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The Artist working on the portrait of Supreme Court Justice, John Paul Stevens Collection 7th Circuit Court of Appeals |
Because of my commission work, I have not had the opportunity to offer workshops. Hopefully in the future I will, but I can share some of my decades long learning.
First, a bit of background about me:
I started painting when I was seven or eight years old and continued on through my teenage years. But, I lost about 15 years of serious painting which set back my career…why… because my first husband was a jerk….I mistakenly put his career before mine.
My Studio, "The Lobster Pot Studio" is located on property once owned and named by Mark Twain. It is a beautiful property high on a hill with formal gardens.
I taught myself to paint thru hard work, determination and studying the old masters, Velazquez, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Gilbert Stuart and of course John Singer Sargent!
You can “study with” so many Teachers, but it always comes down to YOU! Whether you have the passion and the courage and the discipline to create sincere and real art. I am very proud that I am self-taught. I have my own true original style.
Now, here are some of my words of guidance for portrait painting, many of which also be applied to still life painting. (I will be adding more notes as time allows).
For a painting to be successful it must have a good composition. A balanced composition that moves your eye around the canvas. This can be achieved with use of color or design.
Remember to stand back from your painting to review the overall color and composition, this will also help you to see the tones and the drawing better.
The thicker, you paint the more your color will flow which helps in blending the edges.
Take great care and time when placing your subject or composition on the canvas. If the head is placed too high, the viewers eye will not be directed to the face but down to the torso, similarly, if placed to low on the canvas the viewers eye will go to the top of the canvas. The eye and mind always seeks balance in design, that is why a triangle composition has been widely used for hundreds of years.
Be patient with yourself. It’s very hard demanding work to paint realistically. When your eye and your mind get tired or lose freshness, just put the canvas away until you have a fresh eye and your enthusiasm and passions to start again.
Layout your colors in the same order every time, usually warm colors and cool colors on either side of white. Think of the colors as keys on a piano, this way, in time, you do not have to think each time when you reach for a color, it will just flow.
This is my color palette when I am working on portraits, starting from left to right: Sap Green, Ivory Black, Ultramarine Blue, Prussia Blue, Viridian, Cadmium Red, Burnt Sienna, Alizarin Crimson, Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow, Yellow Ocher, and Raw Sienna. I occasionally use Van Dyke brown and India red.
A portrait artist MUST have a fan brush to blend the edges and values.
All the information you need to work from is right before your eyes. It’s a matter of focusing, being in the moment, and concentrating on what you see before you.
Start with the middle tone mass of the face, and start to build up the painting, edges into edges, then work in the lights and dark values. Always use a fan brush to blend the edges and a knockdown the highlights so when the paint dries, you do not have ridges that catch the light.
I recommend to people who want to learn to paint, to copy the masters. I taught myself to paint this way, (as did many artists in the past, including John Singer Sargent). This helps you start to develop your eye, blending colors and also working with edges and drawing.
Have a large mirror behind you when you are painting, this way by looking at your painting in reverse you and better see your drawing mistakes. Many portrait artists have used this tool including Leonardo Da Vinci.
You can learn more from yourself than you can from anyone else, by learning from your mistakes and then hopefully not repeating them!
Do not be afraid of colors and mixing colors. All colors come from four basic colors: white, red, blue and yellow. The old Masters had a very limited color pallet, but they still were able to create rich colors.
Get a color wheel, which is a time proven tool for mixing and understanding color relationships.
When I feel concerned that something is wrong with the composition or the colors in the background, I will look at my many art books about portrait painters. Especially, John Singer Sargent, to see how he handled similar situations and by goodness, it always seems like something pops up and I go…. oh that’s it that’s what I should do.
Always paint one edge into another.
Everything is about the edges and colors next to colors, light and dark, cool and warm.
Use a value viewer, a value contrast tool, which is very good for correctly seeing the values of your painting. It is a matted green or red clear plastic slide that helps you see the correct value relationships. I like the green transparent value viewer. Art stores like Blick or Jerry's Artarama usually sell them.
I’ve always found it helpful to place my subject very close to my canvas and to look back-and-forth and back-and-forth, using a plum line or imaginary plum line in your mind. This will help you see accurately the positions of the features, angles and the measurements.
Start with a middle tone mass, then began to work, the dark and the light tones, saving the lightest light and the darkest dark for the end.
Remember the only thing that’s holding you back is you and never give up!
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