OIL PAINTING TIPS: Better Edges on your Portraits 

I am thankful to live in a time where world class painters can share their knowledge, and I can view it anywhere, anytime, basically for free. Great video

You always share great advices for artists, thank you Scott !

Truly a phenomenal teacher.

That 'pretty busy' followed up by Elden Ring cover made me spill my coffee

An excellent video, maestro (as always!). I'm passing it on to our students at the Angel Academy, Florence.

Glad to see a painter I look up to is also a fellow tarnished! Love your content!

I'm glad you're flexible on how edges should be. Some teachers (on RU-vid) insist that the edges must be soft, and that you must strive to loosen up your painting. But I think that any way that looks pleasing to the eye is the right way.

Another very informative video! Glad your filming again.

Best description I’ve heard..thanks Scott!

The into was the cutest

Great video Scott. You explain so well and even though I knew this, I so enjoyed watching and hear it!

Excellent information, as always!!!

Bravo,very good course.You are the best instructor on you tube.

I'm very glad I watched this vid. Never studied about lighting and the stuff at 11:00 was new to me

Thank you so much You explain very well EASY to understand Your help is amazing for my progress. Keep on sharing PLEASE

Great as always!!!

Very, very helpful. Thank you!

Beautiful.

Hi Scott, Thanks for the videos and information. In this one, I would suggest developing artists simply study what they are seeing with an open mind. Photos nearly always show more sharp edges than our eyes see of any form in space, since our eyes shift focus almost instantly and a camera tends to be set for greater depth of field. With that in mind, any time you follow edges in a photo you can push those toward more realism, especially in portraits, by these simple rules - which I know you are aware of but others may not be - Its beneficial to blur edges where two middletones fuse, darks merge into darks, soft edges are natural (like hair, fur, rounded forms, cheeks, atmosphere, smoke, etc.) and blurs can be pushed with great effect where values essentially match. By forcing edges to blur, this sets up your sharp edges to stand out more. One of the better portraitists said he forces around 70% of each painting to go slightly out of focus. A lot of the best illustrators from the past used this idea so that their final pieces contained controlled sharp strokes that really made the work come to life. Blurring a background section and dropping in a sharp edge will make any painting look more dimensional. Zorn, Sargent, Boldini and others were very aware of how early photos had that effect and its evident in their paintings that they sought techniques to push the edges to work for them. As an illustrator, teacher and painter, I've experimented with lots of techniques to achieve this. The most effective, and really the simplest, is to paint opaquely and boldly, knowing you can draw back into the wet paint, then blur large areas with the intent of losing the form within the background. If you paint fast enough, you can then drop sharp edges in here and there where contrast forces your eye to see those areas first. If you paint slowly, just let the paint dry and drag clean sharp strokes over the initial layer. I often use stand oil (a mix of stand oil and liquin) to coat over the dry paint, then paint into this, its like working wet into wet, with the pull I prefer and no dead, or matte areas. Look for light vs dark edges, color contrasts, linear edges like building corners, windows, leaves, tree trunks, but only where the edges hit the blurred backgrounds. You can also drag rough color over areas to enhance these effects, as Mancini or Fechin often did. Once you get used to seeing where you can push edges, which is a life study, you begin to develop a style that fits your need to paint toward that direction, assuming realism is your goal. You will also see deeper into some of the brilliant paintings of the past where artists pushed selective focus to impressive effect.This works for tight brushwork, to loose painterly techniques, even pointalism like Henri Martin, using the same idea of controlling edges to help set forms into a believable space. One last thing - its a pleasure to see videos by an artist who isn't trying to charge for simply sharing their aquired knowledge, and who can actually paint well. I haven't see too many oil painters in my career who paint small sections then move on, especially for skin tones. This usually leads to work that is too tight and lifeless, or inaccuracies, rather than working the overall piece. But you do this well, your color is accurate and the highlights and shadows seem realistic, not an easy thing to do. Perhaps you will move into heavier paint or more texture, or leave brushwork without blending. Thats the exciting thing about painting, there are so many directions you can take and each one is a learning process. I thought, after 40 years of work, that I would just settle into an illustrative realistic style, which is what most of my commercial work was. But I experimented recently with an impressionistic approach and never thought I would be that excited about it. The color is more inventive and rich (the moment you blend it dulls the color a bit) and I even got into marble sculpting. It will be interesting to see where you take the solid foundation you now have, hopefully to great success!

Yes please, more films 😀

Great lesson, do you have a video on how to setup a light source in a space for portrait painting?

Excelent video Scott!! The problem I think is that we differentiate edges and values.. I think this is what confuses students that they end up softening everything like crazy ending up losing the structure.

thank you for sharing so much knowledge, I've been learning a lot on your channel but why don't you turn on subtitles? would make your content more accessible and inclusive... anyway, congratulations for the work and content!! it’s inspiring

The shadow shape on the ground will be softer and smaller (not bigger!) when the light increase in size...

Speaking on light sources, could you make a video on how you set up the lighting in your studio, please?

Thanks Scott.👍 Is it subtitle with yours videos Patreon? 👋🙏

Turn on subtitles. Thank you

yes, please put subtitles, please

Want a full timelapse so soooo bad!! Please read it!

контент просто ОГОНЬ)))) ждем новых видео !!!!!

Elden Ring is AWESOME 👍😎

Subtitles please, please, please!!!

You worked on elden ring concept art?!

Très intéressant, malheureusement il manque la traduction en français .

A few questions - Are you painting this from photo reference? Do you take the photos yourself? Is there anywhere that you show your reference material that you're working from if it is from photography? Do you sketch it freehand from the photo or trace the main shapes to retain a good likeness? Thank You for reading :)

Is it better than skyrim? :p

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Lol🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

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