Qualities. - There are other great qualities also which you can get in a portrait. All the
qualities of color and tone, of course. But the simplicity of a single figure does not
preclude the qualities of line and mass. The great things to be done with composition
may as well be done in portrait as elsewhere. If you would see what may be done with a
single figure, study the Portrait of his Mother, by Whistler. You could not have a better
example. It is one of the greatest portraits of the world. Notice the character which is
shown in every line and plane in the figure. The very pose speaks of the individuality.
Notice the grace and repose of line, and the relations of mass to mass and space - the
proportion. See how quiet it is and simple, yet how just and true. Of the color you cannot
judge in a black and white, but you can see the relations of tones, the values and the
drawing. It is these things which make a picture; not only a portrait, but a great work of
art as well.
Drawing. - Good work in portraiture depends on good drawing, just as other work
does. Don’t think that because it is only a head you can make it more easily than
anything else. As in other kinds of work, the drawing you should try for is the drawing of
the proportions and characteristic lines. Get the masses and the more important planes,
and don’t try for details. You can get these afterwards, or leave them out altogether, and
they will not be missed if your work has been well done.
Don’t undertake too much in your work. Make up your mind how much you can do
well, and don’t be too ambitious; the best painters who ever lived have been content to
work on a head and shoulders, and have made masterpieces of such paintings. You may
be content also. See how little Velasquez could make a picture of! And notice also the
placing of the head, and the simplicity of mass, and of light and shade.
Painting. - Of course you can help your color with glazing and scumbling, but work
for simplicity first. It is not necessary to use all sorts of processes; you can get fine
results and admirable training from portrait studies, and the more directly you do it, the
better the training will be.
Study the Portrait of Himself, by Albrecht Durer. You will find no affectation here; the
most simple and direct brush-work only. You will not be able to do this sort of thing, but
that is no reason why you should not try for it. It will depend on the brush-stroke. It
implies a precision of eye as well as a hand. It means drawing quite as much as painting,
- drawing in the painting. You will not get this great precision; nevertheless, try for it,
and get as near it as you can. Don’t try for too much cleverness; be content with good
sincere study, and the most direct expression of planes that you can give.
Let your brush follow lines of structure. Don’t lay on paint across a cheek, for instance.
Notice the direction of the muscle fibre. It is the line of contraction of the muscle which
give the anatomical structure to a face. If your brush follows those, you will find that it
takes the most natural course of direction.
Do the same with planes of the body and of the clothing. Note the lines of action, and
the brush-stroke will naturally follow them.
See that the whole form, and particularly the head, ‘constructs’. The head is round,
more or less; it is not flat. The planes of it cross the plane of canvas, recede from it, cross
behind, and return. This is all directions. You must make your painting express this. It is
not enough that there be features, the features must be part of a whole which is
surrounded, behind as well as in front, by the atmosphere. The hair is not just hair, it is