Archive for category Author: Chris Saper
Classic Portrait Painting in Oils || Chris Saper
Posted by henry in Author: Chris Saper, Medium: Oil, Publisher: David & Charles, Publisher: North Light, Subject: Portraiture on January 25, 2012
Although figure painting has been much better served of late, there have historically been few books that look at formal portraiture as opposed to the more popular style of a relaxed likeness. This is perhaps understandable as the classic style is seen as a specialised field requiring particular skills and maybe even equipment.
However, if you want to have a go, this book will help you considerably along the way. The introduction to materials and methods is comprehensive without being overwhelming and includes lighting, positioning the subject within the frame and how to evaluate skin colours. Chris also has useful advice on working from photographs, including what to aim for when you take them. In fact, the book has a neat trick up its sleeve in this respect, as each of the demonstration portraits is done twice, once from life and once from a photograph, and it’s interesting to see how this influences the result.
This is an American book and you should expect American facial types. I don’t mean that it’s outlandish, but there are some quite subtle differences that we don’t see this side of the Atlantic. This shouldn’t put you off, however, as the principles remain the same and, if you’ve followed what Chris is talking about, you’ll be painting your subject, not his.
Drawing & Painting People: The Essential Guide || ed. Jeffrey Blocksidge and Mary Burzlaff
Posted by henry in Author: Ann Kullberg, Author: Carrie Stuart Parks, Author: Chris Saper, Author: Cindy Agan, Author: Clem Robins, Author: Craig Nelson, Author: Greg Albert, Author: Jeffrey Blocksidge, Author: Mary Burzlaff, Author: Michaelin Otis, Publisher: North Light, Subject: Portraiture on October 16, 2007
Books on portraiture are thin on the ground and any new one is a welcome addition to a select band.
I’m going to start with a couple of reservations. The first is that the style of the finished results is a little stilted and formal and the second is that it’s also perhaps a little sentimentalised. However, this is an American book and that’s how they do things.
I wanted to get that out of the way because if you found this is a shop and flicked through it, you might be put off and start to think , “Ooh, no, that’s not for me” and that would be a pity because the coverage and presentation are some of the best and most comprehensive I’ve seen. The book consists of a series of quite detailed demonstrations, each by a single artist, of specific techniques: skin tones, hair colours, facial types and so on. This allows the reader to concentrate on one thing at a time without having to hunt through the whole book to pick out the specific parts they’re interested in. Although the material has appeared elsewhere, it’s been re-edited to give it a freshness and immediacy that sets this book apart. It’s not, therefore, one you necessarily need to work through from cover to cover, but rather something to use for reference as specific needs arise.
Leaving aside the small initial reservations, the quality of the work and the reproductions, the number of illustrations and the detailed explanations of the progress of each drawing or painting are pretty near perfect. Even if some of the facial types may be less familiar to European eyes and the treatments not quite what we’d expect, anyone following the book should be able to develop the skills to adapt to what they want. Quite simply, if you want to paint or draw portraits, buy this book. It’s excellent value at 192 pages for £14.99 and you’ll get a huge amount out of it.
North Light 2007
£14.99
