How to Start Portrait Painting?
Have you ever tried a portrait? Yes definitely if you are an artist or have interest in art.
Many artists think that portrait painting is not their cup of tea and not even tried hand on it till many years in their painting career but definitely tried to do the same around two to three times. Whether they did it on a small scale like a family portrait, a member or self-portrait painting but didn’t achieved success as you felt.
No worries if you get a fail, most probably after reading this news you will be able to make a portrait painting at once easily without any hustle.
How to paint a portrait? If you are preparing from past many days your mind and waiting for the weekend time that you will make a masterpiece. So don’t wait for the right start today even right now without any further delay. Just follow the steps and you will get a perfect portrait painting may be not in the first attempt but surely in 4th or 5th attempt.
Your wait is over!
MATERIALS USED FOR PAINTING
Before starting the portrait painting, you should have the basic materials to get started. Below giving the list of the materials required for portrait painting:
# A primed canvas- The basic requirement for a canvas is a white primed canvas. You can make a base as per your requirement if you want, it would be your personal choice.
# A Brush- You can use a small 1 size or 2 size brush. If a small bristle brush is used the paint brush will be easily spread on the canvas. But using other types of brush will not affect the base. So choosing a type of brush will also be personal preference.
# A Colored paint- You can use a neutral colored paint for this process.
# Oil paint medium- It is good for extending paint and using it will make the paint more elastic which is good.
Now you got the list of must have to start the portrait. Follow this step by step guide and you will get an amazing masterpiece beyond your expectations. Here we are taking an instance of dog portrait for making you understand the process.
STEP 1: SIMPLE SHAPES
The first step of portrait painting is the drawing the basic shapes outlines with paint and brush. Basic shape of head and body of dog to get the placement and size on the canvas. Sometimes the painting will not get stretched as we want so we will add a medium to make it more elastic and make drawing smoother.
STEP 2: DRAW PROPORTIONS
The next step is to make proportions of size and the features and then confirm it is rightly proportional. If we need to remove the line or the mark that is wrongly marked, then it can be done in three ways- one is to remove it with a rag or the cloth will leave a light mark of paint that helps which mark is being used and which is not. The other option is remove it with turpentine but it will remove more of paint and also disrupt the new paint if not careful to remove it. The last option is to remove the old mark as it is and paint over it later. It will be easier and faster than the other two.
STEP 3: BLOCKING|
In this step we start defining the shapes and forms more little clearly. Try to keep the marks light because the forms are fairly simplified and reworking and refining the lines later. Don't get too much paint down early on because it can get messy and confusing if there are a lot of heavy lines and marks painted on the canvas.
STEP 4: REFINING
Once again doing the same thing as in the drawing. We refine the plane changes and the shapes of the forms, working towards the smaller shapes. Draw the forms to the level that I feel gets me enough of the structure information I need to paint or model the forms later on.
Now, you got the final version of the lines to make the final portrait painting. Everything is in level now to make painting. Include the boundaries as well to make the final painting. Move to the next paint step.
STEP 5: PAINTING
The last step is to paint in the shadow or the dark areas on the head, neck and half body. You will get the basic structure of the portrait painting just remaining to fulfill the good choice of paint combinations and here you go.
After painting is complete just make little more detailing wherever required with thin brush to give your painting an original look. Artists who paint portraits know the importance of detailing.
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