How to Paint a Portrait in Grayscale (the Evolve Method)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- #oilpaintingforbeginners #oilpaintingportrait #grayscaleportrait #realism #oilpainting #artcareers #onlineartclasses #evolveartist
How to Paint a Portrait in Grayscale (the Evolve Method)
Learn how to paint a portrait in grayscale through the Evolve Method, a structured and simple step-by-step process for making portraits - or any painting for that matter!
Thank you Andrew Donelan for sharing your portrait with us for this open art critique!
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👀 View Daniel Folta's Artwork: / danielfolta
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:40 Step 1: find the light and shadow
2:27 Step 0: use quality reference
3:47 Don't paint what you see
4:38 Step 2: assign the 4 values
5:49 Step 3: fill in the background
6:10 Step 4: create gradients for form shadows
7:34 Step 5: add reflections and highlights
8:33 Step 6: check your values
9:00 Trying it yourself
9:46 Critique
10:16 Having a guide show you the way
12:26 Resources
Pointing out the difference between form shadows and cast shadows in a portrait ... absolutely brilliant point.
Yes it's incredible how that one simple step completely changes the portrait, and still without any details! I highly recommend that artists use this for all subject matter, not just portraits 😊~ Daniel
Thanks for explaining and making great sense ,so glad i found your videos 🙂
I wish Evolve was around some 15 years ago before I wasted a lot of money on an art "education" at a local university. The university simply didn't prepare me technically for a professional career as an artist. And instructional videos and workshops only added to my confusion because of differing approaches to painting. What has always been missing is a logical step by step approach to a very complicated endeavour, that of creating a work of realistic art. Finally, it appears there is now such instruction through the Evolve program.
Thank you for sharing that Kevin! A big reason why we felt so compelled to start this company and program was simply because we were seeing so many artists get hamstrung by courses / degrees that failed to deliver results. We are hoping to offer a fresh take on art education that is results-based and raises the standard for art education around the world. We are serious about offering a program that is significantly better than what ateliers and art colleges can offer at a fraction of the price, and even more importantly, a fraction of the hours required to reach pro level skills.
It’s never too late to re-establish those fundamentals for yourself. We fool ourselves when we think that the fundamentals are just the basics that we have to get through in order to move on to the advanced techniques. Instead, there are the fundamentals, and then there is only an advanced understanding of those fundamentals. 😊 ~ Daniel
@@evolveartist I completely agree. It is a seductive temptation to skip over the fundamentals and jump ahead in the effort to produce advanced work. This is a fool's errand, and reinforced by misconceptions about what it takes to become an accomplished artist. The irony is that by being a little patient and learning the fundamentals, we actually advance much more quickly.
@@kevincombes3159 so true! Well said Kevin 😊~ Daniel
I went to art school and they certainly didn't skip the fundamentals@@kevincombes3159
Fantastic video thank-you!
Man this is amazing
WOW!!! Kevin received critical knowledge and guidance specific to his work from Dorian Vallejo, I’m impressed, Dorian is the son of Boris Vallejo and accomplished fantasy artist whom I admire and follow since early ‘80s I’ve been collecting his books and publications ever since. I like Dorian’s work as well
That's awesome Jose! And yes both of their works are incredible 😊 Kevin had tracked down Boris Vallejo who then directed him to his son Dorian. Here's Kevin's full story: th-cam.com/video/eRC6yXhWavQ/w-d-xo.html ~ Daniel
Man that was an amazing explanation, very calm, supportive and so mush informative. Keep up the great job ❤️❤️❤️
Thank you Mohamed! ❤️ ~ Daniel
Very Helpful
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Beautiful
This was in my recommends, dunno if it's the blond beard but something about your features took me aback, like I haven't seen your kinda handsome before. I mean this in a very good way, you're gorgeous! And thanks for this vid, very informative!
That warms my heart 🥰I really appreciate that, thank you 😊 ~ Daniel
This channel is so good for learning values
Thank you Danny 🙂 ~ Daniel
I'm so glad I found your video, your video is worth more than my $100 a month course with my local teacher. Thank you from Vietnam
You’re welcome Tamiko! If that’s the case you might want to check out Evolve’s training program! If this one free video is worth more than $100/month for a personal art teacher, just imagine what we have to offer in our paid program. Our program provides feedback on every painting assignment, and you get two boxes of high quality art supplies included, in addition to the videos, live classes, 1-1 coaching sessions, and more. Worth looking into! I recommend you start here with our free hour-long masterclass: bit.ly/pro-artist-masterclass ~ Daniel
Another great video!! I’m in block 1! It’s always so cool to see the exact techniques that we use to make more complicated pieces! Thanks Dan!
Nice! Yes, you are learning this exact process and training your eyes and mind to be able to see complicated subject matter like this and be able to simplify it down into just a few components! Being able to simplify what you see is a true sign of mastery, and frees you to be able to paint with clear intention to capture form and depth exactly as you intend to 😊 ~ Daniel
Very good
Great
I just came across this video and I thank you so much for the explanation and guidance. It all comes down to a great material reference. In this case a good picture of the subject to be painted. Occasionally, i find myself that I like a picture but I realize there isn’t enough contrast. In this case, I have thought of adjusting the picture taking into consideration the light and shadow and making it a challenge, would you think this could be done? What are your thoughts about a not so good reference picture? This has been a real lesson, lots of food for thought specially when a portrait is involved. I have subscribed to the channel and I’m looking forward in watching the other videos. Great voice, great attitude, great teaching, and awesome video. Congratulations about the channel and I wish you the best. Great videos will make the channel a special one for those interested in bringing their paintings to a higher level. Thanks again. Blessings and take care.
Hey Crisalida great question! Yes it is definitely possible to adjust a picture that you really like to make it a more compatible reference for painting. BUT - keep in mind that this is not easy to do and requires a comprehensive understanding of how light and shadow works. It's one thing to take a photo that you like that already has a distinct light and shadow relationship and gently increase the contrast levels to more clearly capture the light and shadow, and quite another thing to try to "insert" a new lighting scenario into the photograph you want to paint. Do not attempt the latter if you don't have a strong command over the fundamentals (like light and shadow).
A great way to improve your understanding of how light would interact with and "fall upon" a 3-dimensional object is to practice painting still lives from direct observation. The best way would be to join the Evolve program 😉hope this helps! ~ Daniel
@@evolveartist thanks so much for your reply. I truly appreciate your time and knowledge. Blessings and take care.
Take your photo and scan into photoshop and change the greyscale to something simpler. Then print out.
cool
Awesome vid! Love how you managed to simplify the whole process. Did you use Adobe photoshop?
Thank you! And yes I did! It’s handy to have the different layers to toggle back and forth between the steps in the process. 😊 ~ Daniel
@@evolveartist Thank you!
Nice
only took me 7 minutes of the video to understand what i wanted to learn. thx
Wow!!! I already love this channel! I've been subscribe, could you teach us how to draw a potraits so we can draw with every face structure,angle,etc. thanks
Hey Soap Prince thanks for asking! The “secret” to drawing or painting portraits is to learn the fundamentals that allow you to draw or paint literally any thing, from
any angle. That’s why we spend so much time talking about things like light, shadow, values, edges, color, etc. because they apply to any subject matter. If you haven’t seen it already, here’s our whole playlist on how to get better at making portraits: th-cam.com/play/PLlBZ6D4J51BPd_OtKy2Jd550nXDq1Cst8.html
If you’re asking about improving your proportional drawing skill for portraits, you should check out our program because we teach all our students how to draw from direct observation with incredible accuracy. I briefly explain the method we use to teach proportional drawing in this video: th-cam.com/video/diwD3ykRs74/w-d-xo.html
hope this helps! ~ Daniel
@@evolveartist thanks, really helpful
I pay good money to get photographs with simple lighting for drawing excercises
Hes like helpful painter Owen Wilson
That's the thing my great girl it's so amazingly useful amazingly useful especially for beginners cause technically we when we draw we waste we start in greyscale or with graphite or lead or someone graphite or late or something that is great right essentially right and essentially right and learning values is the most important thing because yeah you can learn colour but colour doesn't help unless you know And because collar is a really widespread trim and greyscale is a small portion it's a completely different ball game
Simplicity is key! 🙂👍
Hello just watched two of your videos on greys scale painting and I have a question (might be silly one) : where do I get this values colour palette for painting in Procreate? Do I just use a reference picture and put it in grayscale and extract these 4 colours or is there some other way for obtaining these 4 colours ?
Hey Misha 🙂 that's a great question! We don't have a downloadable software for Procreate (our program focuses on oil painting) so I'd recommend taking a screenshot of my four values in this video here 👆 and then dropping the screenshot into procreate and extracting them that way. Hope that helps! Glad to see you trying this out for yourself 😊 let me know how it goes ~ Daniel
Do you guys have a sliding scale payment plan?
Hey i wanna ask, when we draw a potraits do we need to draw a sketch first (like the ball for the head,placement of the nose,eyes,ears)or just draw with light and shadows shape?? Because its really hard to place it like the refference and do we need to simplify the shapes first because the shape it self its dificult to draw and because there's too many artis who tell us to draw from anatomy and need to understand it (why the light reflect at the cheeks? Because there is a bone and many more), sorry if i ask too many lol because this is new perspective point of view .Thanks
I love getting these kinds of questions! So first thing I’ll say is that you should work with a transfer sketch for now. I’ll explain how in a moment, but it’s important to know that you don’t NEED to have good freehand drawing skills to paint a portrait or to get a command over light and shadow. When you’re learning you want to focus on learning one skill at a time, so let’s put drawing aside for now while you learn how to break things down into light and shadow with values and edges. After you get that down, then you can start focusing on your drawing skills (which will help you immensely).
To make a transfer, you’ll need a pencil, carbon paper, a black and white photo of the portrait that is printed on a regular sheet of paper, tape, and canvas. Put the carbon paper on the canvas, and tape it down so it’s smooth. Then tape the black and white photo on top of that. Then use the pencil to mark areas where there are “value shifts” - where one value jumps to another. The biggest value shifts will be where the light meets the shadow, so make sure you mark those spots down. Make sure you didn’t miss anything and then remove the b/w photo and the carbon paper from the canvas. Then you’ll have a transfer similar to mine, where you have the shapes of the light and shadow already mapped out for you. I highly recommend that you start with a photo of something more simple like a ball on a table with a single light source. Then break it down from there, using the same process in this video. Hope that helps! 😊~Daniel
@@evolveartist big thanks!! really appreciate that
Wouldn't each local value have its own light and shadow values? Like I can imagine that the hair's darkest light color could be darker than the brightest shadow color of the skin.
WindSwirl I so appreciate that you asked this question because it tells me you’re actively listening and thinking about how to apply this for yourself, and landed on a great, great point! Here’s the answer…
Yes it would, IF your goal was to capture reality exactly as you see it and make a fully realistic painting. BUT making a fully realistic painting is challenging and complicated, especially for beginners. So, in the Evolve method for Block 1&2, our goal is not to make realistic paintings - instead, our goal is to train our students to be able to simplify what they see through a structured process (such as breaking everything down into light and shadow first) and then, with those simplified parts, rebuild only the impression of form and depth. Portraits are notoriously overwhelming, but here in this process, a face can be broken down into just 2 things - light and shadow, and then built up into 4 things - 2 values for lights and 2 values for shadows. This is huge because once you get good at simplifying complex visual information, your confidence grows and you’ll learn how to paint ANYTHING. Now, if we told our students that they needed a light value and shadow value for each local value, we just multiplied the number of values to choose and decisions to make, making it harder to learn. On top of that, by keeping the rule that all shadows have to be darker than all lights (even for “black” hair), our students will be able to maintain a consistently strong overall impression of light in the painting (even if it’s different than the photo), and understanding that impression of light is often more important than simply copying exactly what you see. As you become a better painter, you can confidently start making decisions that deviate from the reference and yet make the painting better, because you understand the core fundamentals that really matter. All of this lines up with the learning theory that to mastery is developed by learning one simple skill at a time. This Evolve method is super simplified, and yet produces a pretty realistic portrait. Once you get this method down… THEN it would be EASY to add additional steps to the process, such as having a light and shadow value for each local value, while retaining everything you learned from the previous method. But to start with a light and shadow value for each local value, without first nailing down the underpinnings of what creates the impression of form, it’s much much easier to fracture the portrait and forget the overall impression. If you stand 20 ft away from a portrait done in this Evolve method vs your proposed method, the chances are that the overall impression will be stronger for the portrait done in the Evolve method (unless the painter is already well-trained in their ability to see and maintain their values in relationship with each other).
So, in summary, your suggestion would be a GREAT addition to the process AFTER the student has already gained a command over the more essential, simpler things. This is really what we focus on in Evolve - teaching our students one thing at a time, starting with the most essential things, and then building each new skill directly on top of the last one, so that each new skill is supported by all the experience and skills that came before it. While one simple thing might seem slow at first, it accelerates over time and blows past any other learning approach. This is one of the biggest reasons why we can consistently get our students to pro level skills in about 350 hours (avg 7 hours week = pro skills in 1 year). Let me know if I need to clarify anything WindSwirl! Again thank you for asking this question, I remember wrestling with it myself when I was learning. Keep it simple 😊 ~ Daniel
@@evolveartist wow thanks for taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly! Yeah, that totally makes sense. I asked because I've seen many non-portrait paintings done by intermediate artists who learned the principle of value grouping and then always use the same, full value range for everything, not taking the local color and the reflectivity of materials into account, which makes a more complex painting of a character design or a building look flat and boring.
I agree that it works very nicely for portraits, though ^^
@@WindSwirl that's awesome! That's not surprising - Kevin Murphy, Evolve's founder and my teacher, started out as an illustrator - maybe principles like the one you just described influenced how he decided to each people how to paint anything :)
I really love this video! However, aren't you creating a whole new range of values by blurring the edges?Huh?
I know a girl who went to evolve for more than a year mithrilda, I didn't see much progress in her work to becoming a concept artist, I dont know what's the point of evolve classes, fine art I guess?
Hey Mark, that's a great question because at surface level Evolve can appear to only teach realistic oil painting. But there’s a lot more going on. If you’ve been following Mithrilda you’ll know that she ultimately joined Evolve to develop core fundamental art skills, and as you watch her videos you can see that she achieved them and speaks highly of the program. This video shows her painting in the final Block of the program: th-cam.com/video/kR6K_6DNTGI/w-d-xo.htmlsi=mkA8DLGnhkW7ELi9&t=829
A neurosurgeon has to first go to basic medical school before they can study neurosurgery. In the same way, all art - concept design as well as fine art - requires a basic command of the fundamentals. We teach those fundamentals. Artists who take our program become equipped to specialize into all kinds of fields.
A good example of this would be our student Liam. He got a fundamental education with us, and is now working on CGI in the Dune film.
So, we don’t teach the specializations themselves, nor do we claim to. Rather we focus on equipping our students with a command over the fundamentals, so that they can ultimately create art without limitations. ~ Daniel
This video feels like one giant roast session lmao
Really? Huh. Well I’m glad Andrew didn’t take it that way 😅 certainly wasn’t intended to be. One of the things I had pointed out in the beginning was how Andrew was utilizing his values and thinking of the light and shadow, which played a big role in how the face had some illusion of structure and form. But yes I didn’t hold back on the constructive criticism because it’s important to get into the heart of the issue to make better paintings! ~ Daniel
nccc
why is he not doing an actual painting..
Great question! I’ve found it’s a little easier for me to teach with digital painting because I can add and remove layers easily to show people the effect of adding one thing vs another. In the video creation process it’s easy for me to rethink how I can explain an idea and make quick adjustments to the digital painting. But to be clear I’m not an experienced digital painter, I work in oils. The concepts apply seamlessly over to oil paint :) if you are interested in learning how Evolve teaches using oil paint, go to this video I made here! 👉 Oil Painting for Beginners Made Easy
th-cam.com/video/aoZLhRcEl5E/w-d-xo.html