Portrait

There are many artistic techniques and techniques for creating portraits. Most of the time I use the old master layering technique because it guarantees good quality and excellent results. It should be clarified that creating a portrait using this technique is completely manual work. Every millimeter of surface is processed manually at every stage.

Here is a detailed description of the process of creating a portrait:

First we prepare the canvas — apply a layer of primer. Then a sketch is made on paper of the same size with a pencil, the drawing is brought to full completion and only then applied to the prepared canvas, since it will be difficult to correct the mistake in the future. At this stage, your portrait is practically drawn in pencil. After transferring the lines to the canvas, they need to be drawn with ink so that the main lines are visible through the first few layers of paint.

After this, a layer of imprimatur is applied, which includes dammar varnish for better adhesion with subsequent layers of paint.

From this point on, each coat of paint must dry for seven to fourteen days before the next coat can be applied. The point of the layering technique is to achieve the desired color values by layering layers. At the same time, the light reflected from each layer of paint acquires deep shades and gives the image the effect of an internal glow, which significantly enhances the visual sensations. A similar effect cannot be achieved by simply mixing paints on a palette. Therefore, the method is called multilayer.

Next, we work on the shadow layers, which can be from three to five. This is necessary to obtain the necessary saturation in the shade. The final result depends on the care taken in each layer. Dry each layer. You can calculate the drying time yourself. After that, we work with light — also three to five layers, until we get the desired illumination value. Dry between layers. After that we enter the color. There may be an order of magnitude more layers here.

Why is this so difficult? — you ask.
Take a look at my works. Not all of them look perfect. In some cases I was limited on time and had to reduce the number of layers, in some cases to reduce the cost I could not carefully work on the layers and the result was not as good as it could have been. In any case, I always try to do the best job possible. And clients are satisfied in most cases.

To summarize the above, it can be noted that to create a good portrait of 40×50 cm, you will need to apply several dozen layers and carefully work them out. And also spend from eighty to three hundred hours of pure time, and from three to six months of calendar time.

Below is a video of the creation process.