Phase 1: I began this oil portrait with a pencil sketch on drawing paper. This is very unorthodox (when compared to painting techniques of the past) because oil portraits are usually done on canvas or wood panel and any sketching is done with vine charcoal. Paint becomes more transparent in time and pencils lines will eventually be seen through a painting as it ages. The vine charcoal will blend with oil paint but pencil will not. I have a very creative fix to this problem (as you will see in the coming steps).
Phase 2: The second step of a traditional painting is usually an underpainting with brown paint (usually burnt sienna). Underpaintings give painters an opportunity to build masses with paint (turn thin lines from drawing instruments in to blocks of tone, with the help of a paint brush). Underpaintings also allow artists to build tones.
I use gray illustration markers rather than oil paint, because of the speed in which I can apply it (no mixing / superior drying time) I recommend the Warm and Cool Grays Marker Set listed below if you wish to try my technique.
Phase 3: To build skin tones, I used flesh tone Chartpak AD Illustration Markers. These markers can create wonderful works of art when used alone, but I used them as a quick means to color my drawing (soon to be painting).
Phase 4: Next, I added a layer of Prismacolor Color Pencils. Prismas are translucent and very mixable. The fine point of the color pencil helped me get great details for the features of the face (fine tipped paint brushes ALWAYS RUN OUT OF PAINT!!!!)
Phase 4: (continued)
Tin Box Set of 48 with FREE Set of 4 Illustration Markers
For a limited time, purchase the Prismacolor Colored Pencil 48-Color Tin Box Set and receive a FREE set of 4 Prismacolor Premier Illustration Markers. The set of markers includes one each of Black, Red, Blue, and Green. All markers feature a size 05 nib.
Special Offer!
Get a FREE 12-color set of NuPastels with the purchase of a Prismacolor Premier Pencil 120-Color Tin Box Set! For a limited time only. No limit on purchases.
Tin Box Set of 132 with FREE Set of 6 Illustration Markers
For a limited time, purchase the Prismacolor Colored Pencil 132-Color Tin Box Set and receive a FREE set of 6 Prismacolor Premier Illustration Markers.
Phase 5: Scan. Here is where things get interesting! I scanned my drawing to edit on my computer (clean it up). Below is the updated version of the scanner I used. I have gotten a lot of mileage out of it and I love it!
HP Scanjet G4010 Photo Scanner
4800 x 9600 dpi for exceptional scans of photos, slides, negatives, documents Superior color accuracy, photo reproduction with six-color, 96-bit scanning Automatic red-eye removal and detail enhancement Duty cycle of up to 2,000 pages a day
Phase 6: I did a High Quality print with the HP Designjet 510 42 inch printer. This printer prints on canvas and on several types of paper (this specific print was on canvas). This printer was my big investment of 2010, but it has already paid for itself. It is more affordable than you think (click the links below).
HP Designjet 510 24" Printer
Fast printing: up to 3.5 min/page color A1/D size on coated media, 55 sec/page line drawings Prints HP-GL/2 and PLT files with click of a button Ideal for in-house printing of high-quality CAD drawings
HP Designjet 510 42" Printer
Fast printing: up to 3.5 min/page color A1/D size on coated media, 55 sec/page line drawings Prints HP-GL/2 and PLT files with click of a button Ideal for in-house printing of high-quality CAD drawings Supports roll sizes up to 18 x 42"
Phase 7: Now it is time for some painting!!!! I used the oil paint colors Ultramarine Blue, Venetian Red, Titanium White, Flake White, Transparent Earth Orange, Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Gold Ochre, Olive Green, Raw Siena, Lamp Black, Asphaltum, Caucasian Flesh Tone, and Alizarin Crimson Permanent. I started with the highlight areas I mixed a lot of Flake White in to the areas on the cheek (with the other colors. The ears and the lips recieved a lot of Cad. Red and Alizarin Crimson mixed with olive green and Tit. White and Lamp Black,
Phase 7: (continued) The shadow areas were glazed (click on the image below to go to a video on how to glaze) Glazing is adding multiple layers of transparent paint atop opaque paint (see video).
Phase 7: (continued) The glazing colors that I used were Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue, Asphaltum, Transparent Earth Orange and Olive Green
Below are two sets that I recommend for portrait artists (especially the accents on the figure set). The second set is good because it has several tubes of greys (extremely important to flesh tones)
Portrait Paint Set
This set contains an assortment of brushes and oil paints that are ideal for the beginning portrait artist. Each brush contains the finest hog bristles, a nickel-plated ferrule, and a long polished handle. The set includes the following materials: 8 filbert brushes, including two each of sizes 2 and 6, and one each of sizes 4, 8, 10, and 12 1 round brush, size 10 10 Pro-Mix assorted portrait oil colors in 37 ml (1.25 oz) tubes, including one each of Dark 1, Dark 2, Halftone 1, Halftone 2, Light 1, Light 2, Light 3, Neutral 3, Neutral 5, and Neutral 7
