To intro & ask question to/for oil portrait painters…

[Zmithy]

Hey everyone! My goal is to learn portrait painting. How far do I need to go with learning to draw in order to do an underdrawing? I’m doing a drawing course here, but the instructor sticks with pencil and does really advanced drawing…I figure I don’t need to go so far, because I want to paint?? I hope the question makes some sense!

 

[Alicia Lembicz]

You don’t need to go in details, just the outlines. However you need to understand the planes of the head and proportions.

[Leo DiFraia]

Portrait painting comes after portrait drawing which comes after drawing! Think of it as “wax on – wax off” Mr. Myagi from the Karate Kid

If you had said you wanted to learn to paint landscapes that would be a different story. But now, you want to paint figures without learning to draw … tsk tsk 🙂

The problem is everyone is intimately familiar with what a portrait or a figure looks like and everyone will notice the smallest flaw.

Practice drawing first. When you’re comfortable with a piece of charcoal, work on some portraits in charcoal.

When you’re getting the hang of that, try some landscape paintings so you can learn to use paint. Then and only then 🙂 try a portrait.

But if you want to get it out of your system, just do a portrait painting right now. There’ s no harm. At most you’ll only have wasted some paint. Post that picture in the critique section and someone will happily/humbly explain the pieces you don’t know that you don’t know.

 

[Zmithy]

He-he Leo, was hoping for shortcut!🤨…yeah, I might switch to painting landscapes while I learn to draw. Although that requires skill at drawing as well. I might go abstract!!!🙂

 

[Sarah Flood]

I’m a beginner at figure drawing in general, but definitely get a portrait out of your system if you’re itching to paint one! I’m here to, among other things, learn to paint and draw the human figure, but I painted a nude the other day based on a drawing I did maybe a year ago. It was fun, it didn’t turn out awful (not good, mind, but not awful), and as I get better it will be a benchmark of where I was when I started, which I think is valuable for those moments when you feel like you’re not progressing.

[Zmithy]

That’s prob the key…do it, get it out my system without any expectations ..and not tell anyone(certainly don’t show anyone!) …when it ends up hideous!🙂…unless I turn out to be a picasso or something…in which case I’ll show everyone😄

 

 

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