get your paints set out and sometimes you can’t even manage that.
You want to work on your colour mixing, try a new paint colour, and definitely do some more sketchbook work, but you also have a job, family, friends — responsibilities that are just more important.
And so you wonder: should you just keep going, doing the best you can?
Or is there a strategy you can use that doesn’t require so much time and achieves better results?
Head Study – After Collins, Oil on Linen, Will Kemp
“Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend”
John Singer Sargent
Let me take you back several years to the beginning of my experiments with portraiture.
It was a bright sunny morning after a long arduous night painting and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, I had finally cracked my self-portrait…. enter my wife Vanessa
Vanessa: “Why do you look like Tom Jones?”
Me: “I don’t look like Tom Jones”
Vanessa: “You do, what have you done? The portrait was looking great last night!”
Me: “I don’t look like Tom Jones”
Vanessa: “You do! Look how orange it is, you look like the freakin’ Tango man”
Me: “Shit….. I look like Tom Jones”
Skin tone, it isn’t easy….
Contrast is really important when you’re starting to learn how to paint.
A good knowledge of contrast in drawing helps significantly because you will have learned the value of light and dark.
If you are coming from a non-drawing background, you will have to be more aware that to make a dramatic painting “contrast is king”, rather than trying to add a bright colour to lift the painting…
Oil paint can be an amazing substance to work with, from creating quick sketches outside to photo-realistic portraits. Because oil paints take a long time to dry, they give you the flexibility to tweak, alter, soften and blend, resulting in lovely muted, smokey subtle paintings.
If you decide that you’d like to give oils a go, then my recommendation would be to start with a pre-sized, pre-primed ready-made canvas to paint on.
Why?
The “oil” in the paint can create a few issues over time you should be aware of.
We’ve all heard of “fat over lean” and paintings cracking but don’t be scared…