Portraits are a genre that first experienced a great rise and then a decline. And now it is starting to rise over time. Oil portraits lost their popularity in the 20th century as people began to doubt themselves. They simply did not want to see their own portrait, because the value of a portrait lies in the individuality of a person, which does not contradict the axiom of their personality. And this rule began to be broken among artists - in order to depict a person, you need to know not only human anatomy and how to put together a composition correctly, but also understand what kind of person is in front of you: know his history, character, emotions. For an artist, it will take a lot of effort and time to analyze everything.
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In addition to how to portray a person, you need to come up with a background and attributes. It will also be determined what the nature of the paintings should be, formal in a suit or simple. Next, understand whether there will be one person or several, full-length or not. Because of this, oil portraits are considered a complex and multifaceted genre.
In the modern world, with the advent of cameras, we can say that this genre could completely go into decline. As practice shows, many people want to capture themselves on canvas. And thus we need to understand why oil portraits are still needed in painting.
In order to give and please someone, they increasingly began to use traditional methods, in particular, such as oil portraits. Sometimes you want to do something nice for your girlfriend or boyfriend so that the memory of a good event remains, and simply taking a photo as a gift in the era of Instagram is not the best option, but an oil portrait is another matter.
Oil Portraits And Its Types
Portraits that are painted in a ceremonial theme can be attributed not only to a person who is dressed in an elegant suit, but also in the old days, during the coronation of a person, the artist was called to capture this moment, such as during the rise of Napoleon as emperor. Also, there are military portraits, where a soldier or general is dressed in armor or in a fabric military uniform and in addition to this, equestrian portraits on which a person is sitting. In family galleries, they are sometimes called semi-poradny - this is an intermediate type of portrait paintings.
Artists painted full-length ceremonial portraits, with the person to be placed strictly in the center, while a semi-parade portrait could be full-length, up to the knees or up to the waist. The setting should be lush, rich and luxurious, but at the same time, all this should not distract from the significant figure. It was important to adhere to the color scheme, with the help of which you can maintain a calm emotional state.
Oil portraits using a chamber type, the artist focuses not on the magnificent setting, but on a more spiritual and emotional level. Not the status of the person, but as an individual person - this is how the rules of chamber portraits were formed - artists painted a dark background in order to highlight the person and at the same time creating a mysterious atmosphere. Chamber portraits were not painted in full height, but were depicted in a close-up frame so that the eyes could be seen. The clothes are modest - not formal, and perfection lies in this prostate.
How to Paint Portraits With Oils: Model and Artist
Oil portraits are determined by an important aspect not only by the artist, but also by the model with whom they paint. A person's gaze may be such that he is looking into the distance or that he is devoid of any activity, as if the person is thinking. The factor of facial expressions and emotions also determines; it happens that a person can sit with a serious face and rudeness, or, on the contrary, cheerful and kind.
When you have dealt with emotions and gaze, then the position of the person comes into play, what he is doing, or just sitting on a chair. What is the person's posture: sitting straight or bent. How his hands lie: folded or holding something (a cup or some other object). These are not all the details, but they make it clear how the artist shapes a person's identity through oil portraits. They say that if the eyes are the window to the soul, then the hands are reflections of your own self-love.
How to Paint Oil Portrait: Resurrection
As mentioned earlier, the genre of oil portraits was in decline in the 20th century. Many artists began to experiment, bring something new or mix it with other genres in painting, for example, they began to use abstraction and geometrics in portraits. It seems that it sounds stupid, but such oil paintings have transformed the vision of this genre in painting.
Artists like Dobrev cross realism and impressionism in their portraits, and Newskulenko adds geometry. All their paintings don't look like something strange, on the contrary, they have become better. Mixing genres gave a new breath of air to oil portraiture.
