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  • #480461
    WFMartin
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        Those of you who know me, also know that I don’t pretend to be a “portrait painter”. My reason for this is that I truly cannot “draw” a portrait with line-creating implements such as pencils, or pens.

        For years, I tried all those drawing techniques, such as proportioning, classical proportioning, gridding, even projecting, none of which led me to creating a reasonably accurate likeness of my subject.

        Then, one day I stumbled upon this method which basically works from a profoundly soft, rough, undulating image in the early stages, created with large brush-strokes rather than finely-drawn lines, gradually toward a sharper, more focused rendering. Once I tried this method, I discovered I had created a rather accurate likeness, almost automatically, and without having expended a lot of effort.

        This is a painting of my wife, Carol (married for 61 years this October 10), and I did this using the above method.


        16″ x 20″ oil paint on RayMar Linen Panel

        I describe my method (that I call “The Progressive Focus Method of Painting a Portrait”) in an article on “The Art Treehouse”:

        https://arttreehouse.com/artstore/the-progressive-focus-method-for-painting-a-portrait-in-oils/

        This method has worked for me for many portraits, and I’d be pleased to share my methods with anyone who has experienced difficulty painting a portrait, and who wishes to achieve a rather accurate likeness with absolutely NO preliminary drawing, or sketching. Just paint to canvas applied by a large brush for the initial rough-in. Following drawing lines just did not lead me toward an accurate image, and observing “classical proportions” may work for painting a subject from imagination, but it does nothing for one who would like to achieve an accurate likeness of your mom, or granddaughter. It just didn’t work for me. But, …..this does!:lol:

        You are all allowed to take your best pot-shots at my effort here,……especially those who advocate a rigid, strict, accurate drawing as the initial effort. :) For some unknown reason, I could never make that happen.

        wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
        https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

        #909683

        Beautifully painted, love the skin tones and that cool shadow color is so right.

        Blocking in the big shapes and color, then honing on on color, value, and shape details. Makes sense to me. Your drawing with the brush constantly. Hard lines are generally an abstraction in figurative representational painting, so if you start with them as a guide, you’ll probably lose them anyway.
        I think I’ll try this method since I’ve not really painted portraits much. Seems like it takes some of the worry away. :)

        #909680
        bhindi
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            Such smooth transitions and a lovely soft focus effect. The skin tones and reflections are wonderful to gaze on. I’m surprised to read that you didn’t used to do portraits in pencil. Congrats on your anniversary and wish you many more happy ones to come. :)

            #909678
            IronPawn
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                Beautiful portrait Bill!

                Few weeks ago started working on several portraits myself (not so good in painting portraits for many reasons) and found out the same thing with similar approach, not to go too much into technicalities here, not my intention to pollute this thread – but much easier to start as a mass and then adding details later and somehow they fit in.

                Great staff… all the best!

                Zoran

                #909687
                GibbyDoodle
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                    This portrait is beautiful and conveys a sense of soft kindness. Happy 61 years together ❤️!

                    #909684
                    ilya K
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                        William, your painting is top marks as usual. But very big special thanks for that article! I did not try that much probably, but all I could get is well, a human face, but more often that not, likeness was not there. I did pencil drawing many many times, and only once – acrylic. Now I need to try what you describe.

                        Ilya K
                        C&C always welcome

                        #909682
                        Ju-Ju-Beads
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                            You captured a lot of personality in that painting. Beautiful portrait of a lovely woman. Congratulations on the successful life you’ve built together.

                            #909673
                            WFMartin
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                                I think that one of the reasons this method actually works is that when roughing-in the first stages with blurry, out-of-focus “blobs” of value, and color, I am working strictly with “shapes” rather than “things”.

                                It is rather easy to get “things” in their correct places (such as nose, eyes, ears, mouth, etc., etc.) when all you see is large, soft, blurry shapes, rather than sharply defined areas of detail. When one sees an area that looks like some sort of curvy, summer squash, or an eggplant, rather than allow our left brain to categorize it as an “ear”, or a “nose”, we tend to paint shapes, as we are often directed to do by art teacher, instead, rather than painting detailed features of the subject.

                                One primary advantage of painting in this manner is that I am somehow able to put areas of interest in their correct places, locations, and proportions, without even knowing what those areas represent . That is truly a positive art concept. Many times you hear the good advice to, “paint what you see, rather than that which you think ought to be there”.

                                Somehow, many portrait painters have developed their own philosophy that suggests that you “paint what you know should be there”, often based upon their studies of musculature, and anatomy. This often can lead to the painting of subjects that appear more as the unrealistic, and exaggerated subjects that we often see in comic strips, with muscles, bulging in places that most real humans don’t even have, to such a degree.

                                I am a firm believer in painting that which I see, with very little exaggeration, or distortion from reality, at least when it comes to human portraiture.

                                Getting “things” in their correct locations, and proportions early on is the “secret” to this Progressive Focus Method, and it has helped me achieve more accurate likenesses of my subjects than any of the drawing, and proportioning methods created with lines ever have.

                                wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                                https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                                #909685
                                ilya K
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                                    I think that there are similarities in general painting, when beginners like me overload themselves trying to paint too much of details. But this can be to some extent helped, if not solved completely, by keeping thin brushes away.

                                    Ilya K
                                    C&C always welcome

                                    #909679
                                    JCannon
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                                        Bill, that’s a lovely painting. And you’re a lucky man to be in a long and successful marriage. I really love the blue side lighting, which I imagine represents light coming in from a window. However, the ear is off. I’ve never seen your wife, but nearly all human beings have a Y-shaped antihelix (the curvy interior shape).

                                        The start-with-a-blur method probably is not for me. But I think your approach does point to a more general principle: An obstacle to portraiture is our inability to see abstract shapes in either a live model or in photo ref. The person in front of us is always in conflict with the rather stereotyped images we have in our minds.

                                        When we see a nose, we think “nose” — and the shape in front of us gives way to a kind of idealized nose which we hold in our imagination. Accuracy becomes easier when we forget that the nose is a nose. Things go better when we see the nostril as a bit of black and the highlight as a bit of white, and so on.

                                        There was a book on drawing — I forget which one — which discussed an interesting experiment. First-year art students were asked to draw a copy of Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein. They all did poorly. But when the portrait was turned upside-down, the students did much better, because they were copying abstract shapes and lines in relation with each other. They were no longer thinking in terms of portraying a human being.

                                        For years, I’ve told people that all painting is abstract painting. Most can’t understand what I mean by that. The folks who come here do.

                                        #909676
                                        Alan P. in OC
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                                            Very nice portrait Bill, you nailed a great expression and some beautiful skin tones. I do think the shadows of the ear give it a slightly odd shape.

                                            I’m still too scared to attempt the progressive-focus portrait myself, though:).

                                            #909674
                                            WFMartin
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                                                JCannon, it is interesting that you should mention the upside-down approach offered to the first-year students, because that is exactly what I do in order to keep my mind working from shapes, rather than from things.

                                                For the first stage of my portrait, I ALWAYS turn my reference image upside-down for that very reason. I am a firm believer in painting shapes, rather than things.

                                                wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                                                https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                                                #909686
                                                MarcF
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                                                    You’ve done it again, WF.
                                                    I’m really tempted to try your approach – I’ve looked at your link carefully, sometime ago. You do get the results. I’ll go through it again. Maybe try a small portrait. I really work from the opposite end of the spectrum: lines and things, as opposed to well, tones and shapes. And I know the virtues of that philosophy – at least many of them – because a lot of the instruction I’ve seen online and in books emphasize that approach.
                                                    Beautiful painting no matter what.
                                                    It has an inner glow to it – like your other work – and that does not come from any specific procedures. It’s not like your approach to painting is any kind of magic and I think you’ve made that very clear. But there is magic in it somewhere, and it comes from inside you.

                                                    #909675
                                                    WFMartin
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                                                        You’ve done it again, WF.
                                                        I’m really tempted to try your approach – I’ve looked at your link carefully, sometime ago. You do get the results. I’ll go through it again. Maybe try a small portrait. I really work from the opposite end of the spectrum: lines and things, as opposed to well, tones and shapes. And I know the virtues of that philosophy – at least many of them – because a lot of the instruction I’ve seen online and in books emphasize that approach.
                                                        Beautiful painting no matter what.
                                                        It has an inner glow to it – like your other work – and that does not come from any specific procedures. It’s not like your approach to painting is any kind of magic and I think you’ve made that very clear. But there is magic in it somewhere, and it comes from inside you.

                                                        Gosh, MarcF, thank you so very much for your kind comments! I really appreciate that. I was plagued with much frustration when I tried painting portraits by methods that many other portrait painters recommended. Most of them suggested creating preliminary sketches, followed by a very accurate, line drawing. Of course, much of this advice also involved the adherence to that which is knows as “classic proportions”, meaning the spacing, sizing, positioning, and shaping of the elements of the face.

                                                        I actually tried that approach once, and I achieved probably the worst likeness of any portrait that I had painted. What I didn’t realize at that time is that people are NOT built the same, so following some classic proportion formula just did not cut it. That may work for those who wish to create an “accurate painting of a typical human being” as when doing illustration work, but not for one who wishes to depict their mother, or granddaughter accurately.

                                                        I stumbled upon this method several years ago, after experiencing one disappointment after the other from employing the usual “drawing” methods. I had immediate success in achieving a likeness with this method, the first time I tried it. It was such an improvement, I thought it to be a fluke, so I immediately painted another portrait using this same, new technique. To my delight, the results were basically the same–a relatively accurate likeness of my subject! I was elated!:clap:

                                                        Needless to say, I’ve been using this method ever since.:)

                                                        A short time ago, I gave a presentation (demo) of this method to my art club, and I began my presentation by letting everyone know that I do NOT consider myself to be a “portrait artist”, and that the methods that I am now recommending will help those overcome the difficulties they may have in achieving an accurate likeness. Sort of a “Portrait Painting for Dummies”, with ME being the “Chief Dummy”!:lol: :lol:

                                                        wfmartin. My Blog "Creative Realism"...
                                                        https://williamfmartin.blogspot.com

                                                        #909677
                                                        DMSS
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                                                            Bill:
                                                            Have you ever tried this method with other subjects, such as still life or landscape or figures?

                                                            --David

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