Over the last three years Kerri and I have been studying the art of the oil painted portrait. Let me explain the process of how we create the, "Art of the Oil Portrait".
1. The first step in the creation is to capture the guide print. Many oil painters start with a guide print (a snapshot or photograph). That is where we start as well. The creation of the guide print is very important. We may take many different exposures of every area of the subject or subjects in order to capture the best look of every aspect of the portrait. All of these images will then be carefully composited together in an editing program to create the best overall guide print.
2. Next we take the guide print into a painter program. Many people do not realize that an electronic painter program works the same way as a traditional painter. The only difference is that we use a stylus and a tablet to create the brush strokes. Depending on the angle, the pressure, the direction, and the amount of paint used, all of these strokes are recorded in the program awaiting the final output onto the canvas. This is then referred to as a Giclee' print. The exciting part about this process is that we can output these brush strokes on many different mediums. Canvas, Watercolor, Canson, and many others depending on the final look and feel that we are trying to achieve.
3. Now that we have our intermediate print created, we are now ready for the final step, the addition of the oils. Canvas is our medium of choice because it accepts the oils in a very bright and realistic way. The final size of the art print was determined when the giclee' print was printed. Now with acrylic oils and brushes we enhance, intensify, and build up the textures of the previous brush strokes created in step 2. The creation of the final painted portrait, depending on the desired size, is not a fast process.
Some additional information is necessary to understand how important the first step is in this final creation. The composition, design, subject clothing choices, expression, and overall portrait theme are all very important. Even more important is the visualization of where the final portrait will be displayed. The size and dimension of the final piece must be determined from the start. The height and width of a fine art print has to be determined by the subject matter. It is very unfair to decide the size of a final artpiece without knowing what the final image will be. IT IS VERY DIFFICULT AND MOST TIMES A POOR CHOICE TO DECIDE TO MAKE ALL YOUR CREATIONS IN ONE SIZE, LIKE SQUARE FOR INSTANCE.
