# Oil Portrait Painting > Get proportions, skin tones, and likeness right Covers facial proportions, features, mixing skin tones, lighting, and the stages of a portrait painting. Use when painting a face or figure from life or photo. - Page: https://ss33.ai/skills/skillstore33/oil-portrait-painting-41894662686 - Publisher: skillstore33 - Category: [Creative & Media](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01) › [Image & design](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01/image-and-design-nlbt3d) - License: MIT ## Skill SKILL.md: https://ss33.ai/api/v1/ss33/download/skillstore33/oil-portrait-painting-41894662686 # Painting portraits in oil **Rule for using this skill:** These notes add specialist tips on top of your normal answer. Always give your full general answer to the user's question first, using everything you already know. Then work in the tips below where they apply. Do not replace or shorten your general answer with this list, and do not force in tips that are irrelevant. ## Head structure and feature placement - Start with a **center axis** line dividing the right and left sides of the face. It is only in the middle for a frontal view. In a three-quarter view it sits off center. - Feature guidelines run at right angles to the center axis and follow the curve of the skull. They curve up or down when the head tilts. - Adult eyes sit near the halfway point between the top of the head and the chin. A child's features sit lower, and the eyes rise as the child grows. If a drawn child looks too young, raise the eyes. - To get a likeness, look for where the subject's features differ from the average. - Seen from the side, the jaw is lower than the base of the skull and the neck swings forward from the shoulders. From the front, the neck passes in front of the shoulder line. - Head tilted up: you see the undersides of the features, the ears sit very low, the nose bottom is triangular and its top is foreshortened. Head tilted down: more forehead and less chin, no nose underside, the ear sits higher, and the eye shapes change a lot. - In a three-quarter view the far eye, far half of the nose and far half of the mouth differ in shape from the near ones. The far corner of the eye or mouth may disappear. ## Eyes - The eye is part of a ball. Include the crease above the eye and the shadows below and around it. - Avoid an almond outline with a centered round iris. The eye is asymmetrical, and the top lid's arch peaks nearer the nose. The lower lid is a shallower curve. - The upper lid covers about the top third of the iris. The bottom of the iris rests on the lower lid. A smile pushes the lower lids up so they cover the bottom of the iris. - Do not show the full iris except for surprise. An iris looking away from you is an ellipse. In a three-quarter view the iris facing the viewer is a full circle. - Eyes focused close have irises closer together. Eyes focused at a distance have them farther apart. - To place the iris, draw the whites on either side as negative shapes. - Paint eyelashes as a blurred line or tone, never as a fringe of individual hairs. ## Nose - Give the tip a highlight in most lighting. Put the triangular underside in shadow, casting a shadow on the upper lip. - Paint nostrils as shallow arches with shading underneath, not round black holes. Understate them. - Strong side lighting makes the nose easier. Flat full-face "glamour" lighting erases the shadows that give form. In that case add a little of the complement to the sides of the nose to make them recede. ## Mouth and teeth - The top lip slants in and is usually in shadow. The lower lip juts out and catches light. - There is usually a shadow under the middle of the lower lip but not at the sides. Edges can be "lost" where lip and muscle run together. - Never outline the lips and fill them in. Paint the structure with blurred edges. - Smiling stretches the lips thinner and straightens the line between them. The corners push back into the cheeks, which makes a soft shadow. - In an open smile the upper lip overhangs the corners of the lower lip. Draw the bottom edge of the upper lip first, then mark the opening, then the lip widths, then connect to the corners. - Teeth follow an arch and are not a flat row. Leave out or downplay the lines between teeth. There is usually a dark triangle at the mouth corners. - Paint teeth a light warm gray (Burnt Umber + French Ultramarine blue + white), lighter at the center and darker going back. Never paint them pure white, or they look false. - Keep gums and tongue muted and shadowed, using Alizarin Crimson + Burnt Umber + white. The tongue should not be much lighter than the mouth's shadows. Gray the mix with a little Oxide of Chromium if needed. ## Ears and hair - Suggest the ear's lights and darks in as few strokes as possible. Detail there pulls attention from the features. - Paint hair as masses, not individual hairs. Brushstroke direction controls straight versus curly texture. - Paint hair edges into wet background color so they stay soft and don't compete with the face. ## Planes of the head and light - With overhead light, look for lights on the top of the forehead, cheeks, eyelids and nose, above the upper lip, and on the upper chin. - Shadows go around the eye sockets and under the eyes, nose and chin. Halftones may appear under the cheeks. - Moving the light or the head changes all of these. ## Sketching and transferring - Make a detailed sketch the same size as the portrait, or sketch directly on the canvas with Burnt Umber or Raw Umber diluted with paint thinner. Alternatively set the lines with watery Burnt Sienna acrylic. - Dry lines are hard to change, so keep them light. - Order of the sketch: 1. Top of the head and bottom of the chin. 2. The tilt of the center axis. 3. Head width, noting how much falls on each side of the axis. 4. Neck and shoulders. 5. General feature positions. 6. Ears and hair. - Use plumb lines and negative shapes. Let the features guide the face contours by asking how close the face edge is to the eye or mouth corner. - Pencil can show through transparent oil paint. Draw subtle structure lines, such as the curve under the nose tip, very lightly. - Transfer procedure: 1. Enlarge the drawing on a photocopier to fit the canvas. 2. Without graphite paper, rub pencil on the back of the copy. 3. Tape the copy right side up with two masking-tape hinges at the top, so you can lift it to check. 4. With graphite paper, slide it between the copy and the canvas. 5. Trace, lifting the copy to check. 6. Remove the copy, correct any canvas-texture inaccuracies, then erase the lines until they are just visible. 7. Optionally go over the lines with watered-down Burnt Sienna acrylic to make them permanent. - Position the head high on the canvas to give the subject importance. ## Order of work and sessions - Work wet-in-wet on the face, because you are building layers of shadow and light on one area. The paint-along runs three ~3-hour sessions: 1. Transfer and background. 2. Set up the palette and begin the face. 3. Features and hair. - Keep the paint moist on the canvas and palette between sessions. If the face dries, dampen it with medium on a soft brush. It only means a little more work. - Establish the colors surrounding the face before painting it, because they affect its color and value. - Block in shadow shapes (face, hair, clothing, background) with Burnt Sienna, with or without French Ultramarine blue. - Paint the background tone, then a splash of hair color, keeping all edges soft. - Example background: French Ultramarine blue + Thalo Blue + white, painted with a flip-flop stroke in a solid layer that varies light to dark. Extend it slightly into the hair edges. - Example hair base: an earth color, not so dark that shadows can't show. Use Yellow Ochre or Raw Sienna for blonde, Burnt Sienna for auburn. Overlap the background for a soft edge, then soften the edges around the face with a clean brush dampened with medium. ## Mixing skin color - Lighter skin: your chosen red + Yellow Ochre + white. The red can be Cadmium Red Light, Cadmium Red Hue, Alizarin Crimson or Indian Red. - Cadmium Red Hue plus a little Cadmium Yellow Medium approximates Cadmium Red Light. - Darker skin: Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber with white. Warm them with reds and oranges. Cool them with French Ultramarine blue or Thalo Blue, depending on the red-to-yellow proportion. - Mix a **base color** of red + Yellow Ochre. Add white to lighten and the complement to gray. - Check it with white: too pink means add Yellow Ochre, too yellow means add red. - Mix enough base to last the whole portrait and keep it in a covered container. It keeps skin color constant. - **Dark base:** Alizarin Crimson + Raw Sienna. Extend the value bar by blending it with the base, then use it alone, then mix it with Burnt Sienna. - **Shadow rule:** darken the skin to the shadow's value, then gray it with the value-matched complement. - Test with Thalo Blue lightened to a light skin value. If the mix goes greenish, the skin has more yellow than red, so use French Ultramarine blue instead. - To test, pull down wet paint about ½ inch at three points on the value bar with a #2 flat bristle. Place value-matched blue below each, then mix a little in. - Olive skin: add more Yellow Ochre. The complement becomes purple (Alizarin Crimson + French Ultramarine blue + white to match value). - Pink skin: favor the red slightly, perhaps with a touch of Alizarin Crimson. Very fair, reddish skin may need a lightened Thalo Green complement. - Darker skin color bar: Raw Sienna, then Burnt Sienna, then Burnt Sienna + Burnt Umber, then Burnt Umber, then Burnt Umber + French Ultramarine blue. - Add white for lights. Find highlight colors with light blues. - Highlights are more visible on darker skin. Gray them with a touch of blue. - "White" skin is darker than you think. Test the face color on the painting before mixing enough for the whole face. - Broken color is an alternative to blending. Lay a stroke of blue into wet skin for cool light on a cheekbone, and a stroke of warm red for the warm glow where the cheek turns from the light. ## Portrait palette setup - Top center: daubs of Cadmium Red Hue and Yellow Ochre. Cadmium Yellow Medium goes to their left. - Mix a little Cadmium Yellow Medium into the red for a warmer red. - Mix equal amounts of the warm red and Yellow Ochre beneath them for a substantial base color. White goes at the bottom. - Make a vertical value bar with a palette knife. - To the right, put Alizarin Crimson and Raw Sienna, and mix them below as the dark base. Mix a little of each base between them. - Put French Ultramarine blue and Thalo Blue at the left edge. Find the best complement and make a value bar of it beside the skin bar. - Other colors go in small amounts around the edges. - Each portrait may need extra colors. The demonstration added Lemon Yellow Hue and Burnt Umber. - In the demonstration the complement for pink skin was Oxide of Chromium + a touch of Thalo Blue. ## Painting the face, in order 1. **Shadows first.** Mix enough shadow color for all face and neck shadows, slightly darker than it should be. Gray it with a lighter value of the complement. 2. With a #6 flat bristle and a scant load, brush halftone shadow on: - the temples - around the eye sockets - from the outer eye corner to the eyebrow - the side and underside of the nose - the cheekbones - the dip above the upper lip - the edges of the chin and neck - the cast shadow under the nose 3. Clean the brush and sweep the cheekbone paint into a light haze on the lower face. 4. Darker shadows, with a bit more color: - the nose's bottom triangle - the nose's shadow on the upper lip - the face's shadow on the neck - the hair's shadow on the face 5. Use a pointed brush for the eyelid creases and the outer form and holes of the nostrils. Sweep lighter shadow partway into the nostrils. 6. **Middle tone.** Paint the general face color up to, but not into, the shadows. Leave the eyeballs and mouth unpainted. Paint right over the eyebrows. 7. **Blend** top to bottom with a #6 flat bristle. Brush the face color into the shadows, not the shadows into the face. - Take extra care around the eye sockets. - Add reflected light at the base of the nose to separate it from the upper-lip cast shadow. - Blend cheeks out to the face edge and down to the chin. - Sweep the face color into the shadow under the lower lip. 8. **Adjust the shadows.** Stand back at least fifteen feet. Shadows are commonly not dark enough, so darken them with fresh shadow color. - If shadows are too dark, blend fresh face color into them. - Upward-facing shadows are cooler: the upper-lip cast shadow, the temples, the sides of the cheeks and the sides of the nose. Add value-matched blue to these. - Downward-facing shadows, such as under the nose, are warmer. 9. **Warm tones.** Mix the warm red with medium skin color. Add it to the cheekbones and down the nose bridge to the tip, blended subtly into the wet paint. 10. **Highlights.** Use a very light skin value, worked into the wet paint, on: - the top of the forehead - the brow bone - the top of the cheeks - the nose bridge and tip - the upper lip - the top center of the chin - the side of the neck - Paint shadows thinly and lights thickly. - Evaluate and re-evaluate the shadows throughout the painting. ## Painting the eyes - Before the final session make sure all paint is usable. Replace paint that isn't, and remix skin, shadow and complement colors. Also mix a true green (Thalo Green + Cadmium Yellow Medium). - Steps: 1. Paint the "white" with dark and light grays plus a touch of light skin color. Use the same grays for shadows under the upper lashes and where the eye turns from the light, and make them darker than expected. 2. Make the inner-corner pink with white + Alizarin Crimson + Burnt Umber on a pointed brush: a darker pink for the triangle edges, a lighter pink inside. The darker pink can outline the bottom of the white. 3. Draw the outer edge of each iris with Burnt Umber, then fill it with the eye color, painting into that line. 4. Make the iris darker where the upper lid shadows it. - Eye colors: - Blue: add a little Cadmium Red Hue or Burnt Umber to the blue so it isn't unnaturally bright. - Brown: Burnt Sienna + Burnt Umber. - Hazel: Raw Sienna with a little green. - Pupil: Burnt Umber + French Ultramarine blue. - Highlight: a small daub of white slightly left of center, facing the light source. The eye is translucent, so also add a lighter, brighter shade of the eye color on the opposite inside of the iris. ## Eyebrows and eyelashes - Rewet dry eyebrow and eyelid areas with skin color. Hair always goes into wet skin color, as a blurred tone rather than individual hairs. A pointed brush dragged slightly on its side works well. - Eyebrows: Burnt Umber for brunette, with Raw Sienna added for blonde. Use short strokes in the growth direction, darker near the nose and lighter past the arch. - Top lashes: a thin soft Burnt Umber line from the inner corner, widening and darkening toward the outer corner and slightly beyond. - Bottom lashes: Burnt Umber from the outer corner just under the ledge. Stop near mid-eye. ## Nose and mouth finishing - Nose: add a core of shadow just above the reflected light and blend it. With light from the left, the left side of the nose is only slightly darker than the cheek and the right side is darker. - Mouth, with a pointed brush and a #2 flat bristle: 1. Rewet the skin color if needed. 2. Mix Alizarin Crimson + a little true green. Use it for the line between the lips, and a little in the upper lip and the bottom center of the lower lip. 3. Add Cadmium Red Hue or Alizarin Crimson to skin color for the lip color. Paint the upper lip into the center line, then the lower lip: dark under the center line and at the bottom center, lighter in the middle than the upper lip. 4. Add a very light skin edge above the upper lip and blend. Soften the lip edges with a dry brush. 5. Extend the center line slightly with skin shadow color at the corners and blur them for a slight smile. ## Hair finishing - Remove an oversized hair mass with Turpenoid Natural, then repaint the background into it. - Order: 1. Repaint the background around the hair edge. 2. Repaint skin color at the forehead into the hairline. 3. Repaint the hair so you work into wet paint. 4. Overlap the hair into the background for a soft edge. - Hairline: with a #10 flat bristle sweep hair color into the wet skin. - If it goes too far, remove paint with a dry brush, then sweep fresh skin color into the hair. Wipe the brush after every stroke. - Shadows: under the earlobes near the neck and shoulders. Soften where the face, neck and hair meet. - Lights: a lighter hair mix such as Raw Sienna + Cadmium Yellow Medium + white, placed where the light hits and without covering all the base color. - Highlights: white tinged with the complement, placed across each hair shape that catches light. Feather them with a bushy utility brush. - Blonde hair example: darks of Raw Sienna + Burnt Umber + French Ultramarine blue. Mediums use more Raw Sienna and less Burnt Umber. Lights are Yellow Ochre + Lemon Yellow Hue + white. - Repeating the hair color in the clothing harmonizes the picture. ## Checking likeness and accuracy - Proportion method from the demonstration: 1. Mark the top and bottom of the head. 2. Find the eyebrow line at the halfway point. 3. Halve the space from brows to chin to place the nose (it is a little longer). 4. Halve the space from nose to chin for the mouth (the lips sit higher). - Note the angle of the features, such as eyes tilting up at the corners or one mouth side higher, and the distance from the nose line to each eye. Use plumb lines from the eye to place the nose tip. - Wipe out the center axis and guidelines after the sketch. - Fix the eyes first, then use them to judge the other features. Check the width between the eyes. - Stand back often. Hold a mirror up to the painting to spot drawing errors. - Photos only take you so far. For commissions, add several live sittings. - Reflected light can be left out on the shadow side for a stronger, cooler shadow shape. - Darkening the background can bring the face out more. ## Varnishing - **Retouch varnish:** use it when the paint is dry to the touch but not dry through. - It lets air through so drying continues, evens out sunken color and gives a gloss. - It can seal a dry section so later additions are easier to remove. - It can also help new paint bond to old after a long gap. - **Picture varnish:** the final airtight coat, applied only when the painting is thoroughly dry. - Prefer a fast-drying spray over damar varnish, which attracts hair, dust and insects while drying. - Finishes are gloss, satin and matte. For less shine, spray matte over gloss or use straight satin. Matte contains wax and dulls the finish. - Timing: wait a minimum of 6–12 months, or as little as about 3 months for thin work. Paint dries from the top down, so a dry-feeling surface may be wet underneath. - Varnishing too soon sinks in and gives a spotty finish. Uneven shine from thick and thin paint is acceptable, but spottiness is not. - Avoid varnishing in humid weather, because mold can grow. Dry the painting leaning face down against a wall, to protect it from dust, insects and animal fur.