The Most Important thing YOU NEED in a Portrait

the most important thing you need to achieve in a portrait is to capture the right facial expression Beyond just the likeness it's the expression that shows us something about our subject's personality and inner life and it's this emotional quality that people really respond to when they see a portrait so in this demonstration I'm going to show you how to paint the facial feature that's the real key to capturing someone's expression my model for this portrait will be Naomi in this wonderful blueberry as well as being the most important thing capturing the right expression is also one of the most challenging things we need to achieve when portrait painting if a client is ever unhappy with one of my portraits it usually has to do with the expression so I hope I'll be able to capture something of Naomi's character in the time I have available let's see how I get get on after mapping out the head I'm first blocking in the main areas of light and Shadow then here I'm blocking in the hole of the mouth area as a single Shadow Mass from the top of the upper lip all the way down to the shadow just under the lower lip now we're told that the eyes are the windows to the soul this is because when we first look at someone's face we're immediately drawn to their eyes but when we read their expression we subconsciously take in all the muscles of the face and it's actually the mouth that's the most expressive feature right here I'm placing the left corner of Naomi's mouth and do you see how even in these early blocking stages this tiny adjustment completely transforms her expression and makes it look as though she's smiling so it's the mouth particularly the corners of the mouth that hold the real key to unlocking the expression so this is essentially a video on how to paint the mouth but because they are so important for the expression I can't make a video on painting males without talking about what is really the essence of any portrait the facial expression the reason they're so difficult to achieve is that when you're working from Life the expression will be constantly changing so how do you capture this moving Target well keep watching to find out I've now blocked in all the larger shapes that make up my subject at this stage I'm treating the whole of the mouth area and the surrounding muscles as a single Shadow Mass but here I'm placing a light shape for the lower lip which divides the mouth into two Shadows one for the upper lip and another Shadow just below the lower lip notice how I haven't drawn any outlines around the lips all the shapes are still Broad and simple and it's already starting to resemble Naomi this is because the likeness depends on the placement of the larger light and Shadow shapes before you add any details no amount of refining will make a portrait more like your subject if the larger underlying shapes aren't placed accurately you also need to pay close attention for any changes in expression even in these early stages because the facial expression can affect all all the muscles of the face therefore it will also affect the larger underlying shapes here once again I'm adjusting the left corner of Naomi's mouth I'm trying to catch a half smile that keeps appearing while we're talking in order to capture an expression that will hopefully be more characteristic of your sitter you need to keep them engaged by talking to them if you don't they will end up looking bored and they may even fall asleep for this reason a portrait commission when you're working with someone one-to-one can take a lot longer than painting a model in an art class who just sits still that's assuming of course that you're working from life now the thing that separates this channel from most of the other artists on YouTube is that all of my demos are painted from life I usually finish them in a single session without talking to the model but for this portrait because I wanted to focus on Naomi's expression it was painted over for two days I worked at a much slower pace and I spoke to her throughout all the while paying close attention for any changes in expression I've actually painted Naomi before in one of my previous demos for that one she sat still and I finished it in a few hours I'll put a link to it in the description and I'd be interested to know how you think the expression in that portrait Compares with this one I'm now starting to refine the left corner of the mouth you will find small shadows in the corners of the mouth where the surrounding flesh tucks back into them the edges of these shadows will be soft and they appear cooler in color when you're working from Life the corners of the mouth are the most challenging areas to paint as they're constantly moving but you need to pay particularly close attention to them because the slightest adjustment of of even a millimeter can completely transform the expression here I'm using a warm dark color to define the edge in between Naomi's Lips This moves down in a V shape towards the middle of her mouth the direction of this line will vary for each individual but the main thing you need to remember is that the edge between the upper and lower lips is not always visible so don't draw a line in between the lips instead look for one or two accents where you can see the edge I'm now making the lower lip larger as I reckon Naomi's mouth needs to be a little Fuller here I'm softening the edge of the upper lip I'm then placing a small light shape just below the left corner of the mouth you will usually find these small highlights below the shadows in the corners of the mouth next I'm softening the edge of the lower lip the warm color of the lower lip Fades into the cooler color of the flesh as it moves towards the corner of the mouth the most common mistake beginners always make is to leave hard edges around the outsides of the mouth if you leave outlines around the lips they will look cut out and drawn like an illustration you need to remember that most of the edges around the mouth will be soft and there will only be one or two accents here I'm placing one of these accents along the edge of the upper lip and here I'm placing a small highlight in the medial cleft which is the small indentation just above the middle of the upper lip the medial cleft is a really important Landmark It lines up directly underneath the bridge of the nose so you can use it to make sure the center of the mouth is aligned correctly it can be helpful to establish the medial cleft before you work on the rest of the mouth but for the this portrait because I wanted to capture the half smile I immediately started with the corner of the mouth I'm now placing a small highlight on the lower lip I'm then refining the edges of this highlight and the mouth is really starting to take shape so next I'm going to do more work on the eyes if I want to finish a portrait quickly and the model is sitting still without talking I will usually try to establish the eyes before working on the mouth I can then check to see how the corners of the mouth line up underneath the irises but when I'm trying to capture an expression I'll develop all the features at the same time moving back and forward between the eyes and the mouth each time the expression I'm after appears as well as the mouth other features to look out for are the eyebrows and the area just above the bridge of the nose which will move when your sitter frowns the folds of skin either side of the nose will also move when your sitter Smiles but these changes in expression will be fleeting so you need to be able to catch them quickly each time they appear here I'm trying to indicate the right corner of the mouth as the half smile I'm trying to capture has just reappeared but in the next moment the smile has gone so once again I'm moving back to the eyes I'd like to point out that when I decided to try and capture this smile I wasn't consciously thinking about Naomi's personality I find that if I make a judgment like a person is cheerful it gets in the way of me being able to capture their expression we often assume that in order to be able to capture someone's character in a portrait the artist must have some sort of psychological insight into their subject but the ability to interpret facial expressions is something all human being things need to do what separates a successful Portrait Painter is the ability to quickly record facial expressions as and when they appear and that skill relies primarily on objective decision making rather than anything subjective so as far as I'm concerned I chose this smile simply because it was an expression that keeps reappearing and all I'm consciously thinking about while I'm painting is shapes values and colors right now the smile is back again so I'm doing more work on the mouth the expression changes so quickly that sometimes I have to work from memory but I have a good idea where the right corner of the mouth should be because the mouth is usually parallel with the eyes now the features won't always be parallel with each other particularly as some people have crooked Smiles but when you're working from life and you'll see is constantly moving it's really easy to make the features crooked even when they are parallel with each other so it's important to keep checking their alignment once again the expression has changed so I'm moving away from the mouth until the next time the smile appears while I'm painting I may be conscious of making objective decisions about shapes and colors and so on but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything subjective going on there may be a subconscious reason I'm drawn to this smile and another artist might have chosen a completely different expression this subjectivity is the reason I love portraiture and why it's arguably one of the highest art forms because it represents one human being reacting to another human being which is something that plays such an integral part in all our lives I also believe that because it involves an interaction with your subject it's really important to paint portraits from life particularly if you're working on a commission you can definitely capture great facial expressions and paint fantastic portraits working from photos this is an art in itself and the subject for a future video but at the end of the day with a photo you're stuck with just one expression when you spend more time with your sitter watching their expression change I reckon you have a greater chance of capturing something that more accurately represents their character an expression their family and friends will see and say yes that's them right here I'm having another go at finishing off the right corner of the mouth I'm placing a warm dark accent in the corner of the mouth the edges of this dark accent now need softening but as I'm soft softening it I've managed to move the corner of the mouth by just a millimeter and do you see I've completely lost the smile this is why the mouth is one of the most difficult features to paint as John Singer's Sergeant once said a portrait is a likeness in which there was something wrong with the mouth there are countless other videos on how to paint the mouth but none of them talk about how expressive the mouth is and how easy it is if you make the slightest mistake for the expression to slip from your grasp after finding the right corner of the mouth again I think I've managed to rescue the smile I mentioned before that all of my previous demos were painted in a single session so I didn't really have time to focus on the facial expression but this one was painted over two days hopefully in that time I've been able to capture something of nomey character in it or at least make her look a little more cheerful what do you reckon how does it compare to the other version I did of her in my previous video right here I'm making a few last adjustments to the right corner of the mouth softening the edges around it a little more and there I think I finally have it each of us may see something different in this expression these interpretations based on the non-verbal cues that we see when we read someone's face or where the real interest lies in a portrait so while there are many aspects to creating a successful painting like color Harmony and design the most important thing in a portrait is the facial expression so I hope that was helpful unfortunately because this painting took over 10 hours there isn't a long version available but if you want to see more portraits filmed in real time check out my alaprima portrait painting course there's a link in the description anyway until next time thank you for watching and good luck with your painting

Channel: SIMPLIFY Drawing and Painting

Views: 34,639

Keywords: how to paint mouths, how to paint facial expressions, portrait painting tutorial, facial expressions, how to paint facial features, simplify drawing and painting, oil painting tutorial, portrait painting, portrait painting oil, portrait painting for beginners, portrait painting techniques, alex tzavaras youtube, alex tzavaras artist, alex tzavaras portrait demo, alla prima portrait painting, alla prima oil painting, alla prima oil painting tutorial, alla prima portrait

Id: sI86_n84k4Y

Length: 15min 0sec (900 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 23 2023