Richard Armitage step by step

I have an accompanying blog entry (which is TOO LONG) here: [link]

This is a step by step of my oil painting of Richard Armitage. (Finished piece can be seen here: [link] ) This was painted freehand with a photo reference. I did double-check the proportions in Photoshop (when I was almost finished with the painting) to see what needed to be fixed (see blog entry here: [link] ) but the actual painting was done freehand, warts, flaws, crooked eyes and all! (That explains why I somehow couldn't manage to get the top of his head to fit into the canvas! I'm such an idiot.)

What I show in this step-by-step is an example of the way a lot of traditional oil painters work, particularly when painting freehand. We first start with loosely "blocking in" the general shapes of the subject. Wait for that layer of paint to dry, then we refine the details and features, etc., until finally the thing is done. Wait until the very end to add highlights (like the catchlight in the eye).

Between each painting session, wait for the paint to dry to the touch before adding a new paint layer. If the paint is applied somewhat thickly, wait for the paint to be dry and dig the edge of your fingernail into a thicker paint stroke—if there is no mark left in the paint stroke, it's dry enough. If a little indentation appears where you put your fingernail, wait a few days more. Also remember the "fat over lean" principle—paint thin layers of paint first, then later if you want you can paint more thickly.

I also wanted to show this step-by-step tutorial as a "real world" example of how a traditional painting can progress. A freehand painting can sometimes look rather wonky when it's half-finished. There may be a lot of imperfections and therefore it can look different compared to how a painting can look when a grid is used, or when the artist traces over a photo or paints over a photo in Photoshop. (Those who are venturing into freehand traditional work should not expect beautiful perfection when their painting is half done!) Nor should the painting look like a paint-by-number where half is filled in and half is blank with just the outlines. (Maybe some oil painters do a freehand rendered painting that way, but to be honest I've never seen it, not ever.)

Another thing I mention in the blog entry is when some artists try to fake it, and pretend that they did the work one way (like painting freehand from scratch) when they did it another way (like painting over a photo or digitally manipulating a photo). I know that MOST artists would never dream of doing this, but just recently I've witnessed some dishonesty from artists so I thought it a good time to give my take on the subject.