Marcus Chen
Painting a portrait from your own photo is an enjoyable way to express your creativity and develop your artistic skills. It is a traditional art form that has been practised for centuries, and with the right tools and techniques, you can create beautiful and realistic portraits. This process involves choosing the right photo with a clear division between light and shade, understanding the importance of light and shadow in creating depth, and selecting the appropriate colours to achieve realistic skin tones. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced artist, painting a portrait from your own photo is an engaging and rewarding endeavour.
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What You'll Learn
Choose the right photo
Choosing the right photo is a crucial step in creating a successful portrait. Here are some factors to consider when selecting or taking a photo for a portrait painting:
Image Quality and Resolution
The quality and resolution of the photo are essential. A high-resolution image allows the artist to see and capture fine details, resulting in a more accurate and lifelike portrait. Blurry or low-resolution images lack the necessary details for the artist to work with. Consider the file size of the photo—larger file sizes, such as 3MB or higher, are recommended.
Lighting and Shadows
Lighting plays a significant role in the overall quality of the portrait. Natural light, either outdoors or near a window, is ideal. Avoid direct sunlight, as it can create harsh shadows and make your subject squint. Mornings or late afternoons are preferable for softer, warmer natural light. If shooting indoors, use a spotlight or lamp to illuminate the subject.
When choosing a photo, look for one with a good range of light and dark values. Shadows add depth and dimensionality to the portrait, so avoid photos with excessive flash photography, as it flattens the image and removes form shadows. A single light source or a dominant light source is generally recommended.
Pose and Composition
The pose and composition of the photo should capture the personality and physical appearance of the subject. Consider the subject's mannerisms and unique characteristics to ensure the portrait reflects their true character.
Background
The background of the photo should complement the subject without being distracting. If you plan to add a background during the painting process, choose a colour that doesn't compete with the subject. Plain backgrounds or neutral colours often work well, especially for pencil drawing portraits.
Size and Proportions
The size of the subject in the photo is important. Ensure the photo provides sufficient detail of the subject's face, avoiding images where the subject is too far away or too small in the frame. For portraits focusing on the face, it is recommended to use photos where the head is at least 2 inches in size.
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Understand colour and light
Understanding colour and light is essential for creating a harmonious and cohesive colour palette in portrait painting. Here are some tips to help you get to grips with colour and light in your portraiture:
Colour Theory
Familiarise yourself with the colour wheel and the relationships between colours. Understand primary, secondary, and tertiary colours, as well as complementary, analogous, and split-complementary colour schemes. Warm colours (red, orange, and yellow) tend to advance and appear more vibrant, while cool colours (blue, green, and purple) tend to recede and appear more subdued. Balancing warm and cool colours can create depth and interest in your portrait.
Lighting Set-Up
When painting a portrait, consider the lighting set-up. Start by setting up the main light, or 'key light', facing the subject at a 45-degree angle, coming down on the subject, and ideally positioned just above their head. If you want to soften the shadows, you can 'bounce' some of the light back into them using a flat surface like kitchen foil or a collapsible reflector. Silver will reflect cool light (blue), while gold will give a warmer feel (orange).
Skin Tones
Skin tones can vary depending on factors such as age, lighting, and individual characteristics. To create realistic skin tones, use colours like yellow ochre, Naples yellow hue, and reds, which can be mixed to create a range of skin tones. You can lighten or darken the mixture to match the skin tone you're aiming for. For grey skin tones, add colours like chrome oxide green, cerulean blue hue, or cadmium orange, along with a complementary colour like green or purple.
Eyes
When painting the eyes, remember that the white of the eye is not pure white. Mix a bit of skin tone and a touch of ultramarine blue into the white to create a warm and light colour. Highlight a small area on each side of the iris with a spot of pure white.
Practice and Experimentation
Finally, remember that practice and experimentation are key. Regularly sketch from life or reference images to hone your observational skills and refine your ability to capture the essence of your subjects. Don't be afraid to experiment with different lighting setups and colour combinations to see what works best for your portrait.
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Map out the face
Mapping out the face is an important step in painting a portrait from a photo. It helps you avoid the hassle of having to wipe off your work and start over due to issues like improper placement of the subject on the canvas or discovering a more interesting pose later. It also helps you get acquainted with the intricacies of your subject's face, such as bone structure and muscle movement.
- Study the bone structure: While all skulls are similar, there are subtle variations that can make a big difference in a portrait.
- Understand muscle movement: The human head has more muscles than any other part of the body, and nearly all of them move when the expression changes. Learning about the muscles responsible for different expressions can help you capture the essence of your subject.
- Use the eye-width method: This is an easy way to measure the features and proportions of the head, especially for beginners. One eye width is used vertically and horizontally to determine the placement of other facial features.
- Consider the perspective: When the head is viewed from an angle, it should be seen as a block with perspective lines. The eye that is farthest from the viewer will appear smaller than the other eye.
- Create preliminary sketches: Before you start painting, try out different poses and perspectives through sketches. These can be done in charcoal and white chalk on toned paper. The more you sketch, the better your understanding of your subject will become.
- Mark the shadows and highlights: Identify the areas of shadow and highlight on your reference photo and mark them in your sketch. Think in shapes, not lines, and block in the basic shapes where the shadows and highlights will go.
- Choose the right photo: When taking or choosing a photo to work from, ensure it has a good range of values from light to dark. Avoid using flash photography, as it flattens the form and diminishes the shadows that give the portrait depth.
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Mix skin tones
Mixing skin tones is a complex process that requires a good understanding of colours and their temperatures. Skin tones are complex colours, and simply mixing equal parts of two colours will not be sufficient. It will take several colours to get the right shade. Moreover, no two skin tones are the same, and a range of values and colour temperatures can exist on one face.
The first colour that should be mixed will establish a base tone for the face. This colour should be the general tone of the subject and will be the foundation on which we build the values and temperatures in the portrait. A simple saying to help remember the colours used for base skin tone mixing is, "Red, yellow, brown, and white – that’s how to mix your skin tones right."
The more you add a cooler colour to your base tone, the cooler it gets. Recognising whether a colour is cool or warm is important, and it all starts with your light. Not all light is warm, and not all highlights are warm. For most highlights, the colour temperature will be warm, while for shadows, it varies from warm to cool. Areas of the face will change in colour temperature. For example, areas around the nose and cheeks tend to be more red, making the temperature warmer.
To add depth and dimension to your skin colour paintings, it’s helpful to create a “family” of tones around your chosen skin tone. You can achieve this by mixing your base skin tone with small amounts of blue, yellow, and red.
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Add depth and detail
When it comes to adding depth and detail to your portrait, there are several techniques to consider. Firstly, the lighting in your reference photo is crucial. Natural light, either outside or through a window, is ideal as it provides a good balance of value from light to dark. Avoid using a flash, as this will flatten your subject. Instead, opt for shadows and shading to create a three-dimensional effect. You can also edit your photos with software like Photoshop Elements or Lightroom to enhance lighting and deepen shadows.
Secondly, when painting, focus on capturing realistic skin tones and textures. Identify the hues of your subject's skin tones and mix small amounts of paint on your palette to control the colours. You can use a limited palette of colours to achieve most skin tones: french ultramarine, titanium white, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and burnt umber. When constructing facial features, use thinned-down paint for small brush strokes and thicker paint for larger areas.
Additionally, the eyes, eyebrows, and hair are critical areas to focus on as they convey the emotional depth and individuality of the subject. Ensure that they are accurately positioned and proportioned, paying close attention to shape, colour, and placement. Use complementary hues and a combination of dark and light shades to add depth and dimension to your portrait.
Finally, consider using advanced painting techniques such as alla prima, sfumato, and fat over lean to add depth and texture to your painting, making it more realistic. You can also incorporate elements like impasto textures, collage, and varnishes to enhance depth and visual interest. Remember, patience and practice are essential when creating a successful portrait with depth and detail.
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Frequently asked questions
Choose a good reference photo with a clear division between light and shade. You can then either draw the portrait freehand or use a projector to get your proportions correct.
Skin tones vary, but you can use the following five colours as a starting point: French ultramarine, titanium white, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, and burnt umber.
Avoid using white or black to lighten or darken your colours, as this will make them look grey. Instead, use colours like crimson, yellow, umber, and white, and keep mixing and dabbing as you paint.
Mark where the shadows and highlights will go in your sketch, thinking in shapes rather than lines. When painting, remember that the brightest area of the photograph can be overexposed, so be careful not to lay paint on large areas with a single value.
