Need help on painting portraits

[artman2384]

Hello fellow artist-
I am very new to painting Portraits in oil,And was needing some advice on Painting better portraits,techniques used,Colors used for skin tones.All the advice would be much appreciated.thanks

[Verdaccio]

Golly, that is a tall order! There are about as many ways to paint a portrait as their are people who paint them. I recommend going to your library and doing a word search on Portrait. There are several books put out by ASOPA (www.asopa.com) that most libraries have. Also, check out www.portraitartist.com for some good info and a look at what many other portrait artists are doing. And, if you want serious art instruction, then I recommend checking out this guy - www.portrait-artist.com. His name is Frank Covino and he does workshops around the country - he focues his classes on reproducing old masters and portraits. For my money it is the best instruction on "how to paint in a realist manner" available.

THat will get you info on the portrait industry and access to information and books that may help you. Now, as to HOW to paint a portrait, well first I recommend that you get into a life drawing class - drawing the human figure in charcoal is great experience. Next, I recommend that you do several portraits from photos as practice - either take some shots of your friends or use a pic from a magazine, etc. These are not pieces that will be for sale, but practice works that will help get you started. You should post pics of them here as you work to get advice and help on things that are stumping you - the people here know a lot about painting!

I hope that helps! If you have any specific questions that you want to post then feel free and we'll try to help! :)

[paintfool]

Great advice Michael!
I'm also going to share this thread with the portraiture forum, Artman. (We now have the means to keep it open here too)
Cheryl

[m_a_r_t_i_n]

It all depends what style portraiture you want to paint, like for instance the style Van Gogh or style Ingres, two completely different approaches.
My advice - choose a portrait image by a master you really like, and attempt to copy it.
As you are painting you can post here pics in progress and get advice.

[scottb]

Cheryl must have forgotten to close with a redirect. :-)

Moving this to Portraiture, and leaving a pointer here in this forum ...

Cheers.
Scott

[sandge]

You may find this lesson of interest:

Setting a Palette with the Portrait Colors (http://www.wetcanvas.com/ArtSchool/Portraiture/Palette/)

[artman2384]

Hello everyone
I wanted to thank you all for your advice it helped me alot :).Thanks sandra for that site on portrait colors that was very helpful also thanks.I was wondering if any of you knew a awesome portrait artist named richard schmid he is one of my favorites.the other day while i was in cafe guerbos everyone wanted to see his work so i tried finding some things about him on the internet but none of the sites i found were that good,so i was wondering if anybody knew a good site on him?

[Verdaccio]

Yes, Richard's work was featured in Artist Magazine - April Issue. He is great! His website is:

www.richardschmid.com

[artman2384]

Verdaccio
i was on that site last night it was not what i was looking for i went on about 30 different sites and found nothing:(
the artist magaize is where i saw richard also he is simply amazing.i would love to buy his book (alla prima all i know about painting) but it cost $1oo :eek:

[Pen]

Originally posted by artman2384
Verdaccio
i was on that site last night it was not what i was looking for i went on about 30 different sites and found nothing:(
the artist magaize is where i saw richard also he is simply amazing.i would love to buy his book (alla prima all i know about painting) but it cost $1oo :eek:

I got the book from inter-library loan and am copying it page by page on my copy machine. I have to feed in each piece of paper by hand, and it's slow going, but I'm getting there. This is of course only for my own personal use, so I don't think I'm breaking any laws - I hope. The one drawback is that I can't reproduce the colors, but it is mainly the text I'm interested in anyway. A very inspirational book that I obviously want very much (but can't afford).

[artman2384]

Pen
I would love to do that but i cant find the book anywhere lol.i think i will just buy it later.
:rolleyes: