Portrait Painting

At one time, I really wanted to be a portrait painter, and I dedicated considerable energy to that end. However, life pulled me in other directions. Nevertheless, between animation and illustration gigs, somehow I managed to get in a fair amount of portrait painting practice. These are painted in oils or acrylics, on stretched canvas, canvas board or illustration board.

I begin a portrait painting with an underpainting, usually burnt sienna or raw umber. However, ultramarine blue can also work well for underpainting, since the cool color contrasts nicely against warm flesh tones. I took a class with Ron Lemen, where he demonstrated this approach. The examples below are from his class. In the blue underpainting, I try to address all the problems of proportion, construction, value pattern, while trying as best I can to nail the likeness. If I can solve all those problems in the first stage, I am free to concentrate on the subtleties of color in the final painting.

Here is another example of my efforts in Ron Lemen's class. I believe this was a 2-day pose. where we spent the first day on the underpainting. Then the model returned a week later for the final painting session. The underpainting was dry, and I was able to relax and enjoy the process of building up the color on top of it.

This last example was only one painting session, where the model did not return for a second sitting. The idea was that Ron wanted us to just practice the under-painting stage. I think this is a great idea for students who are learning to paint. You want to get comfortable with the medium before tackling all the complexities of color. On the right side of my painting, you can see Ron's diagram, where we was explaining the planes of the nose (my painting of the nose was a bit flat).