A Direct But Considered Approach To Painting A Portrait

The Art of the portrait.

- John Michael Carter

I have always been attracted to “direct painting” as a method for working in oil. It allows me to express a visual interpretation of my subject while at the same time retaining the characteristics of the paint, application process and artistic decisions I made while creating it. This “painterly” approach lends a quality of spontaneity to the work as well as allowing the viewer to visually participate in my process as I translate my visual experience into the language of paint. However, don’t make the mistake of confusing “painterly” with fast and reckless paint strokes made in a passion of creativity because this method actually requires a process of thoughtfully considered applications of paint, and it only appears to be quickly executed due to the economy of those paint applications. Let’s take a step-by-step look at this process used in my portrait of Sarah.

STAGE 1: I begin with a 24-by-18-inch canvas panel. I cover the panel with a turpentine wash of cobalt blue, yellow ochre and a bit of titanium white loosely applied with a broad bristle brush. I do this to give my painting surface, a value similar to that of my grey palette. Any value that I mix and judge to be correct on my palette will also appear to be correct on the canvas.