Portrait paintings in oil

[GPeachy]

Hello everyone, I am back after a couple of years hiatus, it is great to be back. I am starting out with oil painting this time and have a couple of questions about the portraits paintings.

1. Are they definitely recommended to help build skill?
2. What size canvas is good for these, would 12 x 12 work or is it better to work from a larger canv
3. And general question, is Nolan still doing live monthly classes?

 

[MaryAnne Long]

GPeachy,

Good to see you back.

Looks like I am the first one to see this, so will answer what I can.

1. Any kind of painting classes helps build skills.  What kind of skills are you most in need of?  If you plan on doing portraits, Paintbasket has a huge range of portrait classes that can help you build the skill set you will need.

2. Since most portraits are longer than wider, a 12 x 12 square would not be as desirable as an 14 x 11 canvas.

3. Unfortunately, Nolan and Dennis no longer do live classes, but are releasing new taped lessons periodically.

Look forward to seeing your work soon.

aloha

mea

[GPeachy]

Nice to see you here and thanks for your response. I am excited to get started again and will keep your comments in mind.

[dennis]

Welcome back    It's good to see old members come back again 

[nolan]

From my perspective, painting portraits is an essential learning tool on the road to becoming a successful artist as portrait painting hones many crucial skills

[Val]

    Hi Ginger!!!                 Back!       Hope all is well with you and yours.

You can never go wrong following Nolan and Dennis' portrait courses. I'm still up to give it a go myself, but I think I'm going to go back to the graphite sketching portraits first to get back in the swing.  and I'll see you about the forum.   

[GPeachy]

It is actually WONDERFUL to be back. I did try a few other "artsy" things over the last couple of years and all in all, what Nolan and Dennis have done with there art site, is beyond compare. The only thing that bothers me about it is, that there are way to many choices of what kind of artistic endeavor I want to pursue first... .

I will definitely get into the portraits classes as well as back at the drawings. Right now, I am looking for how to soften edges and paint less perspective, as in the strawberries that Nolan has painted.

Thanks everyone!

[nolan]

I show how to  do it is a few classes, most notably the Bowl of Salad class, Fruit Salad as well as Rain Drops on the Window class. The rain drop class probably being the best one to start with  I also show it in a pencil drawing class - Children Walking Down the Road if you want to try it in pencil

[GPeachy]

Thanks everyone.

After reviewing the suggested video's, I think it may be difficult to achieve this effect with the acrylic paints since they dry so quickly.

[dennis]

Ginger, it is possible. You can purchase a retarder which slows down the drying time. I have also painted many times in temp of +30 deg C (+86 deg F) with a paintbrush in one hand and a fine mist spray bottle in the other 

[GPeachy]

That sounds like humidity in Florida.