Overcome your fear of portrait painting
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ต.ค. 2024
- Many artists aspire to painting portraits, but they have the reputation of being extremely challenging. People want their portrait to look just like them and being nearly there isn't going to cut it. Often the issue is that our bossy left side of the brain over rules our creative right side and tells us what the face looks like - after all it is hard wired to recognise and see faces everywhere.
This exercise is designed to help you see the face as a series of shapes. Once you can train yourself to see something as say a triangle rather than a nose, you will find it far easier to paint.
It is also designed to help you realise that tone (the light or dark of a colour) is far more important than the actual hue. It helps you understand that the question shouldn't be 'is it red or green?' but rather 'is it light or dark?'.
The reference photo is on the community tab of this channel. It came from www.pixabay.com.
I'm a big believer in shortcuts, so for this tutorial we will use a light box, tracing or even a window to transfer our outline and contours.
If you are looking for more in depth watercolour courses, from beginners through to advanced, then please take a look at www.lizchadertonstudio.co.uk. I am writing a book on watercolour portraits which will be published by The Crowood Press in 2023.
If you are looking for a friendly place to share your art and meet watercolourists from around the world, why not join my Facebook group here: groups/watercolourstudiowithlizchadertonIf you have enjoyed this film, please consider liking and subscribing. I do a watercolour tip, trick or technique each week and release it at 2pm on Sunday. So if you hit the notification bell you will be emailed when the next one is out.
#lizchaderton #watercolourportrait #watercolourtips
![ILLSLICK - WINTER IS COMING [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dwTMeM1zIhQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I just adore your portrait style. It’s fascinating to watch a very precise face emerge as you paint such abstract shapes. Really love to watch you work.
Thank you so much 😀
I cannot tell you how valuable your little tips are as you talk us through what you're doing. "If you're not sure, paint it in with clean water, and drop the colour in later." Sounds so obvious when you say it, but honestly, I feel like that comment alone is going to be a real game changer for me. Thank you!
That's so good to know! Everything is obvious once you know it 😄. Happy new year!
Mesmerising! I so enjoyed this - thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Merry Christmas Liz..Thankyou for this timely Christmas gift.
You are so welcome!
Wow, wonderful job. I enjoyed your videos
Thank you very much!
Absolutely amazing! Turned out so beautifully. Can't wait to try it out. Thank you, Liz! 👏❤🙂
Have fun!
Wow!! Do More Please!! This was great. I am going to try this. Thank you
Thank you! Will do!
Happy Christmas Liz. Such a great and unique portrait. I am becoming a tutorial junkie…watching and not doing, but I will NEVER be able to do this!
You must do! Honestly this is so straight forward the face emerges like magic!
Wow, never saw this technique before, I want to try it, maybe it will help me with my tone values. Thank u for sharing this.
Yes, it will really help with tones.
What a great technique. Thank you for sharing. Merry Christmas 2022!!
Same to you!
Oh my, soooo beautifully done, I'm in total awe
please have a go
Wow! This is fantastic! Love your work!
Thank you so much!
Wow that looks beautiful Liz.
...and it is so simple to do!
So effective, love this technique, thanks Liz!
This was great thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's beautiful! Thanks Liz
Glad you like it!
Love this, I’ve been wanting to try a portrait in watercolour. Will have to try this
Have fun!
Super!!
Thank you!
New subscriber, you have a lovely channel. Thank you for sharing your knowledge! This video is brilliant! I’ve seen a technique where a portrait was done in different colours, never dawned on me she was painting shades and tones, not a portrait. I’ve wanted to paint my brothers portrait in this manner but cannot draw people. This may well change that. Thank you so much for this video!
Thanks and welcome. Please try it - it is magic seeing the face emerge. Your biggest challenge will be to get a good reference photo of your brother with really strong highlights.
Great video. One new subscriber.
Welcome aboard!
Thank you.
My pleasure
Wonderfully comprehensive and informative video. I’ve got new people in my adult classes interested in doing portraits so I’m sharing this with them.
I also have to confess to laughing out loud at your watercolour paper video as i too have that sinking feeling when new students turn up with what is no better than blotting paper. I’ve now got to the stage where i say to new people not to buy anything till after the first class. Cupboard stash provisions !
Thank you.
not just me then??? ‘but it says it IS watercolour paper…’ I provide all materials on workshops now. It’s just more rewarding for everyone.
@@LizChadertonArt Andrew Loomis book winging its way too, plus a thriller. I can’t resist books. Thanks for the recommendation . Cheers. Jane
@@ajellymoon me neither, my shelves are groaning….
Hi, Liz, more than the tracing process itself, I stuggle what lines I need to trace. In your example: the lines of the subject, the lines of the shadows, both of them, the lines of the lost edges, the lines of the hard edges. How can I trace the soft transitions. I often ask myself and then rather put on much more lines than I needed. Any suggestions? Perhaps another idea for a new video? I couldn't find this subject at any TH-cam channel by now.
That’s interesting! You are so right too much is as difficult as too little. I would put in the hard edges, so in this case tge contours and tge sharp edges of the light spaces. because this relies so heavily on the white space they need to be protected at all costs, so I would outline any pure white area, whether it has a soft or hard edge. once you have the transferred image always check and if any line is confusing do erase it before painting. I’ll try to think of some other tips.
@@LizChadertonArt thanks for answering and advice. I noticed, that your drawing looks very different than what I would have drawn from this image. Automatically I would have drawn contours where there are none and would perhaps have skipped the highlights (because a spot on the nose is not pleasing 😁). It is kind of an abstracing process, you have to manage. My brain is constantly tricking myself and talking "draw a nose, I see a nose. Draw eyes, I see them" even if my eyes only can distinguish black and white spots. Perhaps it is a good idea to draw upside-down, so you can't see exactly what you are drawing or at least can't focus on. But thanks to your video, Liz, a portrait like yours seems to be reachable for me too. I would like to give it a try.
@@schuhujin5019 have you seen the upside down tutorials I did? th-cam.com/video/kh5E0kCTCyU/w-d-xo.html or th-cam.com/video/KxydLNt4ios/w-d-xo.html I would also highly recommend getting the Sktchy app for inspiration. In the end practice will make a hushed diffference
Very useful Liz - one question, how can I create a photograph like the one used from a standard photo?
I’m not sure you can, unless you have very good Photoshop skills. You need to look for a reference with ‘Rembrandt ‘ lighting
This is sooo good
thank you
Hi could you please put the photo link up …thanx
it’s already in the community tab of this channel 😊