Portrait of Anna

Some pages are quite large, I did not split them to smaller sections because having
the full chapter on the screen is more convenient to observe, so be patient to
download all the thumbnails before you start to enlarge the images.

Contents

In this video workshop, we’ll talk about paining a female portrait using the Flemish
technique, a method known as the seven-layer painting. Its main features include
the following stages:
White priming with subsequent ink drawing;

Imprimatura, the selection of the medium tonality of the lightest spot in the
painting.
The next stage is the Umbra Underlayer, made by burned umbra, whose main
property is that it does not get lighter in time. This quality of burnt umbra
guarantees the tonal stability of your painting throughout centuries. Besides, it
accelerates drying.
The next layer is the Dead Underlayer, required for the final completion of tonality
and for the preparation of the surface for color layers. The Dead Underlayer is
particularly important in painting a portrait, as it helps to depict the complicated
colors of the human complexion.
Next come the color layers. The skillful combination of the dead underlayer and the
color layers can help you achieve the miraculous effect of the Old Masters.
And, finally, the finishing layers, whose function is to complete the texture
characteristics of the painting.
Drawing

Before the Imprimatura layer is made, the pencil drawing must be outlined in ink.
We use pen and ink, first, to verify the correctness of our drawing. Secondly, the oil
layers will wash away the pencil drawing, but the ink outline will be visible through
the first several layers, helping us in our work.
Imprimatura

The first oil layer is the imprimatura. Let’s treat our chalk priming with refined
linseed oil. This provides a better cohesion of the primed canvas with the
subsequent color layers.
Flake White, Yellow Ochre, Lamp black, Prussian Blue, and Burnt umbra are the
paints used to make the imprimatura mixture. We also use a varnish mixture,
consisting of 8 parts of turpentine and 2 parts of Damar Crystals. The imprimatura
mixture must have an olive hue.
Having wiped away the remains of linseed oil from the canvas, we apply the
imprimature mixture with a coarse bristle brush, rubbing the mixture into the
primed surface. After that, we use a fluffy squirrel brush to eliminate uneven areas.
The priming that has absorbed the oil and the varnish of the imprimatura mixture
has better cohesion of the following color layers and the canvas.
Umber Underlayer 1
It takes seven days for the imprimatura layer to dry well, and we begin preparing
the canvas for the Shadow or Umbra underlayer. We oil the surface and scrape it
with a razor blade to remove dust and some bush hair that may have stuck to the
surface. According to our scale, the imprimatura layer has tonality four.
The canvas will remain wet for one day, that is why you should begin with the most
important details of your painting. By the end of the day, wipe the unpainted areas
of the canvas well with a piece of dry cloth, trying to remove excessive oil. On the
next day, oil the dry areas locally. Work with the umber the way you would use
water colors, that is keeping in mind its transparency.
In the first umber underlayer, you need to pay special attention to the construction
of the details. The general work on the tonality should be left for the second umber
underlayer.
Let us now define a few terms that we are going to use during the entire workshop.
The painting brush. It is a kolinsky brush used to apply paint to the canvas. The
correcting brush. It is a dry kolinsky brush used to correct the paint layer. The
generalizing fluffy squirrel brush is used for the final smoothing out of uneven
places on the surface. Please note the brave and confident movements of the
painting brush. The correcting brush, on the contrary, is used with carefulness and
precision, whereas the large fluffy generalizing brush is applied briskly, almost
invisibly touching the canvas.
In this layer, we are defining the location and the outline of main shadows. That is
why, having made sure that the shadows are located correctly and are not too
dark, we go on filling in the empty spaces. The hair will be soft and fluffy, but,
nevertheless, don’t forget about its construction. At this stage, be careful with
opaque strokes. However, if they do occur, don’t worry: they can be easily fixed
with the correcting and later with the generalizing brush.
The anatomy of the human face can be discussed and studied endlessly. My only
comment now would be that if you make a mistake in the anatomy at this stage, it
will be very difficult to improve in the following stages. Be very careful, therefore,
with bones and muscles. Jean August Dominic Engre, a famous artist and teacher of
the 19th century, said that the drawing includes everything except the color. All our
preparatory layers are in essence a drawing. It means that the most important
work on the portrait is being done now, and the color layers will only add some
embellishment to the portrait.
I can’t help mentioning a special attitude to the contour of the face. On the one
hand, it must be distinct and correct, on the other, the fluff and the air perspective
make it necessary to soften the contour.
After you have finished this layer, let it dry. Depending on the climate you live in,
you can put it aside and do other things from one to four weeks while the layer is
drying. It is not recommended to accelerate drying artificially. To accelerate
hardening of oil paints, the Old Masters placed their paintings in the sun.
Now, some advice to a portrait artist wishing to become more successful. Pay more
attention to physical likeness. Don’t worry about penetrating into the model’s soul.
If you achieve good physical likeness, your critics will appreciate that. Try to find
and accentuate the most beautiful features of your model. Remember, the most
pleasing thing, particularly for a woman, is her reflection in the mirror. Try to make
her portrait even more pleasing to look at.
Umber underlayer 2

Our canvas was drying for three weeks. We begin the next layer with the routine
preparation, carefully removing excessive oil. This process must be carried out
before you begin every subsequent layer. In classical painting, each layer must be
made in such a way as to cause the viewer’s admiration. This, perhaps, contributed
immensely to the Flemish Masters’ success. Nevertheless, no one can be sure to
avoid mistakes in some layers. It is the multilayer technique and the duration of the
painting process that allow us to successfully eliminate errors.
The goal of the Umber layer is to correct the construction of the details, which we’ll
be doing in the next layers too. The second objective is to achieve the necessary
darkness of the tonality. In other words, the goal is to correct the work done so far,
and to prepare the painting for the next stages.

We need to find the tonality of all surfaces in that layer as precisely as possible, because
in the next dead underlayer, we should rely on this layer as if on a tonal scale. The high
lights that you can see in the pupils, on the nose and on the cheeks, will be overpainted
in the next layer. I leave them for one purpose only: in order not to lose as long as
possible my emotional attitude to the model.
Engre said, “The beginning should have in itself its end”. Each stage should be
performed in such a way so that you can present your work to the public’s
judgement at any time. At every moment there should be likeness approaching
perfection by the end of each stage. Scrutinize your work from a distance as
frequently as possible, turn the painting upside down, look at it in the mirror, or
just ask your family’s opinion about it. This always helps refresh your vision.
Sometimes, particularly when you start with a very light imprimatura, as we did in
this portrait, two umber underlayers are not enough. Because while working on the
details, we may fail to notice the intensification of tonality that can destroy the
details that we have already worked on. That is why, sometimes, working on a
portrait you need to make several umber underlayers. For example, I am now
tempted to darken the light parts of the chin and the lips with a large brush, but
because the details are wet, I am unable to do so, and obviously, I will have to
make the third umber underlayer. Let’s condense the tonality where possible, and
put the painting off till the next umber session.
Umber underlayer 3

A week has passed. We begin the third umber underlayer, oiling and scraping the
canvas surface. Use your favorite thinnest brushes to work on details.
This old heavy graphite holder does not have anything to do with the Old Masters’
secrets. I just think that a heavy brush is better controlled. If we compare a
classical painting with a symphony, then I’d say that this work in umber (or
shadow) layer is associated for me with the bass line, the deepest, velvety bass,
because the main goal of this stage is to develop shadows.
The Old Masters, in their maturity, painted the umber underlayer in such a way that
they didn’t have to overpaint it. Good examples of that are small still lives by Jan
van Huysum and small oil sketches by Rubens. I’d like to attract your attention to
the way we create the effect of highlighting the face with a beam of light in the
dark space. In order to make the face lighter in relation to the rest of the painting,
all other objects should be placed in the shadow. In our case, the white blouse
takes too much attention. To avoid that, we throw some shadow on it.
Speaking about the brushes, I forgot to mention the eraser. Instead of the eraser,
you can use your finger. Also, please note that the palette is white. When making
the imprimatura and the umber in the transparent layers on the light priming, dark
palettes are not recommended as they do not explicate the degree of transparency
of your mixtures. And on the contrary, in the subsequent color layers, when you
start working with light paints, a dark wood palette is preferable.
Thus, the required tonality has been achieved, and we are ready to continue our
work. The painting must be dried well before you begin the dead underlayer so that
the umber underlayers do not dissolve from possible wiping and correcting of the
dead underlayer.
Dead Underlayer 1
The lightest tonality is the third, it is a step higher that the tonality of the imprimatura,
next tonality is the one between 5 and 6, then couple tonalities (warmer and colder) in
12 and finally the 2 darkest ones in areas 18 and 19. I make my first few mixtures
beforehand. The mixtures are based on Flake white with some light ochre, burnt
umbra and Prussian blue. The work in the dead underlayer must be carried out
almost tone to tone with the umber underlayer, perhaps in the light areas - a bit
higher in tonality, but in the shadows - a bit lower.
However, in half tones we should try to stick to the underlayer tone. Successful
work in the umber underlayer allows us to somewhat relax in terms of the search of
the form and likeness and concentrate on the technique, that is on the routine
process.
I think that the most complicated genre in painting is the portrait, the female
portrait. Still more complicated is the portrait of a beautiful young woman.
Nevertheless, don’t be shy to depict her wrinkles and other imperfections. They will
be not very noticeable after you work on them with the correcting and with the
generalizing brushes, but they will contribute to the effect of likeness.
A little remark about the eyebrows. Paint only the shadows of the eyebrow hair,
don’t paint the hair itself. One of the goals of the dead underlayer is to get a
sufficient amount of paint in the light. The closer to the light, the thicker the paint
layer is, the closer to the shadow, the thinner it is. The task of constructing and
perfecting the details should always be kept in mind until we reach the finishing
layers.
As I promised, the pupils are painted with the darkest mixture on the palette. The
eyelashes are also painted with the darkest paint. On the iris, there is a shadow
from the eyelids and the eyelashes. The construction of the iris can be represented
by a circle covered with lines going from the outer edge of the circle to the center.
The symmetrical eyes lie on the cylindrical shape of the face, that is why at the
slightest turn of the head they no longer look symmetrical. After a good blending, it
is advisable to work on the eyes again with the same color mixture in order to
achieve a greater paste deposit. After that, blend again with your fluffiest brush.
Depending on the quantity of oil absorbed by the dry surface and the temperature
conditions in which you work, the fresh paint layer may harden and lose mobility
during one work day. That is why sometimes you need to blend the area that has
been just painted, sometimes you can blend all painted areas at the end of the
work day. If the most complicated genre of painting is the portrait, then the most
complicated element of the portrait is the eyes. We should always remember about
the anatomy, about the eyeball, about the shape of the eyes, their angle,
proportions, the distance between the eyes, the size of the iris, the diameter of the
pupil, and their correlation, the size of the high light determining the shining of the
eyes, and, finally, the color of the eyes, that can only be seen correctly by their
owner.
The use of the correcting brush takes the longest time in the entire process. Be
sure that your correcting and the generalizing brushes are always clean, wipe it
with a flannel cloth or a dry napkin.
While working, you can wash your brush in the paint thinner. Wipe the brush well;
the paint thinner evaporates quickly and you can use the brush again. At the end of
the day, after you have finished your work, I strongly recommend that you wash
the brushes in hot water with some dish liquid, shaping to a point the wet painting
brushes and fluffing the blending brushes.
Don’t forget about the softening of the contour of the portrait. Be very careful with
the contour: its curves determine the likeness in the greatest degree.
I am often asked why we need the dead underlayer, why can’t we do with the
shadow underlayer and then with a few color layers. As an artist using the
multilayer method, I can only say this: the paintings that I have seen in the
museums, as well as my own paintings in the Flemish technique that includes the
white priming, the umber underlayer, the dead underlayer, the color layers, look
better than others, they are better preserved, too. Besides, the optical effect of
mixed colors, the transparency of layers causes the illusion of the pearly nature
that I am unable to express in words, it can only be seen in the museum, if, for
example, you place a painting by a Flemish master next to a painting by a realistic
artist of the end of the 19th century. Comparing the two will bring the
understanding of the pearly illusion I am talking about.
Please, note that, the dead underlayer is very fresh now, but, nevertheless, it
doesn’t hide the umber underlayer. The umber is seen through it, and even now
creates a fantastic effect. Even now, before you come to the next layer, you can
see that the dead underlayer sort of went down, became more transparent,
particularly in thinly painted places. The following layers work in the same way,
each of them includes the preceding layer as an additional brush. It is difficult for
me to explain the reasons of the genius who invented the dead underlayer. I think,
however, that the dead underlayer was invented to better depict the color of the
human skin.
As you know, the human skin is semitransparent, almost translucent. Under the
skin, there is pigmentation. Depending on the amount of time the person is
exposed to the sun, it becomes lighter or darker. Let’s now remember some
childhood experiences. When you fell and scratched off the skin on your knees, the
first thing you noticed to your horror, was the gray color under the skin. And only
after a while drops of red blood would appear. The nature of the human skin is very
complicated and its representation on the canvas must differ from the
representation of the pink Barbie doll surface. When visiting museums, try to learn
to see the technical aspect of painting. Most of the Old Masters’ paintings are so
perfect that it is not a very easy task. That is why, however paradoxical it may
sound, look for unfinished pieces, or for paintings by not so skillful artists. These
works reveal the technique best of all. Everyone can admire a painting, but to see
the dead underlayer is more difficult.

Before visiting a museum, you need to do your homework. On pieces of cardboard,

small enough to fit your pocket, paint the details that interest you, and having
come to the museum, compare your work with the original. You can also find
technical descriptions made by artists themselves, for example, The Treatise on
Painting by Leonardo da Vinci. But a better object of study is paintings themselves.
Only the analytical copying of paintings can help us all regenerate the lost classical
painting school.
 Dead underlayer 2

The second dead underlayer would not be necessary in a still life or a landscape.
However, in a portrait, I recommend making the second dead underlayer in order
to increase the thickness of the color layer in light places, and, of course, in order
to continue work on the details and likeness.
If there remains some oil on the hardened layer surface, the cohesion of the newly
applied oil is worse. One of the ways to improve cohesion is to warm the canvas by
rubbing it with your hand.
Your lightest mixture is the same as in the previous stage. It only looks lighter
because in the previous layer, blending has softened the difference between the
neighboring layers. Besides, after drying the canvas for a month in the open sun,
the first dead underlayer has become much more transparent and we are now able
to see more of the umber underlayer.
The typical mistakes of beginning artists working in this technique during blending,
that is when using the correcting and the generalizing brushes, are the following:
first, excessive pressure on the brush, second, thoughtless mechanical movements,
third, not wiping the brush between light and dark pigments.
A few words about the types of dead mixtures. The tonality and the hue of the
mixture depends on whose portrait you are going to paint. If it is a portrait of a
child, the mixture must be the lightest and the coldest. It has a somewhat
ultramarine hue, but no ultrmarine is added, of course. If you are painting a
portrait of a youth or a girl, the tonality is neutrally blue. The portrait of a mature
woman of 30-35 years of age requires a sky blue warm hue. The bristle and the
suntan of an experienced man require more green nuances. In a word, the thicker
and more suntanned the skin is, the darker and greener the dead underlayer is.
The skin colors are brighter and more opaque, the lighter and more transparent the
skin is, the lighter and colder the blue hue of the dead underlayer is. The color
layers should be made thinner and paler, leaving more uncovered dead underlayer
areas. Naturally, all that blueishness and greenishness is achieved with the same
paints, by means of the balance between red ochre, Prussian blue, burnt umbra,
Ivory black and Flake white. In the skin layers, to your dead mixtures used in the
portrait, you need to add Cadmium Yellow Medium, Chinese Vermilion Extra and
Permanent Madder Deep (Krapplack).
 Color Underlayer 1

Having removed dust and oiled the canvas, we begin work.

I think that the position of paints on the palette is a matter of taste. Flake White,
Cadmium Yellow Medium, Yellow Ochre, Chinese Vermilion Extra, Flash Ochre,
Burnt Umbra, our gray mixtures that we used in the dead underlayer, Ivory Black,
Permanent Madder Deep, Prussian blue.
7 parts of turpentine and 3 parts of damar. The amount of damar relative to
turpentine increases in the finishing layers.

The main component of color mixtures is the gray paint used in the dead
underlayer, with a little of Chinese Vermilion Extra, Yellow Ochre, perhaps a little
Cadmium Yellow Medium, and burnt umbra in the shadows, and sometimes
Permanent Madder Deep.
Thus, we are trying to leave as much dead underlayer open as possible, particularly
in half-shadows.
In the lightest areas we must achieve the thickest paint layer, and in the next tonal
step down towards the haf-tone, the paint layer must be much thinner, almost
transparent.
I must warn you: if you make a thick paint layer on the light forehead, try to avoid
dragging this thick layer all over the face when correcting and shading.

In connection with that I would like to repeat again: the painting brush is used to
apply the necessary amount of paint, the correcting brush is used as a palette knife
of a sculptor: it distributes paint on the canvas in areas of different thickness and
removes excessive paint. The fluffiest generalizing brush, touching the painted
surface with the very tips of its hairs, by no means reaching the dry layer,
smoothens the external
texture of the fresh paint.
If you feel that you have made a mistake in applying paint, or if you used the paint
of the wrong tonality, or if you would like to have more gray in a certain area, stop
your work and do it again. With a clean cloth wrapped on your finger, remove the
fresh paint. The advantage of working in the multiplayer technique is that it can be
compared to work on the computer. Drying a layer is like saving a file. When you
resume work, if something goes wrong, you can delete the fresh paint and go back
to the saved image; having oiled the surface, you can start the stage you are
working on afresh
In general, if you are learning the classical painting technique, you should
understand that in this school, the craftsmanship, the ability to work with materials,
the knowledge of methods and recipes are of utmost importance. The most
important, perhaps, is the ability to believe in these rules without questioning, your
thinking must be directed at studying rather than at analyzing, you will need your
analytical ability later, after we have studied all the Old Master’s advice contained in
books.
However, let’s go back to our portrait. Using light ochre, burnt umbra and the gray
mixture let’s make the iris warm, light green. At this, let’s not overpaint the gray
underlayer but only hint at this color. Also, using Prussian blue and the light gray,
let’s make the whites somewhat bluish, leaving as much gray underlayer unpainted
as possible.
Let’s not forget the shadow from the upper eyelid and the eyelashes in the upper
part of the whites. The bluishness of the whites is indicative of good health. The
more tired or old the eyes are the more blood vessels are found there, they kill the
bluishness and make the whites warmer, somewhat reddish.
Why does the person’s excitement reddens the person’s nose, ears, and cheeks?
This happens, perhaps, because the blood vessels are close to the surface of the
skin, consequently, from a distance, it seems that the skin changes its color in
general.
The human body has a number of parts that artists dislike to paint. For example,
bare feet. They, however, can be hidden in grass. Ears are also a very complicated
object, but they can be hidden in the hair or under a hat. Hands can be hidden in
the pockets or behind the back. The nose is the most complicated detail, there is no
way for us to hide it. The most sarcastic jokes concerning portraits are related to
the nose. That is why if we are not certain in the way we portray the nose or any
other parts of the body, we must take a pencil and paper and by tireless practicing
in drawing self-portraits turn our disadvantage into our strong point.
Let’s now talk about the color of the lips. I want to warn you against mistakes made
by many beginners: don’t make lips covered with lipstick. Using about the same
mixture that is used for the nose, with some Chinese Vermilion Extra in it, leaving
as much unpainted dead underlayer as possible, we can achieve the maximum
possible redness of the lips.
The lips are more like the mucous membrane than the skin, but because the lips
are outside and are subject to the influence of the sun and the wind, the thin glossy
surface wrinkles, forming a wavy relief. We should distinguish the pinkness caused
by the thinness and transparency of the skin, in this case the color comes from
under the skin, it’s the color of the blood, and the pinkness resulting from the color
of the suntan. The latter is a kind of external coloring resulting from the change of
the pigmentation of the skin caused by the sunbeams. In the latter case the
redness gets somewhat orangish. A little practical advice: try to avoid depicting the
suntan, even if your model spends all the time in southern beaches. If you make
the model’s skin pale and transparent, she will be only grateful to you. The
suntanned skin is beautiful in real life, in the portrait it doesn’t look very well.
Thus, the high color of the cheeks is partly the natural pinkness of the body, partly
the suntan, and partly it is the warm shadow under the cheekbone. In the old
times, in order to achieve the natural pinkness of the cheeks, many women rubbed
them with pumice stone. Don’t hesitate to show more rouge in the portrait, it looks
good. The main thing is to find the correct shape of the rouge area. Don’t try to find
its shape in your model. Look at the most famous female portraits of the 16-17th
centuries. I want to warn you, don’t make the rouge too close to the nose, the
pinkness around the nose indicates that the person has a cold.
Let’s not forget that the cheek is disappearing in the perspective, dissolving in the
contour of the face. From layer to layer, we work on that contour and do everything
lest it should look cut off.
We are not very lucky: the ear is not hidden in the hair. The good news is though
that it is in the shadow. Let’s make it hot, in accordance with the shadow tonality.

As far as the neck is concerned, I can say the following, the amount of sunshine
falling on the neck is the smallest, that’s why it is the least suntanned part,
especially, under the chin. The suntan is seen, in a small degree, only on the
collarbones.
Let’s now work on the lights that are almost dead and lighten them by somewhat
warming the shadows. As you may have noticed, this method differs from the
realistic dogmas. The classical painting lives by its own laws. In the realistic school,
it is the accepted norm to depict what the artist sees as close to the model as
possible. In the classical painting we have the firm laws of the method. Plainly
speaking, the classical technique is more conservative and is based on
craftsmanship, knowledge and skill to a much greater extent. Thanks to that, it is
characterized by a greater learnability than the realistic method.
The success of the realist artist depends largely on how well his or her name has
been publicized and on the gallery that helps the artist. A classical painting, on the
other hand, does not need much publicity, it does not depend very much on the
name of the author. If a painting is made according to the craftsmanship laws of
the Old Masters, its success is guaranteed by the centuries-long quality test.
Color Underlayer 2

We rub the surface with a half of an onion, as during the three months the painting
has overdried. The onion essential oils destroy the microfilm of the surface and
ensure good cohesion with oil paints. We rub the surface with a half of an onion, as
during the three months the painting has overdried. The onion essential oils destroy
the microfilm of the surface and ensure good cohesion with oil paints.

Then, we scrape off the dust and wipe the surface to remove excessive oil.
In this layer, we are going to use the same palette as in the previous layer.

This color layer will be thicker than all the previous layers, that is why we need to
make a sufficient amount of mixtures. The lightest mixture, let's call it the forehead
mixture, will be used in the lightest parts of the face. Another mixture, with some
Chinese Vermilion Extra in it, will be used as rouge for light parts of the cheeks and
nose. And we'll need another mixture, a warm dark one, to be added to shadows.
When making this mixture, we also add some Chinese Vermilion Extra.
The goal of this layer is to give the final characteristics of the color, to achieve the
necessary amount of paint in the lights, and in the maximum degree to complete
the nuances of the shadows.
The painted area is smaller in this layer in comparison with the previous one, we
are not working on the highlights yet, but on the lightest parts of the light areas. As
far as the shadow parts are concerned, like in the previous layers, the paint layer
should be made as thin as possible.

About the half tones I can say only this: they should have been finished in the
previous layers.
However, if in this layer you haven't worked well enough on the color
characteristics, you can, without destroying the main coldness of the half tone, add
some color strokes, with subsequent blending, of course.
We are now preparing the eye for completion in the most careful way. Remember,
that two bright high lights on the eyes will make them complete. Now try the
eyebrows, but it is better to leave them fluffy and not concrete.
Let me remind you that the reflection is warmer than the light, and the shadow on
the side of the reflection is warmer than the one on the side of the half shadow. Be
careful with the pinkness of the nose: a little more red, and the nose may look
clownish.

Also, please keep in mind that blending, that is correcting and generalizing,
weakens the intensity of the color, making the applied layer more transparent.
Besides, if you dry your painting in the sun, which is very good for the multilayer
painting, the effect is the same. The upper layers loose the intensity of color
because of the sunbeams, and the pigmentation of the layer reaches its most
lightfast condition.
Let me again remind you of the main principle of making layers: make each next
layer a half tone lighter and more colorful than the previous layer in light areas,
and in the shadow make each layer darker and more colorful than the previous
layer. The lightest parts of the face are where the high lights are located. As you
see, some color work is repeated practically tone to tone, reducing the painted area
and increasing the color intensity. Please note that the shadow on the cheek's high
color is much hotter than the shadow of the cheekbone itself.

You can now see how we blend several different areas. The correcting brush is used
briskly and carefully, as if examining the situation before actually touching the
canvas, in order not to spoil the main idea of the mixtures' location. Only after we
make sure that the mixtures are distributed correctly, we blend everything very
gently with the generalizing brush to achieve the desired valeur.
What does valeur mean? It is a French term used by artists to denote a
combination of characteristics of the locally treated surface. In other words, it
denotes the color, tone and texture chosen by the author in order to depict an
element of a painted surface. For example, to depict the chin, we use three valeurs,
they are the shadow of the chin itself, its color, and its lightest part. But, if we look
at lightest part of the chin, we can find several valeurs there, too.
The terms I've been using to define certain qualities of the classical painting
technique are in a certain degree conditional. Unfortunately, there doesn't exist a
professionally compiled dictionary of artistic terms. The best we can do is to refer to
one or another generally recognized author, or to take the responsibility of finding a
reasonable term ourselves, based on the material we have read and studied, as
well as on our beliefs and knowledge.
It is now time to discuss one more term: the color integrity. It means the
adjustment of the intrinsic colors of objects resulting from the color of the source of
light. In the light parts, the color adjustment may depend on the sunlight coming
from the window, the half tone color depends on the dead underlayer, and the
shadow parts should be adjusted in relation to the light coming from the darkness,
for example, from a fireplace or from a candle.
You can now see an attempt to support an element of the color integrity in the cold
half-shadow between the light and the darkness: the cold half-tone spreads all over
the portrait. It must also be present in the background.
Finishing Layer

Thus, the main work has been done. Now we need to complete our portrait. We
shall place the final highlights, add some more color at places, and work on the
tiniest details. We shall sign the painting and leave it dry until it is ready to be
covered with varnish.

The highlight in essence is the depiction of the degree of the reflecting ability of the
surface, that is of its texture. The smaller and brighter the highlight is, the glossier
the surface is. The larger, softer, and calmer the highlight is, the matter the surface
is.
Without doubt, we can say that the glossiest surface is that of the eye, that's why
the high lights on it are as sharp as on a water drop. However, even here the size
of the high light means a lot. They say that a healthy eye has some tear in it, it is a
little wet. In order to achieve this, the contour of the high light must be made as
sharp as possible. Give the high light as much texture as possible, make it as high
as you can without increasing its size. We should carefully analyze certain areas of
the skin, it is clear that the chin and the cheeks are the mattest. The second in
matteness is the forehead, and the glossiest will be the tip of the nose. That is why,
when you make high lights on the forehead and the cheeks, don't forget to blend
them well, otherwise the skin will look wet.

As we can see, the highlight of the eye is very far from the lightest part of the skin.
It is made on the basis of Flake White with some Yellow Cadmium Medium and
Chinese Vermilion Extra. To avoid that mixture being too bright on the skin, it is
made duller with burnt umbra.
Before you begin the finishing layer, prepare your blending brushes well. A smallest
speck of dust in the brush's hair can spoil the delicate blending work. This
accentuated rouge on the cheeks is made without any gray at all. In the finishing
stage, it is recommended to generalize the shadows, deepening them and
dissolving their contour completely in the darkness of the space.
This method is believed to have been invented by Leonardo da Vinci and is called
"sfumato". The goal is to eliminate contours where possible, we blend them to
disappear in the air perspective. In general, it is very difficult to learn something
from Leonardo da Vinci because his technique is flawlessly perfect, and as a result,
unobservable. His numerous treatises on painting and philosophy can only inspire
art theoreticians.
There are two main requirements to the portrait. First, the portrait must be a
precise depiction of the model's face, second, the portrait must be an object of art
itself. In order to be a successful portraitist, one must learn the canonical
proportions, especially the details of the face, eyes, nose, mouth, ears and hair; to
understand the construction of the human skull, to learn to depict facial
expressions, deformations due to age, and the difference between the male and the
female face. You should constantly practice in sketching portraits, body positions,
facial expressions, practice in painting parts of the face, for example, the nose and
the eyes at different angles. And only after you have mastered all these
foundations, begin copying the Old masters' painting, preferably, their originals in
the museums, or, in the worst case, very good reproductions.
When painting the details of the hair, don't try to paint every single hair, or a single
hair as a whole. Hair is a very delicate object, it dissolves in the space and from a
distance we can see not the hair itself but some of its highlights and shadows.
Experiment, search for the direction of the curl, make a series of sharp highlights,
just outlining the character and the structure of the curl. The most frequent mistake
of the beginners is the desire to paint every single hair, every curl, which creates a
wiry effect, making it look unnatural. Hair must remain fluffy, mixing into the
background.
Thus, we are coming to the completion of our portrait. I will briefly remind you of
all the stages:

The pencil drawing is outlined in ink; the next stage is the imprimatura, that is the
selection of the middle tone of the lightest area, in our case, of the face. After the
imprimatura has dried, several umbra underlayers are made. Umbra is in essence a
tonal drawing.

The dead underlayers come next. Their purpose is to complete the tonality and to
achieve the necessary thickness in the light areas. The dead underlayers have the
valeurs of half tones and the valeurs of cold nuances of the color layers.

After the dead layer, there comes a couple of flesh-color layers, that bring the color
characteristics to the portrait.

We finish the portrait with one, and sometimes with two texture layers, that define
the color and the size of the high lights. We work on the tiniest details and the
characteristics of the surfaces.

After six months of drying, the painting is covered with vanish. The proportion of
the damar varnish for covering is two parts of turpentine and one part of dry
damar, or the ready-made damar varnish sold at art supplies stores.

I wish you success in your work at mastering your painting technique!