The Painter in oil

Portraits Good Training. - I would not have you undertake to paint a portrait rashly.
You should know what you are to expect. If you are not pretty sure of your drawing, and
of the first principles of seeing color in nature, and of representing it on canvas, you are
likely to get discouraged. Particularly if a friend poses for you, you may expect
disappointment on both sides. Drawing a head from the life is a very different thing from
drawing an inanimate object which will stay in one position as ling as you can pay the
rent. So in the painting of it, too, the color itself is alive. Flesh is something very elusive
to see the color of. And when you find that just as you begin to get things well under way,
or are in a particularly tight place, just at that moment your model must rest, you must
stop while the position is changed and gotten back to again; then you will begin to realize
that “la nature ne s’arrête pas.”
I would have you know all this, I say, before you begin on your first portrait; but,
nevertheless if you can get a start at it you will find it extremely good practice. The very
difficulties bring more definitely to you the real problems of painting. The fact that it is
really the representation of something which has life has an interest quite of its own. The
constant change of position on the part of the model will make you more observant, and
less regardful of details; or if you do regard the details, and forget the other things.
It will show you how inadequate those details are to real expression, unless there is
something larger to place them on.
Don’t undertake the painting of a head without considering well that you are likely to
have trouble, and that the trouble you will have most likely to be of a kind that you don’t
expect. But, having begun, keep your head and your grit, and do the best you can.
Remember that you learn by mistakes, and failures are a part of every man’s work, and
of every painter’s experience, and not only of your own.
You will save your self-esteem form considerable bruising if you make it a point never
to let your sitter see your work till you are pretty well over the worst of it. The knowledge
that it is to be seen will make you work less unconsciously, and you will find yourself
trying for likeness, and all that sort of thing, when that is not what you should be
thinking about; and if, after all, the thing is a failure, it is a great consolation to know
that no one but yourself has seen it!
Beginning a Portrait. - The ways of beginning portraits are innumerable. There is
no one right way. Some are right for one painter or subject, and some for others; but
there are some methods which are more advisable for the beginner.
You can begin and carry through your painting entirely with body color, or you can
begin it with frottées, and paint solidly into that. Take these two methods as types and
work in one or the other, according to what are the special qualities you want your work
to have.
If you have never painted a head, and have some knowledge of the use of paint and of
drawing, I would suggest that you make a few studies of the head and shoulders, life size,
in solid color, and on a not too large canvas, say sixteen by twenty inches. This will leave
you no extra space, and you can devote your whole attention to the study of the head,
with only a few inches of background around it. You will probably make the head too
large. A head looks larger than it really is especially when you are putting it on canvas. If
you measure them you will find that few heads will be longer than nine inches from the
top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. Take this as the make the other proportions