Hazel Soan's Painting People and Portraits: A practical guide for watercolour and oils

By Hazel Soan

Master painting lively figures and private portraits, with simple exercises and step-by-step demonstrations.
Bestselling artist and author Hazel Soan explains how to create beautiful and engaging paintings of strangers and loved ones, with handy hints and work-in-progress paintings throughout. Learn how to overcome shyness or anxiety about painting people in private and in public. Capture their energy and see beyond their likeness through angles, movement, tone and detail. Understand how to make them comfortable with poses, a timeframe and support. Learn about clothing, proportion, measuring and scene-setting.
This is the only book you need for painting people and portraits. This extensive guide is ideal for all painters, new or experienced.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Batsford
• Release date: May 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9781849949545

Hazel Soan

Hazel Soan is a popular and successful artist who divides her time between London and Cape Town, exhibiting her work widely. She has her own gallery in Fulham, London. She is author of several bestselling books and a range of successful DVDs. She was one of the art experts in the popular Channel 4 TV series Watercolour Challenge. The very successfulLearn Watercolour Quickly, Essence of Watercolour and Watercolour Rainbow are also by Hazel Soan.

Book preview

Illustration

It’s All About Relationships

As you read this book and explore the engaging subject of painting people and portraits, you will notice that painting people is about relationships: the relationship between the artist and their subject, the relationships set up on the two-dimensional surface of the canvas or paper, and the relationship between the painting and the viewer.

Within these pages, you will learn how to paint lively figures, how to include figures in wider settings, how to paint individuals, and come in close for a portrait. However, you will be constantly reminded (by me!) that in each scenario the image created is a painting. Paintings are not people, but flat patterns of colourful shapes and tones presented on a two-dimensional surface. Figurative paintings represent the three-dimensionality of the real world: they can be entertaining, interesting and appealing, and they also have the mysterious power to move people, even to tears. It is because they carry meaning that making paintings of people is worthwhile. It can be scary, but the challenge is within your grasp.

Illustration

Maasai Chief

Watercolour, detail

A portrait is born when a pattern of light and shade in a variety of tonal values comes together on the paper to describe a face. This Maasai chief had never seen paintings and our guide, his nephew, described it to him as writing. When shown the image, he recognized his white hair and was satisfied.

Illustration

Corridor of Light

Watercolour, 61 × 43cm (24 × 17in)

I made this painting because the relationship between the shapes of light and shadow excited my eye and I wanted to share the thrill. The figures remain anonymous, their movement described simply by colourful shapes, their narrative expanded by the intervals between them to create a wordless and (hopefully) intriguing tale.

Seeing Patterns

To make effective figurative paintings, the first relationship to attend to is that between the artist and the subject. When you want to paint somebody, or a group of people, or even place figures in a landscape, you should ask yourself what it is that excites or interests you about them. Why do you want to paint them or add them to the painting? The answer will help steer your concentration, allow you to leave out what does not interest you, and so paint and place them effectively. For example, if you are painting someone you know, you will probably want to please the sitter, working quickly in case they tire, and wanting to achieve likeness. But if the person is anonymous, say a stranger on a train, likeness may not be as important, and the concentration might be on the pose rather than the face.

The next relationship is between the elements that make up the physical painting. In order to make a painting work, shape, line, tone and colour have to come together to form a composition. This requires balancing the relationships between the shapes, spaces and intervals on the canvas or paper. These relationships could be within the figure, between figures, or within the features of a face, and these have to be translated into shapes and lines on a two-dimensional surface. Think of what the painting needs in order to succeed. To ‘see’ as a painting ‘sees’ requires seeing the subject as a two-dimensional pattern. The three-dimensional form or space you suggest is an illusion created by light and shade and perspective.

Illustration

Weekend in Venice

Indian ink, 51 × 51cm (20 × 20in)

The shape of the gap between the two people leaning on the bridge is as important to the two-dimensional plane as the shapes of the actual figures. The interval allows the painting to hint at the relationship between the two people.

Illustration

Umbrella Company

Oil on canvas, 51 × 51cm (20 × 20in)

A striking pattern is created on the flat canvas by the arrangement of the figures, the umbrellas and the spaces between them. These are balanced across the picture plane and endorsed by a counterchange of coloured tones.

A Shared Relationship

The third relationship only comes into play when the painting is finished and is the interpretative or emotional one forged between the painting and the viewer in response to the figures or persons portrayed. This relationship cannot be engineered but it can be manipulated, and differs depending on the audience. Like the other arts, such as music, theatre and literature, painting is entertainment. Whereas music is entertainment for the ears, painting is entertainment for the eyes. If a painting successfully entertains the eye, it will resonate with its audience and may be granted access to the soul.

Illustration

Maasai Herders

Watercolour, 30.5 × 66cm (12 × 26in)

Moved by both the camaraderie and the slender agility of the Maasai herders, I made this painting across the spread of my sketchbook, aware I was also trying to convey my respect and admiration.

Making it Happen

As already mentioned, since paintings are two-dimensional, the painter’s main task is to make the relationships between the painterly elements on the flat surface of the paper or canvas come together in a workable whole. This is achieved by balancing the lines, shapes, values and colours. The aim is to ensure the lines have purpose, the shapes are actively descriptive, the patterns exciting, the tones convincing and agreeable, and the colours captivating. To the flat surface of a painting, people are no different from plants, boats, pots or rocks. It is the art (and privilege) of the painter to turn a pattern of painted blobs into the illusion of a person or their face, bringing all the elements of painting together in a way that appeals to the eye and moves the mind, heart and soul of the viewer.

Illustration

The Speed of Life

Oil on canvas, 30.5 × 43cm (12 × 17in)

This painting is a pattern of black and blue shapes separated by bands of pale yellow. By making descriptive shapes they can be read as people hurrying home while shadows lengthen at the end of a working day.

Illustration

Paint Life From Life

We may think we are familiar with the shapes and poses people make, but we never truly know what something looks like until we attempt to draw or paint it. I would love to promise that this book can teach you how to paint people by osmosis, but no matter how many times you read this book, it can only help you if you actually paint! Familiarity with the subject is the starting point. Practice painting people from life and you will become familiar with the shapes and poses they commonly make.

If you can get out, take a trip to your local high street or mall, train station, bus stop, promenade or beach – anywhere that people gather. Fill the pages of a sketchbook with multiple quick figure sketches of passers-by. Not only is this a fast way to grasp proportion and pose, but it is also great fun! The next few pages will suggest an approach and give ideas.

IllustrationIllustration

It takes surprisingly little to represent a figure on paper: an oval blob denotes a head, an elongated rectangle the torso, two sticky-out bars for the arms and two drop-down bars for the legs.

A Seat With a View

Ideally, sit yourself down somewhere with a longish view so that the people are far from you, but not too