Today, we'll show you how to make a self portrait.. using the techniques and complementary
colors of Vincent van Gogh. Welcome to RijksCreative. In this course we'll take you on a
journey through art history. We'll show you the techniques of the old masters.. from the Renaissance up to modern time. But first, let's go to our expert: Ludo van Halem. Hi Ludo!
-Hello. Who was van Gogh and why is his work so typical for his time? Vincent van Gogh was mostly self-taught as a painter. he was highly aware of the art of his own time and of the past. And with his late paintings he made it clear
that it doesn't matter what you paint. For instance, he painted himself
because he couldn't afford a model. And what matters is how you paint. and if you look at this paintings you see the dazzling colors.. and the nervous handwriting before you
see how he modeled his own face.. in a way you that could say he free painted from his subject.. and paved the way for abstraction and
expressionism in the 20th century. That's pretty impressive, now let's make our own self portrait! So today we're going to make a self portrait
in the style of Vincent van Gogh. Vincent van Gogh, when he made a self portrait.. he always used complementary colors. Complementary means that when you
have green, he has green eyes.. you make sure there's some red around it,
then the green comes stronger. when you got blue,you make sure
you have something like orange. Because that's complementary also. I'm going to try and make my own self portrait. I don't have a hat, I do have glasses
but I put my glasses off.. Because van Gogh with glasses,
that's kind of silly. I start my portrait in red.. because when I go on top of it.. I'm going to paint wet on wet
that means i make little strokes.. into the red and then it becomes pink. First I want to see the shape of my head. I don't have any hair.. so that's very convenient. So first you just try and get the shape right. When you have the head,
the eyes are on the half of the head. Then the nose is on the other half. The mouth is again on the half of that. So first it's just making a sort of ground color. A smaller brush, I'm going to take a flat brush. And now I already start looking at the lighter parts. And I do that just with with white. That's the typical thing of van Gogh he made little strokes. So you start with those little strokes. To get it pink.
Pink.. So now I sort of have the general shape.. with the pinkish texture on top of it.. with the little van Gogh stripes. What I'm going to do now,
I take some ocre, some yellowish brown. To get more contrast in the face. This is the yellowish ocre. You see, you get a little more contrast. And I start with yellowish ocre. To build up, I don't start immediately with the darkest parts. Now I'm going to use the sienna, it's more dark. This is quite dark. yellow ocre, get the tip of the nose. okay, what i need now, I need the lips.. because I need some expression to
know where the upper lip ends. so I'm going to take carmine again. I just spread it around a bit. Okay, now I'm going to do some more detailing. Because I need some exaggeration So let's throw some.. because we want to have contrasting
things so lets throw in some green. Sap green. Shades in the darker parts. It doesn't has to be very natural.. it's about making a painting with these contrasting things. The light is coming from that side.. so in this side of my face are the light parts.. and this part of the face is more into the shade. But I used a green for the shade.. but again to make it more alive and contrast. I use also a bit of red. I need it in the ear like here. Let's see, first the lips a little bit more with some kraplak. I like the carmine in it, so I'm going to use it more. you decide what kind of colors you use You think 'Oh hey that's nice, let's do some more of it!' Here..
Here.. Now it's time for the eyes. And because it's orange.. the complementary color of orange is blue. And luckily enough I've got blue eyes. And we do a little light blue around the eyes. And we do some more light blue for the white of the eyes. Okay, the eyes.. the pupils,
perhaps I can use.. purple! And I'm going to do a little purple line around the eyes. This orange part is not really working.. so I've to make it more orange or.. I'll do some thing, soften it up a bit. This slightly mixes with the surroundings. what I do,I mix the colors that's
exactly what van Gogh also did. In the end he mixed it with more
white to it blended more in. Stripy is good.. but the stripes has to connect to each other. There's a little pink line under my eyelid. And a pink line.. on the other side also. Under the eyelid. Why not purple again? And I'm going to use that in the mustache. why not make it purple? Okay, shirt, shirt, shirt.. Because this is purple.. Lets do the shirt yellow! It's because of the beard.. which has to be complementary. He does a lot of little striping, let's do that also. Little stripes to be more sort of detailed. That's what he did also. Over there, here. I want to have little more light. Yes, now he's looking. I'm looking for the lightest parts. First now I'm going to do the background And what do I want to emphasize in colors in the background? I mean in the face, the purple. The purple is nice in the beard. He uses blue.. and it's complementary to the orange of the beard. I've used purple so I'm going to use yellow. Stripes. Because i want the ear.. in the right shape. So I made the background yellow as you see.. to get the beard, which is purple,
purple blue, more prominent. Now I'm going to do the shirt,
the shirt is actually no fun.. but lets make something out of it. Just to play around. We have a different surface than
we have in the background. king blue. Painting isn't only the color but also
the way you put the color on the surface. That's why van Gogh is so interesting.. because he's always busy doing
different things with the texture. Like the texture here, or there,
in the beard or the face, different angles Last thing.. we do this. Actually I like this so I keep it. I hardly have eyebrows, I can't help it.. but let's do a little bit more. Last but not least, under the nose i see a lighter part.. and I'm going to do that orange. Orange because that again is complementary with the blue.. of the holes in the nose. Little detailing. Over here. So you can lose yourself completely in details.. little stripes, little dots of paint and so on. But for now I'm going to stop.. I hope you'll continue doing your own self portrait. Thank you very much Ruud, see you next time!
-Thank you, bye!
