A Guide To Painting Portraits

Portraits are a special kind of painting for the sole reason that you are painting a human being. The way in which you craft your subject makes a big difference, as it cannot be ill-shapen or the finished product will be ruined. Discovering how you would create a portraiture requires that you learn different things than if your interest were in other styles of art, therefore it is of the utmost importance that your are familiar with specific ways of painting in order to produce the best piece possible. A lot can be accomplished with just a handful of cheap modern art supplies and a vision of what you want.

To Study Your Muse...

Being a portrait artist begins with a close inspection of the person you are painting so that you can bring out the qualities that differentiate him from everyone else. It is important that you develop your observation skills because you will be deciding on what to do with your subject and how to manipulate him/her and his/her surroundings to make a good painting come to life. As much as possible, try not to put every single detail that you see in the portrait like how many moles are in the face or if there’s a strand of white hair in the subject’s scalp. Pick out what is important and what stands out and use that as a strong point in your portrait.

Depicting People...

A lot of art students who learn to do portraits, whether with an oil or acrylic based paint set, have a problem with the skin of the subject. Not only that, they have to learn how to paint using light and shadow to really bring out the beauty of their subject. People are featured in several colors. That is why there isn't one way to mix paint together and get the proper tone, and also what makes this a sticking point for those just starting out in portraiture. The answer to this is simple trial and error until you come across just the right mix to match your subject's pigmentation. Other aspects of a person that can take time to get right are areas such as the ears or the upper part of the nose. Like I said, experiment and try out different ways on how to paint the body and the face to be able to come up with your own formula for paint mixtures and your own style in painting features.

Backgrounds Should Not be Too Detailed...

You may have placed your subject in front of a complicated background. If you are planning on adding this background to the portrait, be sure not to put too much detail in because it will distract you and you will suddenly realize your focus isn’t on the subject anymore. Also, try as best as you can to manipulate the amount of light and shadow around the subject to add a more intense effect to your portrait. Just like in photography, if you know how to use light and shadow, your portraits will definitely have a much stronger effect on people than a portrait that is plainly the way it is with no touch of light whatsoever. Making this real impact on a viewer is what every artist strives to achieve, no matter what the chosen subject may be. It's what makes creative endeavors so rewarding. Where else can you achieve such a response using nothing more than a quality cheap stretched canvas and a handful of other low-cost supplies.

Great Art Is Good For The Soul

The ability to admire fine art is habitually dismissed as simply a way to defeat boredom or while away the hours of the day. Outside of those who have specifically followed a career in the arts, becoming masters of the brush, palette, and folding easel, we generally only get to follow our passion when we can get away from the nine to five.

You might be hard-pressed, however, to find anyone who would go so far as to fully compare the arts to other diversions. Some of us play poker, and some of us go horseback riding, kayaking, or simply like to knit. But few things have the ability to help us reflect on the human condition as much as outstanding artwork can.

The ability to fully grasp a great work is a learned response. Most folks have to get themselves accustomed to the delicacies that exist in a painting before they can truly let go and enjoy. To the individual who cannot relate, merely the sight of someone who takes pleasure in the arts gazing into a painting for an extended period of time may be downright laughable. They have trouble empathizing with the art lover, unable to relate to what she may be going through. A typhoon of mixed feelings may be swelling up inside her even as she seems so peaceful and still.

The painter and the preacher aren't really that different in that they both have their own point of view which they have a feverish desire to impart to their fellow man. One works with their discount easels and wrought iron easels, the other with the Good Book and the power of their voice. A finished painting is the artist's way of speaking to us. As he or she has no way of knowing whether it may be the first or the last conversation, each great artist tries to make every painting another masterpiece.

Exceptional artwork can share with us any thought out there from a spiritual declaration to a moralistic judgment, to an endorsement of which political party is the most just. Paintings can call forth profound emotional reactions. This can give us a deep insight into the artist's chosen topic in a way that is impossible to duplicate via other mediums.

In viewing an artist's work, we often find that they are guiding us on the journey of self discovery, offering a means by which we can ponder where our own place is in the annals of time. Most of us would never consider this were it not for a piece of fine art to spur us forward. Artists work for the greater good of us all by enabling such insights. That more grownup way of analyzing our lives helps to turn us into wiser versions of ourselves.

Extended contemplation as a result of fine art does often make one reexamine ways of thinking that have been present for years. For instance, after a day spent browsing artwork, it wouldn't be unheard of for a mom to be moved to take more time out to devote to her child because life is too short. A person of faith will quite possibly get something else entirely out of the contemplation of art, maybe having to do with his or her relationship with God.

Even someone who invests his time in more earthly pursuits may be forced to reevaluate the importance of everything that he does. Parts of ourselves that we may not know exist sometimes come to the surface during quiet moments with great paintings. If it helps us to be the very best people we can be, then isn't our time spent with the artistic masters well spent?

Where did Outlet Stores Begin?

Outlet stores could have sprung up from country potteries that sold their less than perfect products as “seconds” for reduced prices.  Stoneware jugs, crocks and churns are examples of a utilitarian antique pottery that spanned the early 19th century through the Civil War and beyond.  They progressed from being one-man made to being mass produced by the hundreds in large factories.

 Collectors can trace this ceramic from a rippled hand thrown ovoid jug to straight sided assembly line advertising crocks.  Maker’s marks and capacity marks were often impressed or stenciled on factory products.  These wares were heavy and inexpensive and were often sold door-to-door on the back of a wagon.  One of the first decorations used from the early 19th century until about 1840 was a scratch design known as sgraffito.  A sharp wire or nail produced the simple design.  Other decorations favored by collectors are slip-trailed (raised) or painted designs of intricate blue flowers, birds, animals or scenes that are charmingly naive in their rendering.  By the 4th quarter of the 19th century, time was recognized as money and decorations might be only a casual stenciled swirl unless a special gift was ordered.

 As modern conveniences developed, stoneware containers dwindled in popularity.  Glass containers and bottles became common place by the 1840s.  By 1860, glass was actually becoming less expensive than stoneware in cities and by 1880, factory made oak iceboxes lined with metal revolutionized home refrigeration causing crock stoneware to lose more business.  In 1919, prohibition effectively destroyed the stoneware whiskey jug and beer bottle business.    

Logan Adams is an expert and Certified Personal Property Appraiser.  Logan ownes The Specialists of the South in Panama City, FL.  The Specialists of the South perform a variety of services including an amazing online auction site with really nice items for you to bid on.