Tutorial: Painting alla prima oil portrait from the photo

[Music] hello this is arthur gain thank you for joining me in this video we are going to watch an alabrima portrait from photo reference the painting process took around two and a half hours but this video is slightly faster and all poses are cut out so i hope you will not fall asleep in this 90 minutes as a self-taught artist i've watched a lot of tutorial videos and sometimes it was too boring to watch the process in the real time without editing so i wanted to avoid this mistake in my video [Music] the beginning is very direct i have mixed generic proximity fleshed on with white transparent oxide red and raw umber and just use side of my brush to make thin lines i'm working on oil primed linen you can find the name and type in my material list generally speaking all primed surfaces are more friendly for a la prima technique than acrylic rounds which are too absorbent and it can slow you down if you are on the tight budget or your local art supplier doesn't have oil primed canvases you can put layer of oil ground on top of normal gesso wait until it's dry and use it [Music] as you can see i have covered my surface with the light gray before i started normally i work on tone surface when your canvas and palette have more or less the same value it is much easier to mix and compare your colors to paint a head or figure is difficult to ask enough and when you want to do it wet on wet it is better to organize your workflow [Music] i use paint book from edge pro as my palette and it proved very helpful to both outdoors and in the studio i like to have my palette situated parallel to canvas since i can judge values easily and it saves time during the painting [Music] the second mixture is just black and transparent oxide red diluted with mineral spirits as you can see my goal here is to create simplified drawing with just two values which will be foundation and reference for modeling inside each of these two value groups later i pay close attention to main landmarks and angles position of the year shape of moustache and browse position of the eyes and so on [Music] i don't elaborate the drawing here because i will deal with it later [Music] my model is masculine man so i want to express his character and body type by rigid and ungulated structure of the head [Music] my colors here are titanium white yellow brown which is very close to yellow ochre transparent oxide red senilia red which is close to cadmium red light raw umber permanent elizarin cobalt violet and ivory black essential part of this color arrangement is so zorn's palette which is simply yellow red and black plus white of course i strongly recommend to spend some time to master this limited palette of colors especially if you want to paint portraits and figures indoors [Music] the transparent oxide red is additional color here it is very helpful in the shadows when you need them transparent and warm i also use it to mix skin tones but you have to be careful with it since it is very strong in hue and can make skin too orange sometimes remember is very important when you need to decrease both the value and saturation of your mixture and it is very helpful when you need to adjust the temperature i paint first layers very thin my main goal is to cover the canvas with average value of the larger shapes it is why i squint very often while i am squinting i see clearly how light recedes from the forehead down so i keep in mind that lightest light is on the forehead so i should mix all the rest highlights darker it is not very obvious on the photos but when you paint from life you can see it clearly there is always lightest light and if you keep it brightest on your canvas it will help to create strong illusion of form you can see how i use a bit of medium couple of times it is gambling now my guild i use it to add fluidity and transparency in the darks without adding more mineral spirits it isn't necessary though just handy i have made this photo of my friend roman a few years back in moscow in very relaxed and informal situation i deliberately left this photo unmodified to show how i always try to focus on the mostly important things while doing the portrait regardless from life or from photo i try to focus on the main shapes on their form values and colors i don't pay attention on background or small details i just squint and analyze what i see [Music] i use different type of brushes mostly they are long flats long filberts and round sable brushes i use round tables only for small details and highlights i try to keep my brushes clean and fresh it's why i keep at least two brushes of the same size and shape one for the darks and one for the lights i clean them quite often in the mineral spirits and by wiping them with paper towels when i paint from life i don't waste my time on cleaning and always end up with dozens of brushes to clean then session is over [Music] i would recommend to keep brushes in good shape when brush is in perfect shape you can control it easily and you can draw even thinnest line with the side of nice brush regardless of its size and shape when i mix i try to separate the arc area from the light area as you can see now on my palette inside of each area i mix warmer or cooler darker or lighter increase or decrease chroma and i maintain the values of each group by doing that [Music] since we are going to separate the values anyways i believe it is good to make separation on the palette as well so we have a really darker value family and wide value family and i always can judge my mix but just by putting it in an appropriate place on the palette adding more lumber here because i don't want this shadow part to be too saturated and you can see how i erase now with the q-tips actually it is also one of the reasons why i use oil prime surface you can easily erase things down just even scrape things down so for if for instance you feel like your sketch is not so good probably drawing is off or likeness is off or you just don't like it anymore you can just wipe it off with a paper towel and a little bit of mineral spirits and start over [Music] i am constantly trying to refine these shapes to find the most aesthetic and somehow ideal shape which will represent what i see [Music] so for me it's always simplifying things the reference is much more sophisticated and i want to create more simplified and more painterly reproduction of what i see so idea is not to copy your reference rather use it as your inspiration as a map so it's about 20-25 minutes of painting process and at this stage i usually evaluate my drawing and likeness by looking into the small mirror which i always bring with me [Music] it is very important to make a decision at this point if everything is okay i can continue if it's not i should check and i should fix my drawing if i have to or probably start over as i mentioned before it is also very helpful to make some short break from the painting 2-3 minutes just walk away and after come back and you can see it with more fresh perception [Music] i also like to paint very thin at this stage it is nice to have thin layers because i can put more thick on probably impasto layers later and it is much easier to mount this linen on panel if i need to [Music] [Music] [Music] normally i keep my edges very soft in the beginning and later towards the end of the painting i decide which edge will be razor sharp and which ones will remain soft it creates nice variety in the edge quality and it is for me it is much better to put more paint to make it sharper then instead to try to make it somehow blurry when it's dry [Music] now when i've already have found some complexity genetic skin tone for a light i'm starting to search for uh highlights and lighter half tones so my source of light is cool probably 7000 kelvins in color temperature so i have to keep it in mind all the time that skin should be cooler towards the light and shadows should be warmer so it's more like a northern window in classical portrait when you make your photo reference or when you choose reference when you search for it you have to pay close attention to how many light sources and which one is stronger it is better to find some references which provide very obvious light and dark relationships sometimes when diffused light is used to make a photo it's not easy to create the illusion of form and sometimes you need to amplify the difference between value groups like to make shadows darker deliberately and to make your lighter half tones lighter and keep your volume groups inside of each other [Music] ah [Music] here i'm working on the shape of the nose as usual i try to find bigger shapes first like bigger idea of the nose and i will refine larger shapes to more smaller shapes later [Music] [Music] i try to pay attention to transition areas between hair and skin both in the facial hair and in the hair of the head here now some first strokes to indicate the lips [Music] the transparent oxide right here is very useful [Music] well it's very transparent sometimes in our prima you can even do some glazing effects with more transparent [Music] mixtures [Music] [Music] still refining the biggest shapes [Music] i constantly change point of view [Music] i can even just walk around my canvas for me it is very helpful and don't forget about the mirror for those who have experience in digital painting they know there's a flipping effect in photoshop and you can just flip your canvas vertically or horizontally it's best way to refresh [Music] your perception [Music] now i use raw amber to make a cooler skin tone it's more like a grayish type of paint [Music] and of course ivory black is technically blue now on my palette so i use it to create the coolest highlights possible yeah here i'm trying to add some violet seems already too dry but it doesn't matter [Music] so this fleshed on now it's like a foundation like a basement [Music] for real ones here now it's time to add the lightest light the light source is above the model so the lightest light should be on the forehead it is not very obvious on the photo though but i remember when i was making this shooting how bright was it and of course sometimes you just need to analyze where is your lightest light when you paint from life or from a good photo reference you have to just squint down until you can see obvious where is it where is lightest light on your model [Music] so i will mix every every highlight accordingly to this lightest light i have to make all the rest of highlights darker than this highlight on top of the [Music] forehead here i went too light so i will need to reduce to darker the value on the cheekbone as well [Music] and of course this lightest light i will cover it with another strokes and i will tweak it more and more but at this point it shows both for establishing the lightest value and for head structure as well [Music] i like to see the turning of the form and changing of the shapes as a geometrical figures like zigzags or triangles in this reference there are so many triangles the nose the mustache these highlights on the forehead eye sockets now i try to turn the brow to make it more three-dimensional and i see a lot of grays and greens there so it's time to to mix that color as well [Music] [Music] here you can see for first time i use my small sable round brush to paint some details in the eye [Music] in this portrait i just go like revisiting the areas so it's like focusing on the object in the beginning it is very blurry and unfocused just major shapes and now it's like increasing the focus [Music] but i try to maintain each stage aesthetically delicious and satisfying like if i want to stop it should be already okay it should provide some likeness and probably some decisions and brush strokes so it's also one of the great areas which i use to evaluate my sketches during the process when i was starting out with alla prima painting the first art which i mastered was art of letting things go at this point you concentrate mostly on the beginning of the painting and when you are not satisfied or when you messed it up you just just throw it away or wipe wipe it off and start over and over again [Music] you can see now how my mixtures are becoming more and more neutral the cooler because i'm concentrated on the highlights mostly now [Music] i constantly look for structural symmetry and for better shape design the cheekbones they're very obvious in this reference and they provide both nice structure and perspective the same with the eye sockets and i tried to find the simplest shape possible to depict this very important landmarks of the face i like to paint on top of the previous layers it creates a lot of spontaneous effects and the paint can shine through and it is also very nice because our skin is translucent so translucent layers of paint create this sort of illusion [Music] [Music] [Music] i constantly squint and i want to see my reference as arrangements of shapes nothing more nothing else just shapes with different color and form and different values of [Music] course [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] i see on my reference that cheeks and nose are more red they have some pinks in it it is very common thing the skin is more red in the central zone of the face which has more capillaries carrying blood and it's near the surface of the skin while forehead is more free of muscles and red blood cells it's why i see some yellows in it sometimes in real life this effect is very subtle but if you enforce it to a certain degree it will bring more life and variety in skin tones [Music] [Music] i have found that there is a very good practice to master your skin tones with limited palette is to make studies of black and white reference like you can take black and white photo or some black and white drawing and try to to do full color study with just this zord's palette [Music] if you keep in mind all these principles of warmer and cooler relationships and if you keep your nose and cheeks red and forehead yellow the illusion will be good the values are mostly important if your values are correct you can change your temperature or even replace one color with another and it will still look very real so more radish mixtures more pinks and and also more [Music] very cold highlights here [Music] here i am thinking in layers i put some cool highlight but i understand that i will add more warm brush strokes on top some will cover this base and part of it will be visible so it will create very lifelike variety [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] now it's time to work more on the forehead [Music] and you see it's pretty obvious now on the palette that there is a almost orange or red mixtures and gray mixtures and pale yellow mixtures they are very close in value but they look very different [Music] i use bristle brush here [Music] with it it is possible to create some textural brush strokes [Music] and i want to establish some very important turning of the form here [Music] the planes of the head are very obvious on the reference there is no problem to find them but i want to make them quite subtle and steady [Music] [Music] i believe the best alla primo portraits should look very effortless despite it can be a lot of effort to create such an effect so i always try to unify and to combine the shapes and the values [Music] there are still not so many details on the portrait they are not necessary now i am revisiting the planes of the nose again still not really satisfied [Music] i like to work with these long flat brushes i think these brushes are from mongoose air or some synthetic analog of it they leave nice texture and evident brush strokes and at the same time you can create quite sharp edges with it [Music] still working on this nose area [Music] there is also another trick which i often use for nose and for ear i will put more pain physically than to other areas since nose is protruding from the face and i would like to create this illusion of three-dimensional object i use just more pain in these areas and it helps to create such an illusion and it is also nice to combine such areas of thick paint with the areas of very transparent and thin layers like the ear it is surrounded by hair which will not have a lot of paint in the end but now it's now i paint the nose and slowly i put more and more layers of paint [Music] [Music] [Music] now you can see how these two areas of values on my palette are blending into each other it's when i try to find some transitional tones and transitional values now i work more on the lips they are nice and there are nice promising shapes in the lips which i will try to find on my canvas [Music] the brushes are long filbert stable ones stable brushes are very good for lips and for the nose for small delicate details [Music] you can see there are still a lot of places on my palette to mix when you organize your palette like this you don't need to waste your time on cleaning your palette every time you are running off the space for mixing [Music] [Music] and now it's obvious how dry and pale the first layer is so it's time to cover it with more proper and more correct color and value i still reserve my darkest darks for me now there is no point to use it right away and i will use it later [Music] as you can see on the reference there is no information on a costume and on the neck and the rest so i have only had it is why i'm still not certain of where this sketch will go probably i will just leave it as it is or maybe i will continue to work with it but with different background and with different costume in mind but my main goal and my main interest in this portrait is head itself and for two and a half or three hours alabrima is more than enough to concentrate on [Music] [Music] so some of my paintings they are premeditated i prepare my reference for very long time i gather information i make a photos or i find models and put lights and so on and some painting paintings they are more like journeys when you don't know where eventually you will arrive so it's more like adventure and [Music] experimentation it is why i use just a piece of canvas here if i want to mount it i will use the panel and i will glue this canvas on this panel and continue so now the paint are drying a little bit so i can use from time to time just a bit of this medium to increase fluidity and here i am refining the shape of the eye upper eyelids i just want to make it more spherical more round [Music] and it is also time to put more shadows and darker values into the eye [Music] [Music] [Music] i constantly change my focus from area to area i go back and forth [Music] everywhere helps to refresh your eye it helps to find mistakes or probably to find a better solution to make things [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] here i'm trying to enforce this effect of yellow color in the forehead and i also put more and more saturated paint in the nose to separate it more from the far jig and far eye i even use the outline to increase the turning of the form and to increase the effect of separation [Music] there is another interesting part this shadow in the corner of the eye socket there is a subtle reflection light from the skin and it is quite red so i try to make a warm mixture to find the proper color for this shadow shape [Music] and it's time to find some highlights in the nose [Music] the highlights are very important i can remake one highlight form maybe five six times until i find the perfect shape and value now i use synthetic comb brush to blend it [Music] this stage of painting is also good to make a break to rest to drink some coffee or just walk around [Music] i tend to do breaks in every probably 40 or 50 minutes with a model it can be half an hour session and five minutes breaks some models are very professional and they can sit properly for 45 minutes but not more when i work from photo reference i try to maintain the same time timing of my breaks so i don't i don't work more than 40 minutes straight [Music] [Music] i see some purple color in the lower eyelid so i try to mix it [Music] you [Music] here the idea of triangles and rigid structure is continuing i try to find the most simple strokes [Music] it is almost graphical but still i want these shapes to be as accurate as possible in terms of likeness and [Music] construction [Music] uh [Music] i still paint very thinly the quality of the paint should be as good as possible don't waste your energy on students great paint instead invest in some artist grade i believe it is better to invest in limited palette of nice colors instead of buying a lot of cheapest ones [Music] now i am feeling the hair since i have lightest wires already established it is time to to work out the darkest ones a few strokes suggesting the figure and probably costume later [Music] um [Music] the transition color here is very important i also refining [Music] the shape of the forehead every angle in the contour depicts the turning of the form so it's why i try to be very accurate with the silhouette of the head simplification doesn't mean that the things will look more basic or generic i would rather say opposite simplification means that things look more characteristic and more unique [Music] i work more on the hair and i try to put some strokes with a very soft even lost edge [Music] especially in the brow and i continue to refine the eye don't want to put a lot of information there but i should be quite contrast [Music] since it is obvious center of interest [Music] the gaze itself is also very interesting subject to meditate on when our eyes are unforced we see him like someone who are deep in thoughts in some kind of state of reverie as frenchman could name it you can achieve the same effect if you depict the leaps slightly open i try to be very careful with the edges of the lips i don't want them to be too sharp too crisp [Music] you can always make edges sharper later [Music] here i work with a bristle brush again to create some textural effect in the highlight and also to push paint around [Music] now there are some nice juicy strokes [Music] so it is possible to move the paint around to the hair of the brush [Music] [Music] i'm thinking about figure now the shoulders [Music] but it is not necessary [Music] [Music] the model is looking somewhere outside our point of view and it can create some interesting mood later so if i continue with this portrait i will proceed with more thoughtful and meditating mood [Music] i like to follow [Music] my feelings when i'm painting such sketches [Music] [Music] [Music] now i continue to refine the forehead and the nose at this stage it's time to make more proper and finished highlights [Music] um [Music] you always have your point of focus and point of interest [Music] usually it is placed with the biggest contrast with the darkest or lightest value with the more saturated colors and i also have found that you can increase this effect by putting more details and brush strokes and probably more textures [Music] there i'm getting closer to the end of my portrait session so i decided to continue with the year as i mentioned before i want to put a lot of paint into that area but i also want to depict this ear quite minimalistically i see nice shapes of cast shadow inside of the ear so it is very interesting task [Music] so the shadows in the ear are very warm it's why i mix a lot of red now i am also trying do not forget that ear is protruding from the head [Music] [Music] here you can see how i work with the side of my brush to make very thin brush strokes it saves a lot of time and it can also suggest some edges or textural things as you can see in the eyebrow i don't want this edge to be just very soft or lost i want it to be sophisticated [Music] me i also try to find some rhythm in the shapes all these zigzags and the triangles [Music] [Music] it's time to reinforce this cast shadow in the ear [Music] [Music] at this point i have decided that i will continue with this cage later so here i am putting some outline to separate the ear [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] and again small bristle brush for highlights [Music] [Music] softening some edges now i try to move my brush and i try to put my brush strokes accordingly to turning of the form since it is [Music] almost last layer of paint i'm putting on i want brush strokes to follow the overall shape of the head so direction is very important now [Music] [Music] at this final stages of portrait painting here i pay closer attention to highlights and also to cast shadows it's good time to just put some lines to establish or to enforce the cast shadow if it helps to turn the form and also to create some variety in the edges [Music] now i see some very cool highlights in the hair and i want to depict them they are almost green [Music] and i want to make them quite painterly and loose [Music] and this is pretty much the end of portrait session for today just couple of brush strokes to finish the hair so thank you for joining me today i hope it was helpful and informative if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact me via instagram or by email and i will try to answer your questions happy painting [Music] you

Channel: Arthur Gain

Views: 24,097

Rating: 4.9593906 out of 5

Keywords: portrait, tutorial, painting, allarpima

Id: o57qd3uRuJ4

Length: 88min 1sec (5281 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 24 2020