Portrait Painting Techniques

Portrait painting techniques have successfully evolved since the start of painting, and are dynamically gaining new dimensions every day. To know more about some common portrait painting techniques, read on…

Portrait painting is an art that admires human beauty. Accomplished painters such as Rembrandt and Leonardo Da Vinci, are known to have created some great masterpieces, and have caught, not only the detailed features of their subjects, but have also caught emotions on canvas. The following is a small collection of portrait painting techniques, which have been suggested by artists, and can be used to create a portrait. You may also refer to famous painters.

Portrait Painting Techniques: Starting Up
In has become a habit amongst many artists to use photographs to create their masterpieces. There are however, many painters who would recommend the use of live models and live scenes. The only motive behind it is that one is able to feel the scenario before actually starting the painting pieces. Another great advantage of such a subject is that the presence of light is almost hundred percent natural, which makes the painting extra precise. One must always remember that painting with a live subject gives an extra added advantage during the detailing process.

Portrait Painting Techniques: The First Sketch
Artists who use watercolor portrait painting techniques usually start with the sketching of a rough sketch on the canvas. Expert portrait painters often comment that this phase of creating the painting to be an extremely important one, as the basic dimensions of the painting are put forth on the sketch. Art experts often comment that making the use of appropriate medium, while doing this preliminary work, gives the basic sketch a great volume of depth. It basically means that one should use a small pencils for smaller and more intricate work and on the other hand, for broader strokes use a charcoal or chalk.

Portrait Painting Techniques: Preparing the Ground
There are several different techniques that are used to make the ground of the entire painting. In such a situation, it is of utmost importance to understand the meaning of ground. In fact, it would be a great idea to view some legendary paintings. An excellent example is of 'The girl with a pearl ear ring'. In such a painting, the ground is a challenging one as the subject is made up of an innocent color and on the other hand, the ground is entirely black. When you paint your art work, one very important aspect is composing the ground. Composition of ground implies deciding the color composition of the entire painting and selecting the areas which are going to be a part of the ground. It must be noted that a ground is not only the background that you are supposed to cover. The ground may also include, your subjects clothing or parts of the painting that have a less emphasis but, are not exactly arts of the background.

Portrait Painting Techniques: Painting the Soul
The next part is the most important one as here you will actually start painting the human being. On common technique is to paint the entire sketch and then go on to detail it. Such a detailing often takes a lot of time and people often deploy it even during the usage of acrylic portrait painting technique. This step is basically a four fold process as you go on shaping the face. The first step is to draw the basic features, of the face such as appropriate locations of eyes, nose, chin and eyebrows. Some artists prefer to sketch these deep features with the help of a charcoal first. The next step is to add the depth and light to the features of the face and it is usually done with the help of darker and versatile sub shades of the colors that have been used to paint the face. The next step is to detail the entire features which are again done with the help of shades but, with the thinnest possible brushes. The last step is that of the external detailing where the subject and ground are effectively merged with each other. You may also read more on Acrylic paintings.

To know more about portraits you may also read on:

• Famous Paintings
• How to Draw Portraits
• Famous Portrait Artists

Many art experts often recommend the use of a different technique every time, as each and every portrait is unique and depicts different emotions and a character. The above mentioned techniques are generic and will act as a small guide for normal portraits. Innovating within these guiding techniques is an important aspect of making the painting a master piece. I hope that you are able to use these basic portrait painting techniques effectively.