PORTRAITS
Don't look upon portraits as something any one can do. A portrait is
more than a likeness, and the painting of it gives scope for all of
the great qualities possible in art. Only a great painter can paint a
great portrait. Some great painters rest their fame on work in this
field, and others have added by this to the fame derived from other
kinds of work.
You must not think it easy to paint a portrait, or rest satisfied with
having got a likeness. Likeness is a very commonplace thing, which
almost any one can get. If there were no other qualities to be tried
for, it would hardly be worth while to paint a portrait. Back of the
likeness, which a few superficial lines may give, is the character,
which needs not only skill and power to express but great perception
to see, and judgment to make use of to the best advantage.
=Character.=--The first requisite in a good portrait is
character,--more than likeness, more than color or grace, before
everything else, it needs this; nothing can take the place of it and
make a portrait in any real sense of the word. Everything else may be
added to this, and the picture be only so much the greater; but this
is the fundamental beauty of the portrait. Some of the greatest
painters made pictures which were very beautiful, yet the greatest
beauty lay in the perception and expression of character. Holbein's
wonderful work is the apotheosis of the direct, simple, sincere
expression of character in the most frank and unaffected rectitude of
drawing. There are masterpieces of Albrecht Duerer which rest on the
same qualities, as you can see in the Portrait of Himself by Duerer.
Likeness is incidental to character; get that, and the likeness will
be there in spite of you.
Hubert Herkomer said once that he did not try for likeness; if only he
got the right values in the right places, the likeness had to be
there. The same can hardly be said of character, for this depends on
the selection from the phases of expression which are constantly
passing on the face, those which speak most of the personality of the
man; and the emphasis of these to the sacrifice of others. The
painting of character is interpretation of individuality through the
painting of the features, and, like all interpretation, depends more
on insight and selection than on representation. Try for this always.
Search for it in the manner, in the pose and occupation, of your
sitter. Get likeness if you will, of course; but remember that there
is a petty likeness, which may be accident or not, which you can
always get by a little care in drawing; and that there is a larger
character which includes this, and does not depend on exaggeration of
feature or emphasis of accidental lines, but on the large
expressiveness of the individual. You may find it elsewhere than in
the face. The character affects the whole movement of the man. The set
of the head and the great lines of the face, the head and shoulders
alone would give it to you even if the features were left out. Study
to see this, and to express it first, and then put in as much detail
as you see fit, only taking care never to lose the main thing in
getting those details.
=Qualities.=--There are other great qualities also which you can get
in a portrait. All the qualities of color and tone, of course. But the
simplicity of a single figure does not preclude the qualities of line
and mass. The great things to be done with composition may as well be
done in portrait as elsewhere. If you would see what may be done with
a single figure, study the Portrait of his Mother, by Whistler. You
could not have a better example. It is one of the greatest portraits
of the world. Notice the character which is shown in every line and
plane in the figure. The very pose speaks of the individuality. Notice
the grace and repose of line, and the relations of mass to mass and
space--the proportion. See how quiet it is and simple, yet how just
and true. Of the color you cannot judge in a black and white, but you
can see the relations of tones, the values and the drawing. It is
these things which make a picture; not only a portrait, but a great
work of art as well.
[Illustration: =Duerer=, _by Himself_.
To be studied as an example of directness and naivete of painting.]
[Illustration: =Portrait of his Mother.= _Whistler._]
=Drawing.=--Good work in portraiture depends on good drawing, just as
other work does. Don't think that because it is only a head you can
make it more easily than anything else. As in other kinds of work,
the drawing you should try for is the drawing of the proportions and
characteristic lines. Get the masses and the more important planes,
and don't try for details. You can get these afterwards, or leave them
out altogether, and they will not be missed if your work has been well
done.
Don't undertake too much in your work. Make up your mind how much you
can do well, and don't be too ambitious; the best painters who ever
lived have been content to work on a head and shoulders, and have made
masterpieces of such paintings. You may be content also. See how
little Velasquez could make a picture of! and notice also the placing
of the head, and the simplicity of mass, and of light and shade.
=Painting.=--Of course you can help your color with glazing and
scumbling, but work for simplicity first. It is not necessary to use
all sorts of processes; you can get fine results and admirable
training from portrait studies, and the more directly you do it, the
better the training will be.
Study the Portrait of Himself, by Albrecht Duerer. You will find no
affectation here; the most simple and direct brush-work only. You will
not be able to do this sort of thing, but that is no reason why you
should not try for it. It will depend on the brush-stroke. It implies
a precision of eye as well as of hand. It means drawing quite as much
as painting,--drawing in the painting. You will not get this great
precision; nevertheless, try for it, and get as near it as you can.
Don't try for too much cleverness; be content with good sincere study,
and the most direct expression of planes that you can give.
[Illustration: =Portrait of Himself.= _Velasquez._]
Let your brush follow lines of structure. Don't lay on paint across a
cheek, for instance. Notice the direction of the muscle fibre. It is
the line of contraction of the muscle which gives the anatomical
structure to a face. If your brush follows those, you will find that
it takes the most natural course of direction.
Do the same with the planes of the body and of the clothing. Note the
lines of action, and the brush-stroke will naturally follow them.
See that the whole form, and particularly the head, "constructs." The
head is round, more or less; it is not flat. The planes of it cross
the plane of the canvas, recede from it, cross behind, and return.
This in all directions. You must make your painting express this. It
is not enough that there be features, the features must be part of a
whole which is surrounded, behind as well as in front, by the
atmosphere. The hair is not just hair, it is the outer covering of the
skull, and of necessity follows the curves of the skull; and there is
a back part to the skull which you cannot see, but which you can
feel--can know the presence of, because of the way it is connected
with the front part by the sides. All this you must make evident in
your painting, as well as the facts which are on the side of the skull
turned toward you. How make it evident? By values and directness of
brush-stroke.
=Background.=--Never treat the background as something different from
the head. The whole thing must go together. The slightest change in
the background is equivalent to that much change of the head itself.
For the change means necessarily a different contrast, either of color
or light and shade, and it will have its effect on the color or relief
of the head.
Paint the two together, then. Make the head and all that goes with it
or around it as equally parts of the picture, which all tend to affect
each other. Your background is not something which can be laid in
after the head is finished. True you can paint the background
immediately around the head first, and then, after painting the head,
extend the background to the edge of the canvas; but the color, tone,
and character of the background must be decided upon at the time the
head is painted, and carried on in the same feeling.
It is never good work to paint the head and then paint a background
behind it. Particularly is this true when there are windows or any
objects whatever in the background. It is most important that the
whole thing shall be seen in the same kind of light, and in the same
relation of light. This is hardly to be done when the head is one
painting and the background another.
[Illustration: =Portrait.= _D. Burleigh Parkhurst._]
This is not rigidly true, however, in cases when the whole thing is
planned beforehand, and studies made for each part, as in elaborate
portraits and compositions which include several figures or special
surroundings. But the principle holds good here also. The relation
must be kept of the head to the surroundings, and the effect of the
one upon the other always kept in mind.
=Complex Portraits.=--It is often possible to pose your model so as to
bring out some characteristic occupation. This is often done in
portraits of distinguished men. Such a treatment gives opportunity for
composition both of the figure and of the various objects which may
make up the background.
In such pictures you should study arrangement of line and mass, to
make the thing aesthetically interesting as well as interesting as a
portrait. Composition in mass,--the consideration of the head and
shoulders in relation to the space of the canvas,--is necessary in the
simplest head; but as soon as the canvas takes in a representation of
action on the part of the figure, line and movement must be
considered, as was done so beautifully in Whistler's portrait. In this
the study of composition is your problem. You may study it all the
time and in every picture you do, but it should be worked out before
you begin to paint.
Plan your canvas carefully always. Know just where everything is
coming. When you leave things to chance, you are pretty sure to have
trouble later.
=Portraits Good Training.=--I would not have you undertake to paint a
portrait rashly. You should know what you are to expect. If you are
not pretty sure of your drawing, and of the first principles of seeing
color in nature, and of representing it on canvas, you are likely to
get discouraged. Particularly if a friend poses for you, you may
expect disappointment on both sides. Drawing a head from the life is a
very different thing from drawing an inanimate object which will stay
in one position as long as you can pay the rent. So in the painting of
it, too, the color itself is alive. Flesh is something very elusive to
see the color of. And when you find that just as you begin to get
things well under way, or are in a particularly tight place, just at
that moment your model must rest, you must stop while the position is
changed and gotten back to again; then you will begin to realize that
"_la nature ne s'arrete pas_."
I would have you know all this, I say, before you begin on your first
portrait; but, nevertheless, if you can get a start at it you will
find it extremely good practice. The very difficulties bring more
definitely to you the real problems of painting. The fact that it is
really the representation of something which has life has an interest
quite of its own. The constant change of position on the part of the
model will make you more observant, and less regardful of details; or
if you do regard the details, and forget the other things, it will
show you how inadequate those details are to real expression, unless
there is something larger to place them on.
Don't undertake the painting of a head without considering well that
you are likely to have trouble, and that the trouble you will have is
most likely to be of a kind that you don't expect. But, having begun,
keep your head and your grit, and do the best you can. Remember that
you learn by mistakes, and failures are a part of every man's work,
and of every painter's experience, and not only of your own.
You will save your self-esteem from considerable bruising if you make
it a point never to let your sitter see your work till you are pretty
well over the worst of it. The knowledge that it is to be seen will
make you work less unconsciously, and you will find yourself trying
for likeness, and all that sort of thing, when that is not what you
should be thinking about; and if, after all, the thing is a failure,
it is a great consolation to know that no one but yourself has seen
it!
=Beginning a Portrait.=--The ways of beginning portraits are
innumerable. There is no one right way. Some are right for one painter
or subject, and some for others; but there are some methods which are
more advisable for the beginner.
You can begin and carry through your painting entirely with body
color, or you can begin it with _frottees_, and paint solidly into
that. Take these two methods as types, and work in one or the other,
according to what are the special qualities you want your work to
have.
If you have never painted a head, and have some knowledge of the use
of paint and of drawing, I would suggest that you make a few studies
of the head and shoulders, life size, in solid color, and on a not too
large canvas, say sixteen by twenty inches. This will leave you no
extra space, and you can devote your whole attention to the study of
the head, with only a few inches of background around it. You will
probably make the head too large. A head looks larger than it really
is, especially when you are putting it on canvas. If you measure them
you will find that few heads will be longer than nine inches from the
top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. Take this as the regular
size in drawing it on your canvas, and make the other proportions
according to that.
Make a drawing of the outlines in straight lines, which shall give
only the main proportions of the head, neck, and shoulders. Within
this, block out the features largely. Don't draw the eyes, but only
the shape of the orbit; nor the nostril, but only the mass of light
and shade of the nose.
=Construction.=--In these studies avoid trying to get anything more
than what will be suggested by this simple drawing. Use body color.
Don't think of anything but what you have to represent. Never mind how
the paint goes on, nor what colors you use, except that it is right in
value, and as near the color as you can get. Put it on with the full
brush, and try to get first the large masses and planes. Get it light
where it is light, and dark where it is dark, and have contrast enough
to give some relief. Don't try for any problems. Set your model in a
simple, strong light and go ahead.
No details, no eyes, only the great structural masses. Try to feel the
skull under these planes of light and dark. Have the edges of them
pronounced and firm.
Do a lot of these studies; learn structure first. You will never be
able to put an eye in its place in the orbit till you can make the
plane of dark which expresses the bony structure of the orbit. You
will feel the edge of the brow, of the cheekbone, and where the light
falls on the temple and on the side of the nose. Inside of this is
the dark of the cavity, broken for your purpose only by the light on
the upper lid. Lay these in. Do the same with the other planes, and
put your brush down firmly where you want the color, with no
consideration but the simplest and most direct expression of value and
color.
Now, when you can lay in a head in this way, so that you can express
the likeness with nothing but these dozen or so of simple planes, you
have got some idea of what are the main things which give character to
a head. You will begin to understand how it should "construct." Into
this you can put all the detail you want, and if the detail is in
value with this beginning it will keep its proper relation to the
whole.
Always when painting a head solidly, work this way. Get the action and
character of the head as a whole. Block in the planes of the face and
the features; and then go ahead to give the details which express the
lesser characteristics. But always get the character, even the first
look of resemblance, with this blocking in. Details and features will
not give you the likeness, to say nothing of the character, if you
have not gotten the character first by the representation of those
proportions which mean the structure which underlies all the
accidental positions of the detail of feature.
=The Frottee.=--If you want to be more exact with your drawing before
you begin to paint, lay in your canvas with a light-and-shade drawing
in charcoal. Then make a _frottee_ in one color, and paint into and
over that, as was described in the Chapter on "Still Life."
By careful and studious use of these two methods of work you can learn
the main principles of painting portraits, and modify the handling as
you have need; for all the various methods of manipulation are
modifications of one or the other, or combinations of both of these
fundamentally different ways of working.
If you paint more than one sitting, get as good a drawing as you can
the first day. Put in your _frottee_ the next, or make your blocking
in; then after that do your painting into the _frottee_, or the
working out of such details as you decide to put in.
Titian painted solidly, probably with no details; then worked these in
and glazed, then touched rich colors into the glaze.
But you had better not bother with all these ways of painting. When
you can work well in the simplest way, you will find yourself making
all sorts of experiments without any suggestions from me. Work first
for facts of utmost importance, and technical methods are not such
facts. Perception and representation by any most convenient means are
the first things to be thought of, and nothing else is of importance
until a certain amount of advance is made along this line.
Learn to see and paint the wholeness of the thing at once, not the
details, but the _fact_ of it. Try to lay in things so that you have a
solid ground to work onto and into later.
Look for the vital things. Don't try for "finish." Finish is not
worked for nor painted into a picture; finish _occurs_ when you have
represented all you have to express. When you have got character and
values and true representation of color, you will find that the
"finish" is there without your having bothered about it.
The masses you are to look for and emphasize are the great spaces
where the light strikes and the shadows fall. Close your eyes. The
lines disappear. You only see large planes of values; express these at
once and simply.
Don't be afraid of rudeness, either of handling or of color, at first.
Don't try for finesse. All these delicacies will come later. But you
must get the important things first. Learn to be strong _first_, or
you never will be. Delicacy comes after strength, not before.
So, too, freedom comes after knowledge--is the result of knowledge. So
paint to learn. If it is rigid at first and hard, never mind. Get the
understanding and the representation as well as you can, and try for
other things later.
[Illustration: =Haystacks in Sunshine.= _Monet._
To show certain characteristics of handling in "Impressionist" work.]