For those that know me and have seen some of my work realise that I am a happy amateur. I used to paint a lot many years ago but work and time pressure makes it difficult to organise all the necessary bits and pieces you need to get organised before  even starting to paint in the traditional way. I have tried various well-known computer programs over the years but I’ve never found one that allows me to feel like I’m painting in the same way that I used to.

Last year, however, I found a program that allowed me to paint in oils or acrylics using a pencil or charcoal and a whole host of different techniques. I’ve been slowly learning how to use the software and how to paint in this medium. Just for a bit of fun I thought I would put together this sequence to go through how I paint a portrait and some of the differences I have found from the old school way! There are probably professional artists that will cringe at the way I do things but the point about being a happy amateur is that I can do it how I want!

When it comes to portrait painting I prefer painting women. This is mainly because I think women are beautiful and there is a certain intimacy gained from the subject because as a painter, you are trying to bring out the essence of the character, the inner smile or hidden depth. In short, women interest me; men don’t.

The starting point is the subject. Because I am using an electronic medium I can use a variety of different methods. Photographs are one of them, although one problem of a photograph is that it is a single point in time and therefore harder to bring out the essence of the person, except, I might add, a really good photographer. I doff my cap to those who are able to do this.  A real subject on the other hand is constantly moving and talking so you can get a feel of the inner person much more quickly. As many of my subjects have been friends and family and people I know, that problem has solved either way. Whichever method I use, I still tend to create a portrait in a similar way. So let us start.

As you see below, I start off with a blank canvas and draw a rough outline.

This is just to get a general idea of the face shape and framing.

A few splashes of colour to get me started. Note that there is no background colour. If you did this on canvas you would put a wash on the background and then build it up in layers. One advantage of the computer is that you can create separate layers electronically, you will see this later on.

Just a bit more colour and a bit more detail. At each stage this detail slowly brings the character to life in my own mind and hopefully in the painting too. One other brilliant aspect of doing this with the computer is that you can undo mistakes and retry until you get it correct!

Okay, I am relatively happy with how the face is progressing. It is important for me to get the eyes “alive” at an early stage because it is at that point the person becomes real to me and makes the rest of the drawing easier.

Now I will start with a background. At this stage I very rarely know what I’m going to do but one thing the computer does allow me to do is to play with the background without affecting the portrait in the foreground.

Well, you have to start somewhere!

Notice from this sequence that the background has been reversed. This is something else that the computer can do and I find particularly useful when playing with the light source. Later on, when I introduce a lot more light your notice that I reverse it again to get it right.

I have now introduced a lot more light because I can always add more depth to the portrait and react to the light source. 

Some big changes this time I have cropped the picture to frame it how I feel it should go and started working on the actual portrait again.

Tweaking, tweaking, tweaking some more. Also notice that in the third at the sequence I have reversed the background yet again so that the light source is coming in from the left. Now that I have made their final position how I will paint the rest of the portrait can be determined by that.

Starting to get finer details on the eyes, make up, skin colour. Also, I can be flamboyant with the hair, because I know I can play around to get the colours and flow correct and then shape it later. This is something else I can do more easily on the computer.

Nearly there now. I have now increased the light source to make it pop a lot more, something that is a lot easier on the computer too. The other difference is that you can use mixed techniques, the gloss on the lips was created using an airbrush technique rather than paint. I am of the opinion, if it works  -use it.

And here we have a completed picture.

There you have it. This is not one of my best portraits and the more I look at it the more I would like to redo it. I think I was concentrating on saving the various stages more than a perfect composition. But I think that is always the situation with any creative process that sometimes you have to stop, learn and move on. However, it was fun to do and hopefully it has been fun to read.