How to Paint Portraits of Women
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- čas přidán 30. 11. 2017
- In this portrait painting tutorial, realist artist Alex Tzavaras shows you how to paint a portrait of a woman from life, using an alla prima oil painting technique.
Alex Tzavaras is a contemporary realist artist offering portrait painting and alla prima oil painting tutorials. Alex teaches the traditional painting techniques artists used to draw and paint from life up until the start of the 20th century.
For Alex's course on the fundamentals of oil painting visit:
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
Or connect with Alex:
/ alex_tzavaras
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
alextzavaras.com
So, a great many of you have commented on the music being too loud in this video. I get it, I apologise. Hardly any of my more recent videos have music in them nowadays. It's just that I really liked this track that my friend made.
Just to say I enjoyed the music !
As someone posted earlier on, it's a matter of balance (between the comments and the background music). We are more interested in your comments/tips.
Amazing demo and thank you!
@Gauguin Lyon haha. I was just trying to be a bit different. I'm bored of all the jazz and classical music that normally accompanies art demos. It's always substandard because no one will pay for it.
What song is this?
Jam on brother, the percentage of complainers is usually ONE
I love the way you use the wood end of the brush to scratch out key areas. This is really helpful. And I'm really excited to see how you model the face without a detailed drawing beneath.
I actually like how you left the hair unfinished.
Thanks
Amazing... I love how fresh it look! Bravo!!
Some people saying in this comment section that ' back ground music is so loud. But I think the music is perfect for this beautiful painting video.
Holy moly Alex, i love your channel, your painting and instruction is perfection! my megre channel is just a record of my painting progress rather than teaching, so i REALLY appreciate your channel with your voice-overs. Every time i see you paint i decide to start over on my method! This is exactly how i want to paint in the end. thank you so so much.
Great disolay but music is a little bit too high for your voice
Agreed. Use a limiter filter. If you're going to use background music, your voice should still be louder than the music, or even better, don't use music at all. :-) Good demo otherwise.
Music on a video like this is at best unnecessary and distracting, at worst ... well, like this.
Music as a part of rebellious girl personality. Bit loud but we all survived through presentation.
I liked the music
Alex - I can’t tell you how practical and useful these films are. I have been struggling with a portrait of my mother in law; she has an even complexion and soft features. So I tried your all-face massing method and as a result, the latest attempt is just miles better than any previous effort (there’s still a huge way to go, of course). Thank you. Many CZcams vids are interesting and even inspiring, but for down-to-earth, real, hands-on value, I don’t think they can be beaten. Thank you so much.
Thanks a lot Chris. Glad my videos are helping. I agree, there are some great demos here on youtube but I find most are either too long or they don't give much away. And that's my consideration when making my videos.
This was great!! The insight on almost no tonal variation on smooth faces was golden.
LOVE! Beautiful painting, smart development from simple to detailed. Excellent narration.
Every on of your demos raises my senses. Great work!
True artist. Thank you, sir, for sharing.
I love this technique - many thanks for sharing.
You have earned a sub.
Fantastic finishing
Simply and creative,I like it.Thank you.👍✨
Loved all your videos. All of them very informative. Thank you for sharing.
DAMN!!!! This woman is gorgeous and you perfectly captured her beauty!!!
Amazing
I learn a lot from ur tutorial. Thanks!:)
Thank you Alex for being one of the few that is sharing your knowledge and technique. Am trying to learn painting Alla Prima from life and will be watching these videos more. Have shared your website on facebook to others. Best Wishes Phil
Thank you very much! And good luck with your painting.
Thanks Alex you are a really great artist. Its great to keep things simple and to get the artist to really think about and look at what he is doing. I think you make it look easier than it actually is though.. Thanks again :)
wow m8, amazing information and technique. thank you so much for sharing
This was so so helpful! Thank you so much :)
Beautiful
The more I watch you paint, the more I realise the importance of representation rather than relying on the finer details. I’m learning a great deal from your channel 🙏
Thank you. Yes, I say it in this video, the more experienced I've become, the more I've learned to leave out.
The music choice in this video was... interesting. Great instruction, as always!
Great, this is what i am looking for!
How little is needed.. Excellent, excellent. Thank you.
Wow... another beautiful portrait.. I wish this was in slower motion.. and I wish you were part of Kara Bullock "Let's Face It" workshop... will enjoy seeing more of your wonderful work..
Wonderful
Fantasticosei un Grande Artista Bravo👍
Great job
Fantastic painting. ou make it seem so easy, wish I could see this slowed down a bit.
I love it !
Thank you!
Awesome professionalism and thinking
thanks Lisa!
Great demo!
Thanks Alex
Your methods are so easy to follow for me when I am painting. (How do they draw realistic faces). Your videos are helpful because of your method that you paint people's faces.
Thank you Bernice!
Hi, im thankful for CZcams, because they suggested me your channel. Your info. is very useful. 👍
Very cool and beauteful girl! Thank you! 👍😉
Awesome video : ) I love watching you paint and can't wait for future uploads from you - just a suggestion though, the volume different between your voice-over and the music was a little extreme. I found myself having to turn my speakers up to hear what you were saying and then down again when the music kicked in - maybe unify it a bit more in future videos?
I 100%AGREE. I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS...STRAIGHT TO THE POINT AND SO HELPFUL. THANK YOU. YES, MUSIC KINDA LOUD
brilliant
You are great
Incredible instruction. I'd love to see a real-time version with your thought process along the way. Great content, thank you.
Thank you. Where are you based? I teach in South London and I do plenty of demo's for my students, you'll find details on my website. I'm hoping to do a real time portrait demo but it's a lot more involved than a time-lapse and will take a lot longer to edit. I'm probably going to end up having to employ professionals to do it. Which unfortunately means I won't be able to give it away for free. But I'm certainly not going to charge $100's like other online courses and DVD's. I feel strongly that because of the poor state of art education when it comes to drawing and painting from life, particularly here in the UK, anyone who wants to learn should be able to find out about proper old school methods taught up until the 20th Century.
I would love to come to the Atelier and learn but unfortunately I'm based in Northern Ireland. I'm working away at painting and drawing, using books and CZcams primarily to learn. These videos are incredibly helpful. An online course / DVD would definitely be useful. I checked out your website - beautiful work - you are a fantastic artist and teacher. Thank you very much for the reply.
SIMPLIFY Drawing & Painting I'd like a dvd too if you decide to make one
Bloody Marvellous Master you are.
Beautiful Good...👍
wow wow wow !!!
Great
Great Thank you so much 🤗
Really good! Would it look anywhere near as good in acrylic or goache?
i like that;good luck.
Woooooow❤️
Excellent job brother, I do not know how people can criticize your work stupidly, PLEASE PUT THE AUTOMATIC TRANSLATION BUTTON, GREETINGS!
Magic
great info. Thanks. maybe work on the post production audio some..Thanks again
Great video Alex! Regarding the volume issue, would it be possible to add subtitles? Perhaps that would solve the issue? Thanks again
Wowwwww
Total agreement... your videos are GREAT... unfortunately, the audio mix makes it necessary to ride the volume slider... VERY distracting from your voice over... the music is not necessary... your words are why we watch/listen... perfectly addressing key concerns... so grateful... thank YOU!!!
thanks! very inspiring. What colors did you use for hair and flesh tone? seems to me like a burnt sienna...
Thanks! The hair is Transparent Oxide Red, very similar to burnt Sienna. That flesh colour would have been a mixture of Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light and a little Ivory Black
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thanks a lot: it helps!
Hi Alex , do you have any videos on limited palettes for learning portrait painting, formulas for light and dark areas etc? that'd be a great compliment to these demos
I just did a video on colour temperature, using a limited temperature palette. My next video will be a portrait using the same palette. I'm planning to do few more on colour, and I will eventually do a portrait using the Zorn palette.
Here is the colour temp video
czcams.com/video/Y4yOKITICrc/video.html
You a the legend
This is that kind of video where you can't wait to put a comment and you see over and over and over again...as a good Coffee cup. Welcome to my farm in Colombia Alex. Not to paint! only for watching new colours for your new and beautiful inventions.
Brilliant - thank you. Avoids my mistake of over-blending when painting a young woman, trying to get the softness - just doesn't work! I will try this asap. Would you also use the same technique to paint a child?
Thank you. I would paint a child in the same way. I'm a bit wary of doing demo's of children. Obviously children move around a lot, so I might find it too difficult to do a decent painting within the time parameters of filming. But also, I'm concerned about the privacy of the child and additional CZcams guidelines.
Do you waited to dry the first layer when painting the eyes?
No this is painted wet into wet in a single session. I made another video about how you paint dark paint into light:
czcams.com/video/JkI1yTF6DFY/video.html
Hi Alex, Great work. Keep it up! I wonder wich medium do you use? Its linsed oil ?
Thank you. I sometimes use a medium of sun thickened linseed oil and turpentine 50/50. But only quite sparingly in the transparent darks or after the fist sitting when I come back to a painting if its dry. I mainly try to use the paint as it comes out of the tube. If I need more fluidity, I just mix more paint.
SIMPLIFY Drawing & Painting thank you so much for the answer :)
Greetings alex, a question? The first layer that you put on the painting as it is prepared? Or is it just the paint dissolved with flaxseed oil?
Excellent work, thanks for sharing.
The first layer is a wash with a transparent dark colour/colours ( This video looks like Ivory Black, tho it may have been a mixture ultramarine and a brown) thinned with turpentine. You can use any solvent to thin the paint but I find real turpentine the best because it evaporates and dries the quickest. You want your was to be reasonably dry before you paint onto it. Doing a wash with an oil probably isn't a good idea because it will stay wet and your paint will slip around and be hard to control. I dunno tho, other painters might do that sort of thing?
Thanks for the explanation, sorry for my English, I'm from Ecuador, here we speak Spanish ...
it's really an excellent job
success!
nice video
Great portrait! Are you using sight-size or comparative measuring? Or both?
I definitely don't use sight size. I'll do another video at some point on why I think sight size is so flawed and all those "Atelier's" that teach it are a cult!
Or a ponzi scheme.. i guess my question was if you put the canvas next to your sitter (which I sometimes do). Not necessarily measuring but comparing.
Haha. In my own studio I usually place my canvas close to my sitter, tho probably not exactly on the same plane. But because I'm not limited by sight size, I'm able to paint a life size head if my canvas is 3m or more back from the sitter, like in a busy life class. There's a funny story about a woman I know, who turned up at the Repin academy in St Petersburg after spending 3 years in Florence.
what is that stuff you spread over the canvas?
That's a wash of transparent oil paint thinned with lots of turpentine. I think I may have used Ivory black, or a mixture of ultramarine blue and transparent oxide red. I then dry it off with a paper towel. The purpose is to tone down the white of the canvas.
Show!
Hmmm I just spent a few hours working on a portrait from a photograph of a young woman .....and as you suggested completely over modelled her face in a desperate attempt to “turn the form “ I should have watched this first !!!
Alex please make a video on painting hair ,,,,,your stunning model has amazing hair and you have caught it in a few strokes ..
Oh and a video on painting from photographs too ....I spend days and days on the road working and living in hotels and Airbnb models are not really practical
Haha. Yes hair is difficult, I still struggle with it. Whenever you paint from life it gets moved, so you have often have to paint it from memory. My tip is not to paint too many highlights and remember, even blond hair is a dark mass, it's just the highlights that are light. There's some good stuff on painting hair in Harold Speed, painting techniques and materials, in the chapter on painting the head from life.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting thanks Alex
3:55 Leaving out the nose ring should have been an easy choice. Yucko. Subscribed anyway.
The model was wearing one. It would be pretty shitty to redact something she chose to wear to the sitting, and it's an affect that implies something about the person, which is pretty critical in portraiture.
Retching sounds intesify.
@@leandrotarsia7212 Why share your personal negative feedback about the lovely model's personal tastes? No help to EXCELLENT teacher👎, just your ego expressing. 🙄👩🎨
@@rohanamiller2293 Why share your personal negative feedback about the MY personal tastes?
Muito bom! Uma verdadeira aula de como se pintar um retrato. Parabéns!
Waaw. 👍🥰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰
Did you show the paint?
Apologies, I'm not quite clear. Do you mean, did I show the painting? Or are you asking about the colours I use?
Music down, vocal audio up. You don't even really need music, honestly.
U r awsome!
How long did this take to paint
Around 3 hours
What is your typical color palate?
My full palette is Titanium white, Lemon Yellow, Cadmium yellow, Cadmium yellow deep, yellow ochre, Cadmium red, Alizarin Crimson, Transparent oxide red, Raw Umber, Viridian, Cobalt blue, Ultramarine, Ivory black. I can pretty much paint anything with it, including landscapes. If I'm painting portraits and figures, I find the "Zorn Palette" white, cadmium red, yellow ochre & Ivory black very effective for flesh tones. I would have used those four colours for most of the flesh tones in the above portrait, her hair is transparent oxide red. There's also Alizarin and ultramarine in the dark accents in here eyes.
In theory you supposedly could mix most colours using variations of the 3 primaries. If you look at my palette listed above, apart from viridian and raw umber, they are all different version (warmer or cooler) of yellow, red and blue. The Zorn palette are versions of the primaries that are convenient for flesh tones. I kinda think of mixing colours like the ink in a printer, different quantities of cyan, magenta, yellow and black? Does that make sense?
you have to post more. Your content is second to none.
Thank you Patricio! I’m glad you think so. I’ll try to post more on here but atm my Patreon videos take up so much of my time to make.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPaintingCan you post the link to your patreon?
Wauaauw. 😉👍🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰🇩🇰
this video is so good to understand how to lay-in value.. as your block big shape with one value and shadows are block another darker value...
i want to know more clearly how to lay-in value as you did simply.. and also color temperature(pink on cheeks ) how & when put them...mainly please give suggestion how to practice lay-in values and rendering forms ... i'm so confuse and frustrated please do help me..
The way to practice values is to work in monochrome and it's all about simplifying the values, trying to block in your subject with just 3 or 4 values. Do simple still lives are casts, like the exercises in these videos:
czcams.com/video/OpDLyGzi9Tk/video.html
czcams.com/video/Sm9hCGY6k6k/video.html
Practice colour temperature using a limited temperature palette, like this:
czcams.com/video/Y4yOKITICrc/video.html
thank you so so much Alex ... your always so kind and gentle to respond our doubts...
thank you
@@kiranbabu1636 no problem
Are you using acrylics??
No, only oils.
hello alex oskar here you can put your palette in the description below?
Just oil,or acrilic as well?
Just oils
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Just amazing, thanks.
Fantastic. Wish the speed is a little slower and show some palette colour mixing.
I'm going to shoot a full length female portrait in real time, with a film crew and multiple cameras including one on the palette. So stay tuned
This is awesome! And what's the name of the song? Lol
Haha. Glad you like the track. I set the music a bit too load in this video and people keep complaining about it. The song is called "let the. record spin" by a friend of mine called Leonidas. Unfortunately I think this one hasn't been released, but you can hear more of his stuff here soundcloud.com/leonidas
SIMPLIFY Drawing & Painting well I personally found no issue with the music. I have been following your steps with an oil painting I'm currently working on and I'm happy thus far
voiceover too quiet compared to music
the pr0no music is awesome
Of course you are an exceptional artist and very willing to help, but, I beg your pardon to say that., but I didn´t listen well to your voice due to the background sound and besides that I have some difficulties to understand spoken English. Thanks for your helpful videos.
brill
At first I thought you were rapping. 😂
First time i hear a Greek guy with a british accent, more british than the british
model reaction when she sees the portrait please.
Any learn with time lapse mode...😐
It helps to have a model with a LOT of makeup
Francisco Osuna hmmm I think it makes it harder. What do you think Alex?
I gave a thumbs up for the demonstration, though the music is quite irritating. Please try to avoid music like these. I am trying to listen what you are saying and suddenly the music overpowers. I have to keep decreasing and increasing the volume depending on whether this music is being played or you are demonstrating respectively.
thank you for the tutorial but the background music is too distracting
Terrible music , sounded like we were being attacked by alien bees from the planet synth.
Lol. 😆
But your choice in the model was brilliant 👌
Get rid of the music and normalize the voice volume. Great video otherwise!
Her painting is more beautiful than the woman herself :D
MaNv S pffff. Just shut up
Gross. Unnecessarily mean. You know it's very likely the (quite pretty) model and her friends and family come here to see the video and peruse the comments... would you want to read that about yourself?