The Biggest Mistake People Make When Portrait Painting
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- Опубліковано 9 січ 2022
- In this Portrait Painting Tutorial, realist painter Alex tzavaras talks about one of the biggest mistakes people make when portrait painting - Over Modelling.
For Alex's course on the fundamentals of oil painting visit:
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
Over modelling happens when you focus in on each small are of your subject separately and exaggerate the differences in light and dark tonal values in oil painting. If you then exaggerate the tonal values in painting within each small area, you loose the larger value relationships and your image so it no longer appears 3D. This is a really common beginner oil painting mistake.
To avoid over modelling, you need to see the whole before the parts. You need to establish the larger tonal value relationships by simplifying your subject into 3 or 4 main tonal values. However, simplifying your subject into large value masses is one of the most difficult things we have to do when painting. But in this video, Alex demonstrates what this actually looks like in practice, while an Alla prima portrait from life, using a monochrome or grissaille oil painting technique . He also shows you a really useful tool in Adobe Photoshop, The Median Tool, that you can use to simplify the tonal values for you, when you are working from reference photos.
Alex Tzavaras is a contemporary realist artist offering portrait painting and alla prima oil painting tutorials. Alex teaches the traditional painting techniques artists used to draw and paint from life up until the start of the 20th century.
Connect with Alex:
/ alex_tzavaras
/ simplifydrawingandpain...
/ alextzavaras
alextzavaras.com
I have just realised that I can simply take my glasses off and I can see the blocks/forms without having to squint (or use any software); getting a bit closer, I can actually see the four values - OMG!
Many thanks for the video.
Thank you very much! Glad this was helpful.
Short sighted super powers
hahah congrats, making lemonade from lemons
"Learning to recognize the main values is actualyl one of the most difficult things we have to do when painting. In our everyday lives we dont need to see the whole before the parts, we need to see the item we are looking for in a supermarket shelf, or the number of a bus we waiting for, so our brains have been programmed to focus on detail. Learning to simplify the world into simple light and dark shapes goes against our nature and requires a great deal of effort and practice."
To me, thats the best teaching in this whole video, thank you for that!
I have taught this way to my Art students for years. Sadly, they have been given technology as a distraction from birth and it's now a safety blanket/addiction. Making them focus on anything for more than 2 seconds is impossible.
Such a great demonstration. Really clear and informative. I wouldn't worry about repetition - I usually need to be told stuff repeatedly before it goes in :)
B.
Same here. 😉
Honestly, the median trick changed my life as a painter.
I have a full education in graphic design, fine art, and illustration so most tips and tricks on youtube and ''advanced photoshop techniques'' are just not useful or new to me, it is so rare to find a small thing like this that just absolutely changes everthing.
It's great isn't it. It does what we're supposed to be doing in our heads when we squint at our subjects. One of my students who is a graphic designer showed it to me. I was explaining the idea of simplifying the values, and he was like, "I get it, you want us to do what the median tool does in photoshop". I now use it all the time, when I work from photos, or to critique my online students work.
Sketching is almost everything. It is the painter’s identity, his style, his conviction, and then color is just a gift to the drawing
beautifully put
This is the exact problem my professor was trying to explain to me in my work. I was over modeling! You have freaking saved my grade! I'm going to fix my work tonight! Thank you so much!
Thank you Kyla! Glad it was helpful.
I'm a total beginner, and your videos on the fundamentals are super-helpful for me!
Proportions, Values, Edges and Modelling, Colour . . . thanks for teaching about all this! I'm grateful to have found your channel. Simplify, Alex! :D
Thank you very much! Glad you find my videos so helpful.
I'm primarily a digital artist, and I constantly refer to your lessons to help my approach to painting digitally.
I didn't know about that median tool. I usually use the function 'posterize' to achieve a similar result. The median function seems to give a softer transition between the values though
The posterise simplifies the values just as well, but I prefer the medium because it looks just like squinting.
This was incredible, thank you so much! All things I knew in theory, but it’s hard to apply them in practice so it’s so useful to see the entire process broken down.
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
This is one of the most useful tutorials on portrait painting I've ever come across! None of my teachers in school or uni ever elaborated on this! We were just expected to know!
That's because teachers at main stream art schools no longer know any of this stuff.
Thank you so much for this demonstration!! Ive been trying to teach myself to paint with values but Ive hit a road-block cause I would always over-model and then get really discouraged by just how bad it would end up looking. I cant wait to give it another shot with this new info!
Love it. 3 general tones, a darkest dark and a lightest light.
Yes, this is key. Then they will give you a scale for when you add more subtle shifts in value.
Excellent presentation! Really useful. Stops one racing ahead into tonal mistakes. Thank you for your effort!
Thank you, this contained a piece I've been missing in trying to jump from line drawing and sketching to painting forms.
I like this analytical approach. Art world needs more teachers like that.
Great Video Alex, Thank you .
brilliant video, shared it with a life class that I attend.
Thank you for sharing. Much appreciated.
Happy new year Alex! Another brilliant video, thank you! I'm definitely planning to take some of your courses this year, I'm really keen to push my painting forward this year.
Happy New Year to you too! The excellent news, here's to a productive year of painting.
Always love your demos ❤❤🙏
One of the best painting tutorials I have ever watched!
Always a pleasure to see you have uploaded Alex, really some of the most informative and quality painting advice available on the internet
Thank you very much Zak!
Wonderful demonstration. Very very helpful❤
Blooming brilliant! Great advice. Thank you!
Thank you very much! Glad it was helpful
Excellent video, that overmodeled version of the portrait is my nightmare!
I struggled with over modelling for years. Establishing the larger values masses early on, during the block-in, is the way managed to prevent myself from doing it. Then all you have to do is to try and avoid completely destroying them as you add subtle half tones and reflected lights etc.
One of the better portrait tutorials I’ve seen. Clear and informative. I’ll use this advice.
Thank you very much Leslie! Glad you found it helpful.
Thanks Alex, really enjoying the Patreon content. Worth every cent.
Thank you very much! Glad you think so.
Great teaching thank you
Fantastic! Thank you.
Thank you Lauren!
Perfeckt. die geschwindigkeit ist aber so schnell. 💖danke
Great as always-cheers Alex!
Thanks Tim!
The name of your channel is perfect. You completely simplified something I've struggled with forever in drawing portraits. Great teaching.
Thank you very much! Glad this was helpful.
Thank you so much! Never stop educating us please. And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thank you Laura!
Thank you so very much for sharing.
Such a wonderful demo. Very helpful! Thank you for posting
Thank you for watching! Glad it was helpful.
Interesting to find out I didn't know what I didn't know! Thank you!
Excellent video and perfect teaching method, thank you, Maestro.
Thank you Regina, glad you found this helpful.
Amazing just watching this come to life. Thank you
Thank you Willie! Glad you enjoyed it.
This is exactly the video i needed! Thank you!
Thankyou so much Alex for sharing this demonstration. Really helpful video. 🙏
Thank you Deepinder!
your examples are very clear , you are a great teacher and a great artist
Thank you Maria! Glad you found this helpful.
Fantastic educational demonstration thank you!
Thank you Henk! Glad it was helpful.
Bravo! You are one amazing teacher!
Thank you Marlene!
Thank you for teaching this!
Thank you for watching. I'm glad it was helpful.
Happy New Year Alex! A wonderful demo. So clear! Thank you.
Thanks Ann! Happy New year to you too.
Well described and well done.. Thank you for sharing 🙏
Thank you Emir, glad it was helpful.
Great tuto!
Thank you so much, this is exactly what I've been trying to work on! 💖
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
Absolutely stunning there is a lot of useful info here for both digital and traditional artist alike.
Thank you! Yes indeed. These phenomena of shapes, values and also colour are visual, so learning how to see and interpret them applies to any media when working from life.
Superb lesson
Very well explained.
This is pure gold!
Thank you!
this makes me miss painting so much
Hopefully you might get back into it?
Super video. Simplifying in general is truly one of the biggest challenges when it comes to beginners. Shapes, values, colors. Everything. Thank you
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it.
great video, thank you so much it was really helpful
one the best videos about painting that I've seen, thank you!
Thank you very much Nathan!
This is extremely helpful, and inspiring! Thank you Alex.
Thank you very much Eugene! Glad you liked it.
You are a great teacher, always explaining everything in so simple way...Thank you !
Thank you Ivelina! Glad you like my videos..
thank you so much for the video! such a great demonstration
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
This is exactly what I was struggling with, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Happy New year! What a fantastic and clearly explained video on values and simplifying! It's the first time I've watched one of your videos and I'll be popping over to your patreon shortly for the full course! Thank you!
Thank you very much Katy! Glad this was helpful.
Muchas gracias por su aportación, aprendí mucho 😊
This is really useful for many mediums
You always hit the nail on the head
I love your videos. All of them
Thank you very much Ada! Glad you think so.
Great and inspiring video! Thanks so much!!
Thank you Cynthia!
You’re a great artist and teacher. Thank you so much for all these teachings!!
My pleasure! Thank you for watching.
thank you so much it was very helpful
This is so good, your points are a great value, but it's so amazing to see that the values are simplified and yet the likeness is remarkable!
Thank you. Glad you liked it.
Awesome.Thanks a lot😊
Big thanks Alex for sharing how to simplifying portrait painting...iv'e learned a lot from you
Thank you very much! Glad it was helpful.
I’m going to paint a portrait of my great niece- your videos have given me such insight.
amazing, thank you for opening my eyes to such practicality
Thanks. Glad you liked it.
Great video, thanks! Good clear explanations, good demonstration.
Thank you! Glad this was helpful
Thank you! Your explanation was extremely helpful!
Thanks Tara! Glad it was helpful.
Thank you, Alex. Very informative
Thanks Joe! Glad this was helpful.
incredible and helpful thanks so much for sharing
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
Fantastic tips. Eager to try it, thanks!
Brilliant Monica! Good luck with it.
really glad I found this material. I knew that there is some basis I didn't get, not the form but the value frst. I used to draw complicated sketch involving huge amount of planes of the head, but never really I have been able to paint it then.
Turns out I was focusing on the local relationships of value, but not looking at the overall relationships!
Thanks a lot!
Yes Indeed. You need to think about the big planes first as this will enable to establish a few main values. The value of the smaller planes will always be more subtle and fit in-between the main values if that makes sense.
this was soooo clear and simple to understand ... You have no idea how much this is helping.. THANK YOU!
Thank you for watching Aiza. Glad my videos have been helpful.
Definitely need to take this alla prima course! Exciting
I think this is the best demonstration I have seen on this subject. Thank you
Thank you very much!
Great video and tutorial! Thank you!
Thank you Christos! Glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent demo as always . Nice to see you back please continue with weekly or fortnightly videos .
Thank you very much! I would love to be able to release videos more regularly, but at is it I try to post one video a month. Since starting my patreon channel, I also have to post a video on there every month. My videos on there are all filmed in real time so are usually one hour long, so they take much longer to write. Then there is also trying to find time to do my own painting.
Thank you for this really informative video ! This is super helpful, I don’t paint often but I have been doing it in school for a while and they do touch on “squinting at the subject” but they don’t often go into detail like you did. This will really help me with doing portraits in the future !
Thank you! Glad it was helpful.
This is the best portrait demo I’ve ever seen -Thank You
Thank you Paul! Glad it was helpful.
Thank you so much Alex ,…this video was very useful!👍🏻😃
Thank you Ingrid. Glad it was helpful.
Fantastic video.
Incredibly helpful
Thank you!
this is amazing!
simply fantastic, inspiring portrait work.
Thank you very much!
Thank you, very useful information.
Thanks Cathy! Glad it was helpful.
By far the best explanation on UA-cam👏🏼👏🏼
Thank you very much! Glad you liked it.
Wow thanks!
I must say, you actually got his likeness at this stage - something other youtubers rarely accomplish.
Thank you Jose!
Terrific demo! You are always very pedagogical.
Thanks Paul!
You remind me of my dad, but a calmer, more comforting version of him. This video was very comforting as a whole. Very lovely painting, thank you for the tips!
Thank you!
Amazing, thank you!
Thank you Marie!
All your videos are really helpful! Thanks for sharing your knowledge in painting! Happy 2023 and more power to you!
Thank you very much Jaycee. Happy New Year to you too!
This was really helpful. Thank you
Thank you Karen!
The great masters very rarely lighted a sitter on the far side of his face. In other words, the subject's head was turned away from the light.