Gavin McDermott

We started the first session of Peter Keegan’s Fundamentals of Portraiture with a discussion around expectations and being kind to ourselves.

Be kind to yourself!
It’s difficult!

Under painting was with raw umber (earth tones dry quicker than titanium white and cadmium pigments, and burnt umber or burnt sienna would have been equally appropriate–earth tones and transparent ).

As most portraits are life-size or bigger we worked in a life-size space, and painted on a 16” × 20” canvas, and used a hand span as an approximation of chin-to-forehead for initial marks.

Next, we painted in the central axis of the face (quite scumbly), before then considering the shape of the head, and the position and angle of the eyes. NB the height of the eyes depends upon the angle of the head, so isn’t always neatly in half way.

Mid-Course Correction

This is one place where oils and acrylics deviate: oils can just be rubbed out (with a clean brush in solvent if required).

Because of this, there is no expectation of perfection, but rather a series of adjustments and corrections. The golden triangle is the relationship between eyes, nose and mouth, and these three in harmony is key.