Portrait Painting

Instruction Medium: Oil

No Class: 10/13/25

In portrait painting we will cover how to begin a painting with a monochrome under-painting to more easily establish our lights and shadows. Angling and measuring will be stressed in order to establish proportion in an accurate and analytical way. Two essential issues will dominate our approach, proportion and light and shadow. We’ll start slowly and methodically as we add layers of color and make more informed decisions. The skull will be used to become familiar with the underlying structure of the head. The importance of edges, where one value transitions into another, will be stressed (light defines form, edges define the kind of form). We’ll be working with a rather limited, and manageable, pallet of very specific colors. Brush work, proportion, edges, angling and measuring, and figure/ground relationships will all be covered.