Blog

How do you make a portrait. How to paint a portrait. Learn how to paint an oil portrait, with crayons, with pencils, with acrylic, with watercolors. A portrait that perfectly resembles the subject to be depicted. Transfer the drawing of the face, with millimeter proportions, to the paper or to the canvas. Prepare a palette with colors that allow you to paint the complexion, the variations in skin tones, the brightness of the eye. Transfer a photograph on the canvas to prepare the portrait. This is not just an article, but a precious free manual, written thanks to the convergence of painters and art historians, who briefly illustrate, with incontrovertible evidence, the secrets of the shop and the tricks of the trade, which other texts do not mention.

This will make the aspiring portrait painter or the scholar who knows stylistic problems without having been able to deepen the techniques, to focus perfectly on the problem. In the end we will offer, with extreme clarity, the technical solutions that are used today, such as how to transfer the image of a photograph on the canvas, without having to resort to complex instruments, but being able to take advantage of a simple copying machine or printer

Since ancient times, the portrait was the object of particular attention. It was used to remember – next to the statue carved from the funeral cast of the face – the faces of dead relatives or friends; it was a propaganda tool; a way to be remembered by those who were far away.

The wet-on-wet painting with oil is so called because it is possible to apply a fresh (wet) color over a color that has not yet dried (wet). This application process should be used with great care just because the color base is not stable and the colors can mix too much.

In the search for light and dark the different shades are flanked. In fact, you have the color inside defined edges and then fade to get the contrast. With the wet-on-wet technique instead, the overlap of the color enhances the nuances and the thickness of the relief on the canvas. The technique is typical of the Impressionists.

Painting wet on wet with watercolor has few but fundamental rules that if you learn can be applied on different supports. This technique allows obtaining brilliant and harmonious results. With this method, the painting is performed in a single session, with a “single” layer that usually is opaque or semi-opaque.

Usually you create a contour with the lapis. The colors are then spread within the shape we have created or the whole sheet. The wet sheet will make the drafting of the color very simple. Thus a defined and enveloping color will be obtained, rich in nuances even if used singly. If the canvas is rather large, it is advisable to wet it only in the part that you think you can paint. Only later will the other spaces be wet.

With brushes and spatulas the color is distributed with the addition of other water.

Colors can be applied instinctively or they can be blended with a brush or rubbed to achieve the desired effect. The sheet on which it is painted can be inclined, letting it follow the lines drawn by gravity.

For outdoor views it is one of the best techniques. The technique requires having a clear idea of ​​what one has in mind to paint.

The goal we want to follow, following the three steps of our guide, will be to explain in a very simple and direct way how to paint a landscape with watercolors. Let’s start with our reviews on this very interesting topic.

To paint a landscape, you must learn the technique of watercolor and do many exercises before you can paint your ideal landscape.

The first aspect we need to consider is to draw the pattern of the landscape you want to paint with a classic pencil. Then you have to hide the profile of the hills and the vegetation in the left area, but not the foliage that serves as a frame for the sky.

It is therefore necessary to moisten the brush with clear water and to distribute a diluted pink pigment. So you have to continue with a second wash down with the Naples Yellow. Finally, you must perform a third fusion with a mixture of red cadmium and the addition of an orange-yellow tip to cadmium. At the end you should use the veiled cobalt blue over the pink garanza: this mixture gives a pale lilac color.

If the paper is still wet, you will need to overlay a new layer of cobalt blue in addition to the pink garanza to reach the highest part of the sky in perspective and move the sky across the sky horizon, with a more intense blue blend in addition to cadmium red.

Art in its entirety allows the artist to express his own inner world, either through a sculpture or using painting. However, if sculpting requires a superior talent, those who feel the need to express a state of mind or all their creativity can do it by painting. With this short guide, we see how to approach painting on canvas, how to start painting right away and what are the main steps to get a result worthy of praise.

Needed
Canvas
Palette
Colors in tempera or oil
Brushes
spatulas
solvents

To paint on canvas it is necessary to obtain all the necessary material: oil colors, palette, brushes, spatulas, solvents, mediums, ie liquids that mix with the color favor the drying and a support on which to paint. The colors that the artists used to make are now easy to find in specialized shops; you can also decide whether to use them directly or dilute them with turpentine. If yours is the first experiment, it will be enough to buy white, black, permanent green, vermilion red, yellow ocher, burnt Sienna, Prussian blue and pink garment lacquer. On the palette, the colors must be distributed from yellow to black with white in the center. Finally, as far as the brushes are concerned, I recommend only bristle brushes, taking care to clean them first with turpentine (or with other solvents such as turpentine) and then with the Marseille soap at the end of each job.

On any support you want to use, whether it is canvas, plywood, canvasboard or hardboard, you have to check that the brush stroke is smooth. To do this it is advisable to prepare a paste of glue and gypsum on them through the primer. This operation is essential for the success of a good job, since the oil painting would not withstand the variation of tension due to drying. On the market it is very difficult to find a canvas that has not been previously treated, since almost all the supports are designed and already prepared to immediately receive the painting.

Watercolor is a painting technique used by many artists. It is considered easy to use, but still requires the knowledge of basic techniques and its operation.

What is watercolor?

Watercolor is a painting made from pigments finely ground and mixed with rubberized water, which serves as a binder. It is a water painting.

The works, often made on paper, are called watercolors themselves.

The colors are very light on paper, because the water is present in important proportions. But this factor can vary from one artist to another. Some painters choose to put a little water in their mix to give a more pigmented appearance to the colors.

Watercolor is one of the oldest paper-based techniques and is opposed to different techniques in which much less water is used instead.

The technique almost always exists, since there are many civilizations that have used water pigments to paint elements of their culture.

However, watercolor has long been considered a technique of study, a technique that allows us to reflect on the first stages of our work. It is only in the seventeenth century that watercolor will be recognized as a real technique.

Watercolor painting is a painting on which it is easy to rework. Indeed, even when dry, the paint can be retouched by applying a little water.

But this is also what makes all its complexity, since we need to know how to dose the doses so as not to cancel the first layers on the sheet.

The colors dry relatively quickly: just wait for the water to evaporate.

Do you wish to start drawing and painting in watercolor?

The best thing will be to follow drawing courses or painting stages; but here are some basic information that will allow you to learn this painting technique.

You must first of all know that the watercolor painting is used on a paper support. Making a watercolor on a canvas will not make any sense, since the linen, as well as the cotton canvas will absorb the painting, before you have had time to use it.

You will then need to purchase adequate paper. There are all kinds of them, with different weights. This will depend on your preferences and your goals. The watercolor paper is thick, to prevent the paper from being damaged or torn due to the abundance of water.

To begin with, the artist has two solutions: either he paints directly on the sheet of dry paper, or wets the sheet with his own brush, before laying the color.

This last technique allows to mix the colors directly on the sheet. But if you are not sure of the results, it will be preferable to mix the colors on the palette.

The watercolor painting, unlike oil painting, is carried out in a few layers, because the more layers you will put and the more the result will be dark, dark. You will therefore need to always start with lighter colors and switch to darker ones only later.

The percentage of water must decrease with the progress of the layers, if you want, for example, to accentuate a zone of shade. The color will then be less pale.

White paper is very recommended for painting with watercolor. This allows you to reveal all colors, which is impossible on a light blue card, for example.