Paint Realistic Portraits
Immortalizing someone in a painted portrait is wonderful way to show that person how much you care about her. In today's world of digital photography and computers, painted portraits are a special rarity. Because of this, giving someone you love a painted picture of himself is a unique gift indeed. While this project is indeed fairly challenging, if you take your time and pay attention to the shapes and colors of your subject, you will find that painting portraits can be an extremely fulfilling endeavor.
Instructions
1. Draw a sketch of your subject onto your canvas using either a soft pencil or charcoal. Draw the basic guidelines for the face with an oval. Add a "t" shape in the center of this. Draw the eyes with two small ovals on the horizontal line of the "t" shape. Add the eyebrows to the portrait with two small curved lines above the eyes. Create the guideline for the nose with a small line that follows the bottom curve of your subject's nose. Add the lips with two curved lines below the nose. Check to make sure that these all match the proportions of your subject.
2. Add in the details to the drawing on the canvas by adding in pupils and irises to the eyes with semicircles inside the eyes. Add the sides of the nostrils to the nose, thicken the eyebrows with a parallel line around the eyebrow and draw the hairline of your subject across the forehead.
3. Paint the entire canvas with a thin coat of dark paint like red or brown. This will allow the line work to show through and later give a richness to the colors and hues of the face. Paint in the basic flesh tones and hair of the subject to get you started. Lay this paint over your line work.
4. Add highlights to the the nose, cheeks, forehead and chin using a mixture of flesh tones with white and a tiny amount of blue. Again, consider the flesh tones of your subject. If your subject has dark skin you will not want to use very light colors for highlights. Add shadows by mixing a brushload of burnt sienna with a brushload of paint thinner and applying this to around the eyes, below the nose, under the bottom lip and under the chin. Consider your light source when adding shadows. For instance, if light is coming from above, the shadows will be applied to the bottoms of the shapes. If the light source is to the left of the subject, the shadows will appear on the right side of the facial characteristics.
5. Blend in more highlights to the cheeks and lips using red paints. Thin the red paint by mixing one brushload of paint with two brushloads of thinner. This will allow you to add a subtle redness about the cheeks, lips and the tip of the nose. Blood naturally gathers in these areas and therefore comes across visually with subtle red highlights. Paint the whites of the eyes with an off-white color, as stark white eyes do not occur in the natural world. Add color to the irises matching that of your subject. The irises should be darker closer to the top corners of the eyes as there is more shadow in that area.
