It still blows me away that talented professional artists like your good self give of your own time to impart your knowledge free of charge to us viewers. Thank you for taking the time to give so much excellent information.
Thank you very much for this great video and fantastic explanation. ‘Developing a portrait is a sequence of seeing your mistakes and correcting them, all the way to the end.’.... I just love hearing you say that; we often think that artist are just doing everything right from beginning until the end, but it’s a process of getting closer with each step.
Dear Alain, this is a superb video…not only for the beautiful portrait you shared, but for the words of wisdom! But, as great as those are, your generosity is simply amazing! Thank you! ❤
Wow, your explanation of the importance of light/shadow and proportions of big shapes to help define likeness was really awakening for me, thanks so much for sharing this video it is a joy to watch your mastery.
I will have to give this a try...I definitely am not a portrait artist but have wished to do some for friends of mine. Thank you again for some techniques using a simple set of colors and single light source. Love the results you presented. Thx so much..
I'm watching this while in the middle of working on a landscape because I knew you would have great advice for portraiture that I could translate over to landscape. 30 minutes in and already have learned several important things. One key point you make a few times throughout: to work on larger shapes, even blocking, "mapping out basic shapes", as the most important thing. "Details will not give you likeness." Your email came in just in time. Thank you Alain! I also notice you don't use a mahl stick! Incredible steadiness.
Sir... thank you. Learned so much in just a few videos. Started with the background one. I was looking for tips. Not dissapointed! Also the way you talk and handle yourself is admirable!
Hello Alain, thank you for such a great lesson. I agree with all the comments about you being such a talented artist. Please keep these portrait videos coming. I am really into portraits and I’m about to start using pastel pencils (saw your video about colors for flesh tones thank you!), to see how that goes. I mostly have used graphite and watercolor, but want to try pastels and have fun. Thank you again for sharing your expertise. 🙏🏼
So helpful, to see how you approach subject, in terms of large shapes and value!! I will develop a new mantra today thanks to you! Let the value do the work! Thanks for your generosity. All the Best
Such a joy to watch you painting this portrait. I learned a lot from you. Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful skills and inspiring technique.
Thank you Alain, so helpful as l start out in portrait painting. You answered and demonstrated some my questions re capturing a likeness. Now need to practice what l have learned. God bless 🙏🏻🙋🏼🇦🇺
Well Sir your talent is not to be denied! Impressive drawing skills as well! I found this to be more of a pencil drawing technique than Pastel, Could you do a more soft pastel portraiture? This is am amazing picture thank you for showing us your study process! I am subscribed and wanting to see more from you! Here's to hoping you get more subs!
Thanks for this video Alain! I learned alot and took about a thousand screenshots to remind myself haha. It was cool seeing the likeness start to jump out when you added the darker accents to the corners of the mouth and the eyes. Thanks again!
A very informative and well done video. I hope to do portraits using pastels and presently have a set of 60 Faber-Castell Pitt Pastel Pencils. After watching you draw a portrait using only a few of these Faber-Castell pencils, I was wondering if is really necessary for me to purchase a set of Prismacolor NuPastels? I live in a small apartment with pets and initially decided to use Faber-Castell pastel pencils rather than soft pastels to reduce the chance of spreading pigment dust. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
I di this and it was fun. It was so much easier than doing someone I know- like my grand daughters- who are little- TY for a great video. I would love to hear if there are any thought processes to the color paper one picks out. Mybe its a silly question- Is it just the opposite of the colors uou will be using in your painting? TY.
I like your useful advice as I use a technical approach to drawing myself, (always better than relying on guess work) as so many "self taught Artist's often do. I learned at art college that a shadow is NEVER truly black in colour & also most advice NOT to use black for shadowing, which I assume means not even when thinned out, would you agree with this Alain?
What size support do you recommend for a painterly portrait? And what size do you print your photo? It seems like it would be more difficult to do a painterly portrait on a small scale. Thank you for all your teaching. I’ve watched your portrait videos on Artists Network and found them so helpful, as well as all these free ones!
Would using a reflector board (to the shadowed side) count as a secondary light source? I know photographers & film makers usually do, to "warm up" the shadows making them less... gaunt. When working from photos, I always pick the deeply contrasting shadowed ones, a lot of Artists tend to shy away from contrasting light images, probably because its more complex, BUT I think the...photo real look always looks best & the most facinating.
Alain do you use proportional dividers? I have 2 thin sticks with holes and they work. I think your work is excellant by the way. I hadn't started pastels until later in life but mediums are mediums and I love my small amount of TL, unisons but my favs are my pencils 3 sets. Gorgeous work!
Jennie French thank you very much for the kind words. No, I don’t use proportional dividers. Just my pencil, brush or a stick for measuring at times. Terry Ludwig pastels are amazing. No doubt about it!
Would you mind talking about how you pick your colors of the skin in both like and shadow based on their skin tone? Do you push those colors a bit? Thank you
Good question, Carol, sounds like a great future video theme. I always appreciate these content requests, it helps me prepare themes that really help. Will make a note of this!
Nice work! I'm really starting to become interested in doing portraits and giving pastels a try too. Do you generally print out your reference photo to the same size of your final painting? Thanks so much for your videos.
Alain, I am a BIG fan of your's. I've watched all of your videos many times and I learn something each time. I have only one criticism... all of your videos say, Artist Author and Instructor in the begining.. (there should be a coma after Artist) :-) Don
can I ask, how far away the light source is from the model approximately? as i believe this effects the length of shadows and how light/dark they can be.
Hi, Alain, is there a minimum size for a portrait you'd say can be created in which one can still achieve the details necessary for defining the features? I read than one should never do a portrait (the face) that is larger than life because that would be too startling. What size paper do you use most often for a portrait, and are there particular sizes for which pre-cut mats and frames are readily available to buy?
I like 12x16” paper for portraits, but i get drawing pads that are 18x24” to have room for the head. Life size is my preferred size but smaller is ok as well.
A question, is this the kind of sketch you do underneath every portrait, or is it a more incomplete sketch that you then lay the regular pastels over? Hope that makes sense.
cinnie2 this sketch is more of a study approach to leave this look visible. I don’t draw this much when working on a full color painting, more block in approach there.
Hi Jim, thanks for the question. I mass in the light and shadow first, and deal with surface texture (hair) later. Priority on the play of light. All the best!
