The SECRET to Making a Portrait Look Like Your Model

capturing the likeness in a portrait is one of the toughest challenges an artist can face but while you may think accurately drawing features like the eyes is the key to success there's a critical step you need to get right in the early stages of a portrait which is even more important get it wrong and you will definitely struggle to achieve a likeness later on so keep watching because in this demonstration I'm going to show you the essential step that holds the real secret to capturing a likeness my model for this portrait is boyco an older gentleman with spectacles I'm going to start off by placing some of the big shapes that make up my subject the whole head the spectacles and a line for the bottom of the nose now watch what I do next I'm wiping away some of the light shapes on the nose and the right side of the face next I'm going to place the mouth and beard but I'm not drawing details like the lips instead I'm treating the whole mouth area as a rectangle in between the light shapes above the upper lip and the beard just below it and do you see how it's already starting to look like boyko this is just like recognizing someone you know in the distance from far away you can't see any details like the colors of the eyes all you can see are the larger shapes once they have been mapped out I'm blocking in the larger shapes with color starting with a flesh color for the lights and a much darker color for the Shadows with the shadows and the lights blocked in you can see that it's now clearly recognizable as boyco so the likeness depends on the placement of these larger value shapes and this is the key stage when you need to make sure you have something that looks like your subject because no amount of modeling or adding details later on will make a portrait more like your subject if there's anything wrong with the larger value shapes when I'm eventually happy that I have something that definitely looks like my subject I'm going to add the highlights on the forehead the right cheek and the tip of the nose I'm then placing a middle value along the edge of the shadow on the forehead and here I'm placing some on the right cheek to model the form of the cheekbone so I now have four main values established the Shadows the lights are mid-tone and the highlights and my image is starting to appear much more 3D next I'm going to place the background on the right side of the head carving out the edge of the ear and the back of the head I'm now massing in the hair and the beard I've been painting for around an hour and the portrait is really starting to take take shape as a general rule I reckon after the first 20 percent of painting time it should look eighty percent finished you will then have a really solid foundation for the rest of the painting this is why the blocking at the start is the most important stage and if you're working on a portrait don't rush ahead and start adding details until you're absolutely certain your blocking looks like the person you're supposed to be painting I've now been working for about three hours I've added more variation in color I've refined some of the edges and I've placed the small details like the highlights on the rims of the spectacles whether I'm working on a quick study like this one or a more finished portrait painted over several days most of the time will be spent on these refining stages but I will always aim to be at the same stage by the end of the locking with all of the main elements established after the first hour if you'd like to see exactly how this was painted this is the latest demo on my ala Prima portrait painting course you'll find a link to it in the description there's also links to my other videos on how to paint the eyes and mouth so until next time thanks for watching and good luck with your painting

Channel: SIMPLIFY Drawing and Painting

Views: 12,317

Keywords: portrait painting, portrait painting tutorial, portrait painting oil, portrait painting for beginners, portrait painting techniques, how to capture likeness in a portrait, alex tzavaras, alex tzavaras portrait demo, alex tzavaras artist, alex tzavaras courses, portrait painting tips, alex tzavaras youtube, portrait likeness tutorial, how to get portrait likeness, portrait painting likeness, alla prima portrait painting, alla prima oil painting, alla prima portrait

Id: ojomFsbpJJQ

Length: 4min 26sec (266 seconds)

Published: Sun May 21 2023