THOUGHTS ON PORTRAIT PAINTING
Fine arts imply that the artists use their brains, eyes, heart and their hands to complete their work without the aid of a camera or digital device. "Alla prima" means to do the portrait all at once with gusto; start and finish in one sitting ; wet into wet. The Guild's genre or style is more in line with impressionism and most mediums are used; oil, water color, acrylic, pastel and pencil.
The real subject is light and it's effect as it falls on the model's face. Seeing planes, shapes, proportions, colors warm and cold and the effect of turning point shadows are some of the many elements explored by the portrait artist. There are no real straight lines in nature, so the artist imagines a plumb line to gauge distances. It's a process of constant measuring, simplifying and capturing what the artist sees. Van Gogh says, “Art demands constant observation”. Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the world's most famous portrait, took more than four years to complete, so you can appreciate the difficulties encountered in doing a portrait in less than three hours. We do it each week, hopefully.
Enough said about technicalities, as it would take volumes and a lifetime to fully explore, so let us see what some well known portrait artists say about portraiture. “Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend”, said John Singer Sargent. He also said, ”A portrait is a picture in which there is just a little something not quite right about the mouth”. Sargent was one of America's best known portrait artist and had been known to flatter his sitters to gain large fees. For a time he gave up portrait painting due to frustrations, which all artists have from time to time.