How To Paint A Portrait

With mega pixels increasing with every new model of digital cameras, capturing the living moments have become simpler. However, even though these image resolutions and other digital features provide a lively outcome, nothing can beat the human touch in portrait painting. The genre of painting once used to embrace and enhance the beauty of the royal courts, but over time it became more common with middle-class patrons. A portrait is a remembrance clogged in a piece of art with different colours expressing different emotions of the person, group of people, thing or a place painted on the canvas. It is an art loved and enjoyed by artists and patrons; it is the means of livelihood for the painter, or a piece of decoration in the house of a random appreciator. It requires an artist’s skills, and years of practice to master this genre of painting. This article provides you with some useful portrait painting tips to help you out in your attempts.

Portrait Painting Tips

• Get all the things you require in order to make a portrait and collect them in one place. Your watercolours, oil paints, canvas or paper should all be purchased and set up together with all your pencils, brushes and other sketching and painting materials.
• Choose the place where you would like to start your portrait. Look for a room or place which has access to plenty of natural light. Opting for a dark room or a place with little light will strain your eyes and will affect the colours you choose.
• Once your painting stand is ready with all the equipments set, it’s time to place your subject or the photo of your subject at a place that makes it easy for you to glance back and forth at your subject and the painting. It is advisable to sketch a little outline of your subject in pencil before working on with paint. Make sure you have practiced enough before sketching on the fair paper to avoid erasing that might harm the smoothness of the paper.
• Once you have got a decent sketch of your subject, arrange your paints on the palette and draw a line of each colour towards the edge of the pallet. Use all the colour combinations like titanium white, ivory black, raw sienna, yellow ochre etc. that are used in making a portrait.
• Make your subject sit in a pose in a place that is well lit. If you are using a photograph, then pin it to the top of your tripod for a better view. Take some time to study your subject before you start with the flow of your hand. This will give you time to get the colour to be used, the skin tone and the posture to be painted right.
• Start up by drawing your subject’s features by painting layers of the skin tone. You can add and blend in colours to provide depth and definition to the features. Add details to the hair, contrast with light and dark patches of colours.
• Make sure that the features are at the right position on the face sketched. Place the pupils in the middle of the head, the bottom of the nose should be between the pupils and chin. Take care of small details in order to get the best result.
• Once you have worked on the little details of the face, shift your focus to other features like the background or the clothing or other parts of the body, if it is a full portrait. Now it is time to add details and mark out the differences between different layers of paint.
• Once you have touched upon all the aspects of the portrait, it is time to get back to the face, from where you started and add special touch to all the areas of the portrait to give more depth and life.