PAINT A PORTRAIT – PART 1: PREPARE
Everything begins with a simple mark. I paint with lush, traditional oils on canvas, and by the end of this three-part series I’ll have created a fantasy oil painting. Painting methods have barely changed since the days of Leonardo and Michelangelo, and that also applies to the principle of preliminary drawings to get the creative ideas flowing, which is what we’ll explore in this instalment.
The first thing I do before starting a painting is to conceive of it. This may seem obvious, but many beginner artists simply start painting, hoping for inspiration to strike during the process. Although this can be done, and it’s a wonderfully, inspiring and romantic, it almost always ends in abandoned work. Even in the hands of the most brilliant accomplished artist this is still often the case. To
