Oil painting is simple with the right tools.
Portraits have been a staple in the painter's oeuvre for hundreds of years. Though oil painting may seem like a complicated process, even beginners can create accurate portraits in oil paint from photographs using a few simple techniques. For best results, use well-lit digital photographs and high-quality artist-grade oil paints.
Instructions
1. Use photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop to crop your image to the proportions of your substrate and print it out. For instance, if your canvas is 24-by-36 inches, your photograph might measure 6-by-9 inches when printed. It is easier to work from larger, high-resolution photographs, but it is not necessary to print your image larger than a standard sheet of 8.5-by-11-inch paper.
2. Use a ruler and a colored pen to draw a grid of .5-inch squares on your photograph starting at the upper left-hand corner. Determine the size ratio between your canvas and your image by dividing the dimensions of the canvas by the dimensions of your image. Multiply this number by .5, and draw a grid of squares on your canvas using this figure, again starting at the upper left-hand corner. In the above example, the canvas is four times larger than the photograph and thus the grid should be composed of 2-inch squares.
3. Sketch your image from the photograph on the canvas using a runny mixture of solvent and oil paint in a neutral tone. Use the grid to accurately align the contours of your image -- each square on your photograph corresponds with a larger one on your painting. Use a medium-sized brush and try to be as detailed as possible without obscuring the grid underneath. Let your sketch dry. This can take a day or more, depending on how thin your paint mixture was. Generally, the more solvent is used, the faster it will dry.
4. Mix the colors you will use in the painting on a paper or glass palette. To achieve skin tones, mix earth tones such as burnt umber, yellow ochre, raw umber and burnt sienna with varying amounts of white and a small amount of cadmium red, using a palette knife. You will need at least three tones to render the skin: one base color, for general areas; one dark tone, for shadows; and one lighter tone for highlights. Mix other colors for the background, clothing and other portions of the image. Clean your brush by dipping it in a small container of solvent.
5. Use a medium-sized brush to block in all the regions of color in the image. Use a chunky square tipped brush for a more painterly image, or blend areas using softer round tipped brushes and add detail using finer brushes. You can continue to work on the image while the paint is still wet, or you can add detail in layers, waiting several days between sessions. When you are finished, set the painting in a cool, dry area and let it dry for several days. If you have applied paint very thickly, it could take up to a week to dry completely.
