The Artist - UK (2021-04)

34 artistApril 2021 http://www.painters-online.co.uk

BEYOND A LIKENESS – TURNING A PORTRAIT INTO A PAINTING: 4TH OF 4

When the large picture is established and
we move into the details of the portrait,
these easily adjustable edits will help to
alter the expression of your sitter:

l If your sitter looks
(a) Melancholy, the mouth is too low
(b) Anxious or surprised, the eyebrows are
too high
(c) Cross, the eyebrows are too low, too close
together or too angled
(d) Not happy enough, you can extend the
corners of the mouth

l The cliché says that the eyes are windows
to the soul, but we can create such clear
expressions without the eyes, even with
closed eyes. I would say it is the eyebrows

rather than the eyes that create more

expression.

l When I am painting a portrait commission

I don’t think intentionally ‘this is the mood

I am planning to capture’ or ‘this is the

sitter’s psychology, which I need to express

in my painting’. It happens very naturally

with the sitter in front of you. If we capture

a likeness it is hard to avoid the character

and expression. And an expression is even

subtler than a likeness – a small brushstroke

to the left or right can change an expression.

In essence, it is all about the placement of

shapes, but this placement is in its minutiae

when we are dealing with expressions.

l Older people are often easier to paint, as

their faces are more expressive, having the

lines of time. When I was little I used to

sit with my eyes scrunched up, as I really

wanted smiling wrinkles. I definitely have

these in abundance, along with all the

other wrinkles age has offered me.

The reason we love painting portraits

is because of the subtleties and the

psychology and stories that we read into

works of art. It isn’t like still-life painting or

landscape, which has a much larger room

for error and therefore gives us much

more freedom with paint handling. As

Sargent told Lady Radnor ‘Ask me to paint

your gates, your fences, your barns, which

I should gladly do, but not the human

face’.

HERE ARE MY TIPS FOR PAINTING THE SMALLER SHAPES

I often sketch and doodle in my

sketchbooks. I am frequently trying

portraits out, working out how much

information I need to put on a piece

of paper before it is recognisable as a

portrait. Is it the oval of the head; is it

five lines indicating the eyes, nose, and

mouth; or is it the five essential darks: the

two eye masses, the shadow shape under

the base of nose, the upper lip and the

shadow shape under the lower lip – the

five underplanes of the portrait? With these

drawing exercises I am not trying to get

a likeness, I am seeing if it is the eyes, the

TOP TO BOT TOM:

Eyebrows

I have omitted the mouth but changed the shape of the

eyebrows. The mouth will help with the expression, but we

can say so much with just the eyebrow line.

Upper Lip

In the second line I have left the eyes but changed the shape

and placement of the upper lip. It is amazing how we can

leave the eye neutral and yet the mouth can change the

mood so much.

Nose

In the third line I have changed the shape of the base of

nose. I feel the nose is really just the character. It doesn’t

help with the expression, like the mouth or eyebrows.

Mass as opposed to line

In the fourth line I have had fun with mass and tried to see

if this helps clarify the expression further. We always want

to move into mass and colour as this helps the painting and

mood, but I do find it amazing just how much we can convey

at the very start. Even at the initial stage of lines, before we

have contemplated mass, values or colour, we can already

describe so much of the expression.

In this page in my sketchbook, I have

worked from my imagination to see

what it is that really changes the

expression.

EXERCISE: DRAW SIMPLE EXPRESSIONS

nose or the mouth that can guide.

Do some drawings in your sketchbook,

simple ones, which don’t describe a specific

person, but change their expression. Just

from your imagination create a little portrait

and see how easily the expression can be

changed.

Experiment with expressions, pencil on Strathmore toned paper,

143 11in (35.5 3 28cm)