Portrait of Anna

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Portrait of Anna. 2nd Classical Oil Paintings Video Workshop

| Contents | Drawing | Imprimatura | 1st Umber | 2nd Umber | 3rd Umber | 1st Dead | 2nd Dead | 1st Color
| 2nd Color | Finishing | Discount |
Contents
In this video workshop, we'll talk about paining a female portrait using the Flemish technique, a method
known as the seven-layer painting. Its main features include the following stages:
White priming with subsequent ink drawing;
Imprimatura, the selection of the medium tonality of the lightest spot in the painting.
The next stage is the Umbra Underlayer, made by burned umbra, whose main property is that it does not
get lighter in time. This quality of burnt umbra guarantees the tonal stability of your painting throughout
centuries. Besides, it accelerates drying.
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The next layer is the Dead Underlayer, required for the final completion of tonality and for the
preparation of the surface for color layers. The Dead Underlayer is particularly important in painting a
portrait, as it helps to depict the complicated colors of the human complexion.
Next come the color layers. The skillful combination of the dead underlayer and the color layers can help
you achieve the miraculous effect of the Old Masters.
And, finally, the finishing layers, whose function is to complete the texture characteristics of the painting.
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Drawing
Before the Imprimatura layer is made, the pencil drawing must be outlined in ink. We use pen and ink,
first, to verify the correctness of our drawing. Secondly, the oil layers will wash away the pencil drawing,
but the ink outline will be visible through the first several layers, helping us in our work.
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Imprimatura
The first oil layer is the imprimatura. Let's treat our chalk priming with refined linseed oil. This provides
a better cohesion of the primed canvas with the subsequent color layers.
Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Lamp black, Prussian Blue, and Burnt umbra are the paints used to make the
imprimatura mixture. We also use a varnish mixture, consisting of 8 parts of turpentine and 2 parts of
Damar Crystals. The imprimatura mixture must have an olive hue.
Having wiped away the remains of linseed oil from the canvas, we apply the imprimature mixture with a
coarse bristle brush, rubbing the mixture into the primed surface. After that, we use a fluffy squirrel
brush to eliminate uneven areas. The priming that has absorbed the oil and the varnish of the imprimatura
mixture has better cohesion of the following color layers and the canvas.
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1st Umber Underlayer

It takes seven days for the imprimatura layer to dry well, and we begin preparing the canvas for the
Shadow or Umbra underlayer. We oil the surface and scrape it with a razor blade to remove dust and
some bush hair that may have stuck to the surface. According to our scale, the imprimatura layer has
tonality four.
The canvas will remain wet for one day, that is why you should begin with the most important details of
your painting. By the end of the day, wipe the unpainted areas of the canvas well with a piece of dry
cloth, trying to remove excessive oil. On the next day, oil the dry areas locally. Work with the umber the
way you would use water colors, that is keeping in mind its transparency.
In the first umber underlayer, you need to pay special attention to the construction of the details. The
general work on the tonality should be left for the second umber underlayer.
Let us now define a few terms that we are going to use during the entire workshop. The painting brush. It
is a kolinsky brush used to apply paint to the canvas. The correcting brush. It is a dry kolinsky brush used
to correct the paint layer. The generalizing fluffy squirrel brush is used for the final smoothing out of
uneven places on the surface. Please note the brave and confident movements of the painting brush. The
correcting brush, on the contrary, is used with carefulness and precision, whereas the large fluffy
generalizing brush is applied briskly, almost invisibly touching the canvas.
In this layer, we are defining the location and the outline of main shadows. That is why, having made
sure that the shadows are located correctly and are not too dark, we go on filling in the empty spaces. The
hair will be soft and fluffy, but, nevertheless, don't forget about its construction. At this stage, be careful
with opaque strokes. However, if they do occur, don't worry: they can be easily fixed with the correcting
and later with the generalizing brush.
The anatomy of the human face can be discussed and studied endlessly. My only comment now would be
that if you make a mistake in the anatomy at this stage, it will be very difficult to improve in the
following stages. Be very careful, therefore, with bones and muscles. Jean August Dominic Engre, a
famous artist and teacher of the 19th century, said that the drawing includes everything except the color.
All our preparatory layers are in essence a drawing. It means that the most important work on the portrait
is being done now, and the color layers will only add some embellishment to the portrait.
I can't help mentioning a special attitude to the contour of the face. On the one hand, it must be distinct
and correct, on the other, the fluff and the air perspective make it necessary to soften the contour.
After you have finished this layer, let it dry. Depending on the climate you live in, you can put it aside
and do other things from one to four weeks while the layer is drying. It is not recommended to accelerate
drying artificially. To accelerate hardening of oil paints, the Old Masters placed their paintings in the sun.
Now, some advice to a portrait artist wishing to become more successful. Pay more attention to physical
likeness. Don't worry about penetrating into the model's soul. If you achieve good physical likeness, your
critics will appreciate that. Try to find and accentuate the most beautiful features of your model.
Remember, the most pleasing thing, particularly for a woman, is her reflection in the mirror. Try to make
her portrait even more pleasing to look at.
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2nd Umber underlayer

Our canvas was drying for three weeks. We begin the next layer with the routine preparation, carefully
removing excessive oil. This process must be carried out before you begin every subsequent layer. In
classical painting, each layer must be made in such a way as to cause the viewer's admiration. This,
perhaps, contributed immensely to the Flemish Masters' success. Nevertheless, no one can be sure to
avoid mistakes in some layers. It is the multilayer technique and the duration of the painting process that
allow us to successfully eliminate errors.
The goal of the Umber layer is to correct the construction of the details, which we'll be doing in the next
layers too. The second objective is to achieve the necessary darkness of the tonality. In other words, the
goal is to correct the work done so far, and to prepare the painting for the next stages.
We need to find the tonality of all surfaces in that layer as precisely as possible, because in the next dead
underlayer, we should rely on this layer as if on a tonal scale. The high lights that you can see in the
pupils, on the nose and on the cheeks, will be overpainted in the next layer. I leave them for one purpose
only: in order not to lose as long as possible my emotional attitude to the model.
Engre said, "The beginning should have in itself its end". Each stage should be performed in such a way
so that you can present your work to the public's judgement at any time. At every moment there should
be likeness approaching perfection by the end of each stage. Scrutinize your work from a distance as
frequently as possible, turn the painting upside down, look at it in the mirror, or just ask your family's
opinion about it. This always helps refresh your vision.
Sometimes, particularly when you start with a very light imprimatura, as we did in this portrait, two
umber underlayers are not enough. Because while working on the details, we may fail to notice the
intensification of tonality that can destroy the details that we have already worked on. That is why,
sometimes, working on a portrait you need to make several umber underlayers. For example, I am now
tempted to darken the light parts of the chin and the lips with a large brush, but because the details are
wet, I am unable to do so, and obviously, I will have to make the third umber underlayer. Let's condense
the tonality where possible, and put the painting off till the next umber session.
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3rd Umber underlayer

A week has passed. We begin the third umber underlayer, oiling and scraping the canvas surface. Use
your favorite thinnest brushes to work on details.
This old heavy graphite holder does not have anything to do with the Old Masters' secrets. I just think
that a heavy brush is better controlled. If we compare a classical painting with a symphony, then I'd say
that this work in umber (or shadow) layer is associated for me with the bass line, the deepest, velvety
bass, because the main goal of this stage is to develop shadows.
The Old Masters, in their maturity, painted the umber underlayer in such a way that they didn't have to
overpaint it. Good examples of that are small still lives by Jan van Huysum and small oil sketches by
Rubens. I'd like to attract your attention to the way we create the effect of highlighting the face with a
beam of light in the dark space. In order to make the face lighter in relation to the rest of the painting, all
other objects should be placed in the shadow. In our case, the white blouse takes too much attention. To
avoid that, we throw some shadow on it.
Speaking about the brushes, I forgot to mention the eraser. Instead of the eraser, you can use your finger.
Also, please note that the palette is white. When making the imprimatura and the umber in the
transparent layers on the light priming, dark palettes are not recommended as they do not explicate the
degree of transparency of your mixtures. And on the contrary, in the subsequent color layers, when you
start working with light paints, a dark wood palette is preferable.
Thus, the required tonality has been achieved, and we are ready to continue our work. The painting must
be dried well before you begin the dead underlayer so that the umber underlayers do not dissolve from
possible wiping and correcting of the dead underlayer.
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1st Dead Underlayer
The lightest tonality is the third, it is a step higher that the tonality of the imprimatura, next tonality is the
one between 5 and 6, then couple tonalities (warmer and colder) in 12 and finally the 2 darkest ones in
areas 18 and 19.
I make my first few mixtures beforehand. The mixtures are based on Flake white with some light ochre,
burnt umbra and Prussian blue. The work in the dead underlayer must be carried out almost tone to tone
with the umber underlayer, perhaps in the light areas - a bit higher in tonality, but in the shadows - a bit
lower.
However, in half tones we should try to stick to the underlayer tone. Successful work in the umber
underlayer allows us to somewhat relax in terms of the search of the form and likeness and concentrate
on the technique, that is on the routine process.
I think that the most complicated genre in painting is the portrait, the female portrait. Still more
complicated is the portrait of a beautiful young woman. Nevertheless, don't be shy to depict her wrinkles
and other imperfections. They will be not very noticeable after you work on them with the correcting and
with the generalizing brushes, but they will contribute to the effect of likeness.
A little remark about the eyebrows. Paint only the shadows of the eyebrow hair, don't paint the hair itself.
One of the goals of the dead underlayer is to get a sufficient amount of paint in the light. The closer to the
light, the thicker the paint layer is, the closer to the shadow, the thinner it is. The task of constructing and
perfecting the details should always be kept in mind until we reach the finishing layers.
As I promised, the pupils are painted with the darkest mixture on the palette. The eyelashes are also
painted with the darkest paint. On the iris, there is a shadow from the eyelids and the eyelashes. The
construction of the iris can be represented by a circle covered with lines going from the outer edge of the
circle to the center. The symmetrical eyes lie on the cylindrical shape of the face, that is why at the
slightest turn of the head they no longer look symmetrical. After a good blending, it is advisable to work
on the eyes again with the same color mixture in order to achieve a greater paste deposit. After that,
blend again with your fluffiest brush.
Depending on the quantity of oil absorbed by the dry surface and the temperature conditions in which
you work, the fresh paint layer may harden and lose mobility during one work day. That is why
sometimes you need to blend the area that has been just painted, sometimes you can blend all painted
areas at the end of the work day. If the most complicated genre of painting is the portrait, then the most
complicated element of the portrait is the eyes. We should always remember about the anatomy, about
the eyeball, about the shape of the eyes, their angle, proportions, the distance between the eyes, the size
of the iris, the diameter of the pupil, and their correlation, the size of the high light determining the
shining of the eyes, and, finally, the color of the eyes, that can only be seen correctly by their owner.
The use of the correcting brush takes the longest time in the entire process. Be sure that your correcting
and the generalizing brushes are always clean, wipe it with a flannel cloth or a dry napkin. While
working, you can wash your brush in the paint thinner. Wipe the brush well; the paint thinner evaporates
quickly and you can use the brush again. At the end of the day, after you have finished your work, I
strongly recommend that you wash the brushes in hot water with some dish liquid, shaping to a point the
wet painting brushes and fluffing the blending brushes.
Don't forget about the softening of the contour of the portrait. Be very careful with the contour: its curves
determine the likeness in the greatest degree.
I am often asked why we need the dead underlayer, why can't we do with the shadow underlayer and then
with a few color layers. As an artist using the multilayer method, I can only say this: the paintings that I
have seen in the museums, as well as my own paintings in the Flemish technique that includes the white
priming, the umber underlayer, the dead underlayer, the color layers, look better than others, they are
better preserved, too. Besides, the optical effect of mixed colors, the transparency of layers causes the
illusion of the pearly nature that I am unable to express in words, it can only be seen in the museum, if,
for example, you place a painting by a Flemish master next to a painting by a realistic artist of the end of
the 19th century. Comparing the two will bring the understanding of the pearly illusion I am talking about.
Please, note that, the dead underlayer is very fresh now, but, nevertheless, it doesn't hide the umber
underlayer. The umber is seen through it, and even now creates a fantastic effect. Even now, before you
come to the next layer, you can see that the dead underlayer sort of went down, became more transparent,
particularly in thinly painted places. The following layers work in the same way, each of them includes
the preceding layer as an additional brush. It is difficult for me to explain the reasons of the genius who
invented the dead underlayer. I think, however, that the dead underlayer was invented to better depict the
color of the human skin.
As you know, the human skin is semitransparent, almost translucent. Under the skin, there is
pigmentation. Depending on the amount of time the person is exposed to the sun, it becomes lighter or
darker. Let's now remember some childhood experiences. When you fell and scratched off the skin on
your knees, the first thing you noticed to your horror, was the gray color under the skin. And only after a
while drops of red blood would appear. The nature of the human skin is very complicated and its
representation on the canvas must differ from the representation of the pink Barbie doll surface. When
visiting museums, try to learn to see the technical aspect of painting. Most of the Old Masters' paintings
are so perfect that it is not a very easy task. That is why, however paradoxical it may sound, look for
unfinished pieces, or for paintings by not so skillful artists. These works reveal the technique best of all.
Everyone can admire a painting, but to see the dead underlayer is more difficult.
Before visiting a museum, you need to do your homework. On pieces of cardboard, small enough to fit
your pocket, paint the details that interest you, and having come to the museum, compare your work with
the original. You can also find technical descriptions made by artists themselves, for example, The
Treatise on Painting by Leonardo da Vinci. But a better object of study is paintings themselves. Only the
analytical copying of paintings can help us all regenerate the lost classical painting school.
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2nd Dead underlayer

The second dead underlayer would not be necessary in a still life or a landscape. However, in a portrait, I
recommend making the second dead underlayer in order to increase the thickness of the color layer in
light places, and, of course, in order to continue work on the details and likeness.
If there remains some oil on the hardened layer surface, the cohesion of the newly applied oil is worse.
One of the ways to improve cohesion is to warm the canvas by rubbing it with your hand.
Your lightest mixture is the same as in the previous stage. It only looks lighter because in the previous
layer, blending has softened the difference between the neighboring layers. Besides, after drying the
canvas for a month in the open sun, the first dead underlayer has become much more transparent and we
are now able to see more of the umber underlayer.
The typical mistakes of beginning artists working in this technique during blending, that is when using
the correcting and the generalizing brushes, are the following: first, excessive pressure on the brush,
second, thoughtless mechanical movements, third, not wiping the brush between light and dark pigments.
A few words about the types of dead mixtures. The tonality and the hue of the mixture depends on whose
portrait you are going to paint. If it is a portrait of a child, the mixture must be the lightest and the
coldest. It has a somewhat ultramarine hue, but no ultrmarine is added, of course. If you are painting a
portrait of a youth or a girl, the tonality is neutrally blue. The portrait of a mature woman of 30-35 years
of age requires a sky blue warm hue. The bristle and the suntan of an experienced man require more
green nuances. In a word, the thicker and more suntanned the skin is, the darker and greener the dead
underlayer is. The skin colors are brighter and more opaque, the lighter and more transparent the skin is,
the lighter and colder the blue hue of the dead underlayer is. The color layers should be made thinner
and paler, leaving more uncovered dead underlayer areas. Naturally, all that blueishness and greenishness
is achieved with the same paints, by means of the balance between red ochre, Prussian blue, burnt umbra,
Ivory black and Flake white. In the skin layers, to your dead mixtures used in the portrait, you need to
add Cadmium Yellow Medium, Chinese Vermilion Extra and Permanent Madder Deep (Krapplack).
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1st Color Underlayer

Having removed dust and oiled the canvas, we begin work.
I think that the position of paints on the palette is a matter of taste. Flake White, Cadmium Yellow
Medium, Yellow Ochre, Chinese Vermilion Extra, Flash Ochre, Burnt Umbra, our gray mixtures that we
used in the dead underlayer, Ivory Black, Permanent Madder Deep, Prussian blue,
7 parts of turpentine and 3 parts of damar. The amount of damar relative to turpentine increases in the
finishing layers.
The main component of color mixtures is the gray paint used in the dead underlayer, with a little of
Chinese Vermilion Extra, Yellow Ochre, perhaps a little Cadmium Yellow Medium, and burnt umbra in
the shadows, and sometimes Permanent Madder Deep. Thus, we are trying to leave as much dead
underlayer open as possible, particularly in half-shadows.
In the lightest areas we must achieve the thickest paint layer, and in the next tonal step down towards the
haf-tone, the paint layer must be much thinner, almost transparent. I must warn you: if you make a thick
paint layer on the light forehead, try to avoid dragging this thick layer all over the face when correcting
and shading.
In connection with that I would like to repeat again: the painting brush is used to apply the necessary
amount of paint, the correcting brush is used as a palette knife of a sculptor: it distributes paint on the
canvas in areas of different thickness and removes excessive paint. The fluffiest generalizing brush,
touching the painted surface with the very tips of its hairs, by no means reaching the dry layer,
smoothens the external texture of the fresh paint.
If you feel that you have made a mistake in applying paint, or if you used the paint of the wrong tonality,
or if you would like to have more gray in a certain area, stop your work and do it again. With a clean
cloth wrapped on your finger, remove the fresh paint. The advantage of working in the multiplayer
technique is that it can be compared to work on the computer. Drying a layer is like saving a file. When
you resume work, if something goes wrong, you can delete the fresh paint and go back to the saved
image; having oiled the surface, you can start the stage you are working on afresh
In general, if you are learning the classical painting technique, you should understand that in this school,
the craftsmanship, the ability to work with materials, the knowledge of methods and recipes are of utmost
importance. The most important, perhaps, is the ability to believe in these rules without questioning, your
thinking must be directed at studying rather than at analyzing, you will need your analytical ability later,
after we have studied all the Old Masters advice contained in books.
However, lets go back to our portrait. Using light ochre, burnt umbra and the gray mixture lets make
the iris warm, light green. At this, lets not overpaint the gray underlayer but only hint at this color. Also,
using Prussian blue and the light gray, lets make the whites somewhat bluish, leaving as much gray
underlayer unpainted as possible.
Lets not forget the shadow from the upper eyelid and the eyelashes in the upper part of the whites. The
bluishness of the whites is indicative of good health. The more tired or old the eyes are the more blood
vessels are found there, they kill the bluishness and make the whites warmer, somewhat reddish.
Why does the persons excitement reddens the persons nose, ears, and cheeks? This happens, perhaps,
because the blood vessels are close to the surface of the skin, consequently, from a distance, it seems that
the skin changes its color in general.
The human body has a number of parts that artists dislike to paint. For example, bare feet. They,
however, can be hidden in grass. Ears are also a very complicated object, but they can be hidden in the
hair or under a hat. Hands can be hidden in the pockets or behind the back. The nose is the most
complicated detail, there is no way for us to hide it. The most sarcastic jokes concerning portraits are
related to the nose. That is why if we are not certain in the way we portray the nose or any other parts of
the body, we must take a pencil and paper and by tireless practicing in drawing self-portraits turn our
disadvantage into our strong point.
Lets now talk about the color of the lips. I want to warn you against mistakes made by many beginners:
dont make lips covered with lipstick. Using about the same mixture that is used for the nose, with some
Chinese Vermilion Extra in it, leaving as much unpainted dead underlayer as possible, we can achieve
the maximum possible redness of the lips.
The lips are more like the mucous membrane than the skin, but because the lips are outside and are
subject to the influence of the sun and the wind, the thin glossy surface wrinkles, forming a wavy relief.
We should distinguish the pinkness caused by the thinness and transparency of the skin, in this case the
color comes from under the skin, its the color of the blood, and the pinkness resulting from the color of
the suntan. The latter is a kind of external coloring resulting from the change of the pigmentation of the
skin caused by the sunbeams. In the latter case the redness gets somewhat orangish. A little practical
advice: try to avoid depicting the suntan, even if your model spends all the time in southern beaches. If
you make the models skin pale and transparent, she will be only grateful to you. The suntanned skin is
beautiful in real life, in the portrait it doesnt look very well.
Thus, the high color of the cheeks is partly the natural pinkness of the body, partly the suntan, and partly
it is the warm shadow under the cheekbone. In the old times, in order to achieve the natural pinkness of
the cheeks, many women rubbed them with pumice stone. Dont hesitate to show more rouge in the
portrait, it looks good. The main thing is to find the correct shape of the rouge area. Dont try to find its
shape in your model. Look at the most famous female portraits of the 16-17th centuries. I want to warn
you, dont make the rouge too close to the nose, the pinkness around the nose indicates that the person
has a cold.
Lets not forget that the cheek is disappearing in the perspective, dissolving in the contour of the face.
From layer to layer, we work on that contour and do everything lest it should look cut off.
We are not very lucky: the ear is not hidden in the hair. The good news is though that it is in the shadow.
Lets make it hot, in accordance with the shadow tonality.
As far as the neck is concerned, I can say the following, the amount of sunshine falling on the neck is the
smallest, thats why it is the least suntanned part, especially, under the chin. The suntan is seen, in a
small degree, only on the collarbones.
Lets now work on the lights that are almost dead and lighten them by somewhat warming the shadows.
As you may have noticed, this method differs from the realistic dogmas. The classical painting lives by
its own laws. In the realistic school, it is the accepted norm to depict what the artist sees as close to the
model as possible. In the classical painting we have the firm laws of the method. Plainly speaking, the
classical technique is more conservative and is based on craftsmanship, knowledge and skill to a much
greater extent. Thanks to that, it is characterized by a greater learnability than the realistic method. The
success of the realist artist depends largely on how well his or her name has been publicized and on the
gallery that helps the artist. A classical painting, on the other hand, does not need much publicity, it does
not depend very much on the name of the author. If a painting is made according to the craftsmanship
laws of the Old Masters, its success is guaranteed by the centuries-long quality test.
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2nd Color Underlayer

We rub the surface with a half of an onion, as during the three months the painting has overdried. The
onion essential oils destroy the microfilm of the surface and ensure good cohesion with oil paints.
Then, we scrape off the dust and wipe the surface to remove excessive oil.
In this layer, we are going to use the same palette as in the previous layer.
This color layer will be thicker than all the previous layers, that is why we need to make a sufficient
amount of mixtures. The lightest mixture, let's call it the forehead mixture, will be used in the lightest
parts of the face. Another mixture, with some Chinese Vermilion Extra in it, will be used as rouge for
light parts of the cheeks and nose. And we'll need another mixture, a warm dark one, to be added to
shadows. When making this mixture, we also add some Chinese Vermilion Extra.
The goal of this layer is to give the final characteristics of the color, to achieve the necessary amount of
paint in the lights, and in the maximum degree to complete the nuances of the shadows.
The painted area is smaller in this layer in comparison with the previous one, we are not working on the
highlights yet, but on the lightest parts of the light areas. As far as the shadow parts are concerned, like in
the previous layers, the paint layer should be made as thin as possible.
About the half tones I can say only this: they should have been finished in the previous layers. However,
if in this layer you haven't worked well enough on the color characteristics, you can, without destroying
the main coldness of the half tone, add some color strokes, with subsequent blending, of course.
We are now preparing the eye for completion in the most careful way. Remember, that two bright high
lights on the eyes will make them complete. Now try the eyebrows, but it is better to leave them fluffy
and not concrete.
Let me remind you that the reflection is warmer than the light, and the shadow on the side of the
reflection is warmer than the one on the side of the half shadow. Be careful with the pinkness of the nose:
a little more red, and the nose may look clownish.
Also, please keep in mind that blending, that is correcting and generalizing, weakens the intensity of the
color, making the applied layer more transparent. Besides, if you dry your painting in the sun, which is
very good for the multilayer painting, the effect is the same. The upper layers loose the intensity of color
because of the sunbeams, and the pigmentation of the layer reaches its most lightfast condition.
Let me again remind you of the main principle of making layers: make each next layer a half tone lighter
and more colorful than the previous layer in light areas, and in the shadow make each layer darker and
more colorful than the previous layer. The lightest parts of the face are where the high lights are located.
As you see, some color work is repeated practically tone to tone, reducing the painted area and increasing
the color intensity. Please note that the shadow on the cheek's high color is much hotter than the shadow
of the cheekbone itself.
You can now see how we blend several different areas. The correcting brush is used briskly and
carefully, as if examining the situation before actually touching the canvas, in order not to spoil the main
idea of the mixtures' location. Only after we make sure that the mixtures are distributed correctly, we
blend everything very gently with the generalizing brush to achieve the desired valeur.
What does valeur mean? It is a French term used by artists to denote a combination of characteristics of
the locally treated surface. In other words, it denotes the color, tone and texture chosen by the author in
order to depict an element of a painted surface. For example, to depict the chin, we use three valeurs,
they are the shadow of the chin itself, its color, and its lightest part. But, if we look at lightest part of the
chin, we can find several valeurs there, too.
The terms I've been using to define certain qualities of the classical painting technique are in a certain
degree conditional. Unfortunately, there doesn't exist a professionally compiled dictionary of artistic
terms. The best we can do is to refer to one or another generally recognized author, or to take the
responsibility of finding a reasonable term ourselves, based on the material we have read and studied, as
well as on our beliefs and knowledge.
It is now time to discuss one more term: the color integrity. It means the adjustment of the intrinsic colors
of objects resulting from the color of the source of light. In the light parts, the color adjustment may
depend on the sunlight coming from the window, the half tone color depends on the dead underlayer, and
the shadow parts should be adjusted in relation to the light coming from the darkness, for example, from
a fireplace or from a candle.
You can now see an attempt to support an element of the color integrity in the cold half-shadow between
the light and the darkness: the cold half-tone spreads all over the portrait. It must also be present in the
background.
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Finifing Leyer
Thus, the main work has been done. Now we need to complete our portrait. We shall place the final
highlights, add some more color at places, and work on the tiniest details. We shall sign the painting and
leave it dry until it is ready to be covered with varnish.
The high light in essence is the depiction of the degree of the reflecting ability of the surface, that is of its
texture. The smaller and brighter the high light is, the glossier the surface is. The larger, softer, and
calmer the high light is, the matter the surface is.
Without doubt, we can say that the glossiest surface is that of the eye, that's why the high lights on it are
as sharp as on a water drop. However, even here the size of the high light means a lot. They say that a
healthy eye has some tear in it, it is a little wet. In order to achieve this, the contour of the high light must
be made as sharp as possible. Give the high light as much texture as possible, make it as high as you can
without increasing its size. We should carefully analyze certain areas of the skin, it is clear that the chin
and the cheeks are the mattest. The second in matteness is the forehead, and the glossiest will be the tip
of the nose. That is why, when you make high lights on the forehead and the cheeks, don't forget to blend
them well, otherwise the skin will look wet.
As we can see, the high light of the eye is very far from the lightest part of the skin. It is made on the
basis of Flake White with some Yellow Cadmium Medium and Chinese Vermilion Extra. To avoid that
mixture being too bright on the skin, it is made duller with burnt umbra.
This method is believed to have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci and is called "sfumato". The goal is
to eliminate contours where possible, we blend them to disappear in the air perspective. In general, it is
very difficult to learn something from Leonardo da Vinci because his technique is flawlessly perfect, and
as a result, unobservable. His numerous treatises on painting and philosophy can only inspire art
theoreticians.
There are two main requirements to the portrait. First, the portrait must be a precise depiction of the
model's face, second, the portrait must be an object of art itself. In order to be a successful portraitist, one
must learn the canonical proportions, especially the details of the face, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair;
to understand the construction of the human skull, to learn to depict facial expressions, deformations due
to age, and the difference between the male and the female face. You should constantly practice in
sketching portraits, body positions, facial expressions, practice in painting parts of the face, for example,
the nose and the eyes at different angles. And only after you have mastered all these foundations, begin
copying the Old masters' painting, preferably, their originals in the museums, or, in the worst case, very
good reproductions.
When painting the details of the hair, don't try to paint every single hair, or a single hair as a whole. Hair
is a very delicate object, it dissolves in the space and from a distance we can see not the hair itself but
some of its high lights and shadows.
Experiment, search for the direction of the curl, make a series of sharp high lights, just outlining the
character and the structure of the curl. The most frequent mistake of the beginners is the desire to paint
every single hair, every curl, which creates a wiry effect, making it look unnatural. Hair must remain
fluffy, mixing into the background.
Thus, we are coming to the completion of our portrait. I will briefly remind you of all the stages:
The pencil drawing is outlined in ink; the next stage is the imprimatura, that is the selection of the middle
tone of the lightest area, in our case, of the face. After the imprimatura has dried, several umbra
underlayers are made. Umbra is in essence a tonal drawing.

The dead underlayers come next. Their purpose is to complete the tonality and to achieve the necessary
thickness in the light areas. The dead underlayers have the valeurs of half tones and the valeurs of cold
nuances of the color layers.
After the dead layer, there comes a couple of flesh-color layers, that bring the color characteristics to the
portrait.
We finish the portrait with one, and sometimes with two texture layers, that define the color and the size
of the high lights. We work on the tiniest details and the characteristics of the surfaces.
After six months of drying, the painting is covered with vanish. The proportion of the damar varnish for
covering is two parts of turpentine and one part of dry damar, or the ready-made damar varnish sold at art
supplies stores.
I wish you success in your work at mastering your painting technique!
| Contents | Drawing | Imprimatura | 1st Umber | 2nd Umber | 3rd Umber | 1st Dead | 2nd Dead | 1st Color
| 2nd Color | Finishing | Discount |
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Alexei Antonov
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Portrait of Anna. 2nd Classical Oil Paintings Video Workshop

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1st Umber Underlayer

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2nd Umber underlayer

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3rd Umber underlayer

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1st Dead Underlayer

on the technique, that is on the routine process.

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2nd Dead underlayer

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1st Color Underlayer

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2nd Color Underlayer

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underlayers are made. Umbra is in essence a tonal drawing.

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