Oil painting, in particular, lends itself well to expressing a personality through portraiture. The effects that can be achieved through oil painting are diversified, and as such can be manipulated to create a large array of different painting styles. The fluidity of the paint and the way it reacts with mixing mediums or solvents allows for either the simplicity of paper sketches, or the complexity of mult-layered glazed paintings on canvas or wood. Brushtrokes can be smooth or expressionistically textured. Moreover, colour can either be blended through the painting process, or on a palette. Limitless combinations of these possibilities can help emulate more accurately the personality of the person sitting for the portrait.
Paint Sketches
Paint sketches are usually on paper or unprimed canvas. The rawness of the sketch done in oils can communicate through gestures, rather than completed formal paintings. Sketches are also useful for portrait studies in order to gain a good feel for the essence of the final product. The paper sketch illustrated here is a study for a painting that I am currently working on of my husband. The final painting will be a lot unlike this sketch, but the basic feel for the appearance of my subject will be similar.
Many times I like to paint sketches in order to convey certain feelings with line only, and not color. Similar to a pencil sketch, monochromatic paint sketches can communicate through line and shading. A good monotone color scheme to use for portraiture is that of burnt sienna or raw umber on paper previously washed with a light wash or coating of the same color. This will set the tone as a warm subtle one, eliminating harsh dividing lines that may occur with darker colors on white paper. Also, cool colors should be used in a monochromatic scheme only when trying to portray a melancholy mood, since blues tend to represent coldness and death, whereas reds, yellows, browns, and oranges are much warmer and naturally instinctive of humans.
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