蛋彩肖像

Hi, my name is Antonis, and I am the painter of this video. For today's video, I will paint the portrait of George using the medium of egg tempera. So if you are interested in learning how to paint a portrait with this ancient technique, please continue watching with me. So I basically follow the same method as if I was painting a holy icon. That method is that I first am drawing my subject on a piece of paper, and then I transfer this drawing on my painting board, and using black color, I paint the shadows and the facial characteristics of my subject. As you see here, I paint the face of George as if I was painting with watercolors. I am using very transparent tones of black in order to create these grayish tones. A lot of egg medium with a little pigment to achieve this. So I am trying to build the shadows and the light on the face of George, and when I am happy with this, I will start the actual painting. For this, I am starting with the background. So as you see here, I am painting the background a greenish gray tone, and I will try to blend and mix the colors as much as I desire, and to the extent that I feel it's okay. When I am painting the background or a large area of color, I can use older, bigger older brushes that can be also synthetic, and they are opened with time, and thus they become as if they were fun brushes, and easy to blend color. So the process is very similar to that of painting an icon. I think it's a very ancient method, like the same method was used when painters painted the portraits of Fayum, the death portraits, the funeral portraits of Fayum, and later on they painted the Byzantine icons,etc. This method is filling an area with a base color, that is called in Greek proplasmos, and then using the shadow elements for the shadows and the highlights. For example, as you see me here painting the pink T-shirt of George, I first covered everything with this middle tone of pink, and now you see me painting the shadows on this proplosmos. For these shadows I can either use black to make the pink a little bit darker, or I can,instead of adding black to my pink color, to my pink proplosmos color, I can add some green or some red. It depends on the aesthetics and my taste. Many painters of Renaissance,for example,like Michelangelo, he used,for example,if he wanted to shadow a yellow garment, he would shadow the yellow garment using green or using red, instead of using just black. That makes the colors more vibrant and more vivid,and it's really nice. It all depends on what is your taste and how you want something to look. For this portrait I didn't want anything to be very shouting,very strong. I'm glad to paint a soft tone of pink for George's T-shirt. And now you see me painting this first light. My concern at this point is just to build the volume and the basic shapes on his T-shirt, without really being preoccupied about blending this first color to my pink proplosmos. Ectempera behaves very different than oil colors,in terms of blending them. And for the most part I'm using transparencies and tiny little lines to blend the color. Again,I'm observing the photograph of George, and I try to see where his T-shirt here has its stronger light areas and how it's blended this light to the shadows. And accordingly I try to blend and smoothen some areas. I don't have a teacher teaching me specifics, I just try to observe and try to guess,almost, how I can achieve the same result that I see on the photo. One thing that I really like when painting with ectempera is that ectempera is not a medium that helps me achieve a photorealistic result. And it's still,no matter how close to the reality you paint, you can always feel that it's a painting. You can see the brush strokes,and this is very very charming. Anyway,so at this point you will see my palette, and me at this point I'm preparing the proplasmos for the face of George. For this I'm using some white and some ochre, and some black and some blue. I will make a proplasmos that is a little bit lighter than the proplasmos that I use for the byzantine icons. And although I don't have anything specific in mind, I will again go by guessing what a right proplasmos might be. This proplasmos shouldn't be extremely transparent, and it shouldn't be extremely light. So I think this greyish blue tone that you see here applying on his face is a right tone. Again,there is no specific recipe, and nobody will tell you that this colour is the right, or the other colour is the right. Just go by guessing. This is how you will become better artists yourselves. So after the proplasmos I will darken, I will use some blue and maybe a little bit of black, and with this darker colour I will start painting the darker areas on the face of George. And it's the same step that is equivalent when painting a byzantine icon, the grapsimata. I will go a little bit darker, and with tiny thin lines I will try to paint my darker areas. If you find this content helpful, please consider subscribing, more videos are about to come. And it's also amazing when people find me in Patreon, it's really nice to see that people are willing to support this channel and become sponsors and patrons for my work here. Thank you all for helping me in Patreon, and if you feel like it, you can support this channel and become my sponsors and patrons of my art at patreon.com. So anyway, at this point you will see me blending the grapsimata to the proplasmos, and it's a process that there is no, as I said, recipe, or I just try to go where I want to go. After I'm OK with this basic grapsimata, I will, like in a Byzantine icon or a medieval painting, I will proceed to painting my fotismata, the first light of the face of George. For this, as you see here, I'm using a color that consists of titanium white, ochre and cadmium red. Nobody will tell you the specific hue that your color should have. It's something that you have to decide, and I guess that many people think, find this difficult when painting. It's the decision-making. You have to, it's a constant decision-making when you paint, and you should at some point decide that this color is OK and proceed with painting with that specific color that you have prepared. Here you see me applying this first color. I'm observing very closely my photograph. Of course I wish I had George posing for me for as much as I wanted, but since this is not possible, George has to go to school. Since this is not possible, I'm using a very high-resolution photograph, and I paint out of that as a reference. It's OK to not be sure about the result at this point, and to feel that this is all very messy and this doesn't go anywhere. It's OK. Just keep on painting and have faith that something good will come out of your effort. I'm always,I wouldn't say stressful, but I'm always,let's say, let's say agitated, maybe I can find the right word, when I am at these early stages of a portrait, because I'm always in doubt that the portrait will come about OK. So here you see me preparing my first blending tone to blend the first photisma to my proplasmos. I just mix the two of them together, and I will paint blending accordingly. So of course this first middle tone is much more cold, let's say more bluish or grayish than the first photisma, and the photograph will help me and guide me as to where I, until where I should apply this blending color. At this point I'm not really worried about the right hue of the skin of my subject. I'm just worried about not losing my, let's say,shapes, and blending as much, let's say,faithful to the photograph as possible. I don't worry that it doesn't really resemble to reality at this point, because I know that much of the resemblance comes with, say,painting the white of the eyes, the iris of the eyes, the eyebrows and the hair. So at this point I'm not really stressed about the resemblance, as long as I know that my basic elements are there, like for example the shape of the mouth, the distance between the eyes and the shape of the eyes, and the shape of the face. So as long as these basic elements are intact and they are not lost on this process, I feel that I will get the resemblance later on. So what I'm doing here for the most part is just blending the first photosma to my proplosmos. I'm going back and forth with tones that are closer to my proplosmos or tones that are closer to my first photosma. Here you see me painting and blending my first photosma to my proplosmos and painting with these tones. So I'm moving in between proplosmos and first photosma and I paint accordingly. I go back and forth on this process and I end this process with a layer that is very close to my first photosma, as you see me here painting. This is I think the most, a very important step on the process and I think you should take your time, don't be in a hurry as I always say and of course don't overdo it and try not to add too many layers of paint. Make sure that you allow the pigment to dry before applying your next layer of color. But you can go back and forth until you are completely satisfied with the result. There is no rule here saying that you can't go back or forth and again back in order to paint and in order to get a beautiful result. Keep in mind that this blending of first photosma to the proplosmos is maybe the most important of all. So as you see here I'm still painting my first photosma with a color here that is very very close to the first light, to the first photosma. I hope you can notice how I use my brush. I use the brush almost as a pencil. I paint with just the tip of my brush with tiny thin lines And this is the beauty of ectempera I think. As I said before it's not like oil color that you blend perfectly and you can't even see the brush strokes. Here you can see almost each brush stroke, every brush stroke and this is the beauty I think of the medium. So when I'm satisfied with this first layer and how it's blended with the proplosmos I will move on to my second light and for this I will make a color that is very close to the first light but a little bit lighter And I will also make a color that is I will start preparing a color to paint some red warm areas on my face like the cheeks and of course the mouth. If you notice here in this case the mouth of George is not a pure red it's a red that contains a little bit of greyish tones And I will try to reproduce these tones as much as I can by adding warmer elements like red with some black maybe a little bit of ochre until I achieve a tone and a hue on his mouth that I'm satisfied with. Take again your time here on the mouth and paint it as much as you need to paint it. For painting a mouth it's very important to be comfortable in creating, reproducing every hue and every color you want and you need. A very good exercise is to let's say try to reproduce the color of your wall if your wall is bluish or greenish or something like that let's make a bet with yourself to reproduce this color or reproduce the same color of a piece of cloth that you have. I will make a video on the theory of the colors and give you maybe some exercises in how to understand better the colors and create any color that you like. And this will help you when you need to paint some colors that they are not very bright they are not very shouting they are more quiet and it will help you understand what you look, what you see. So anyway, now you see me painting the second light on the forehead of George and for this second light, as I said before I will prepare a color that is similar to the first light but has more titanium white and less ochre so it's a little bit pinkier more pink than the first light and of course more light in tone Again, I don't worry at this point about resemblance or about anything I just apply this second color and I try to see how strong this second light should be I shouldn't overdo it and I shouldn't make it too dark Again, the reference will guide you as to how strong this will be You have to keep in mind though when you prepare this color that this color will be blended with the first light So as you see here I have prepared a color that is my second light mixed with a little bit of first light and some egg emulsion as you see here So I mix my first light with my second light and a little bit of egg and with this I will make a color that is in between the first two lights and blend these two together I can add a little bit of yellow if I like and as I said there is no recipe I just try to guess how I will achieve a result very similar to my photo reference Again, I am not really worried about resemblance or I am not worried in achieving a photorealistic result I am ok with my brush strokes being evident and I almost try to understand how I will make these brush strokes more charming This is a very nice moment on the process as the skin tones come about and we can see the face of George getting volume and color This is a process that as in the previous one when I blended the first photo to my proplosmos Also with this process I go back and forth in tones when I am painting the when I am blending the first light to the second light I feel free to use transparencies and more bright colors in order to achieve this blending of the first and the second light Here you see me blending a lighter skin tone and as you see I take my time and I try to blend it and fill it on my brush before starting painting with this This will be my, say, third light an even stronger light that doesn't go everywhere and here is a trap that many artists fall into They believe that the brighter the colors they use, the better and to the more extent the more areas they use, the better No, you don't need to apply a lot of lights everywhere You just need to apply some highlights and you are done So here I am applying this third light and as in every process I will blend this third light with my second light As you see here I mix this third light with a little bit of the second and some egg emulsion and I'm good to go So at this point I just go back and forth trying just to achieve the result I want to achieve My reference is my teacher and I'm just preoccupied just to blend rightly and in a way that makes sense to the eye all the folds and the facial elements of little George I really like these tiny little brush strokes that Ektempera and the brushes allow me to paint with They are so charming and very, very nice Again, in order to achieve this little brush stroke so you have to use some good Kolinsky brush and you can find some you can find some links below in the description of my video I have both links to the American Amazon if you live close to United States and if you are from Greece or Europe you can use the links from the Italian Amazon as you will pay less transportation fees to get your brushes Anyway, so here you see me as I said going back and forth in the process of blending and if you make a mistake it's okay It's really a process of learning and enjoying painting Here, unfortunately it's not recorded the way I painted the light in the eyes of George I just used a more cold let's say bluish tint of color and little by little observing the photograph of George I will paint his eyes I try to see for example how strong let's say the left area of his eye here is much darker than the right area of his left eye It's a little bit confusing what I'm saying But see here on his let's see here on his left eye but the left area the area that is left to the iris is so much darker and bluish than the right side This is something that I observe on my photograph and I will try to see how dark or how light this area should be As with everything in the portrait You have to, as I said in another video You have to make comparisons on how dark or how light an element should be And these comparisons should happen in between elements of your painting I will not compare the let's say the white of George's eye here on my portrait to the white of his eye in the reference I will compare the white of his eye to let's say the the color of the skin on the cheeks I know it's a little bit confusing this And maybe we'll talk again at some other video Anyway, you just have to remember to compare everything with everything That's the way to learn and that's the way to paint more effectively And at this point now you will see me painting the hair of George And I use exactly the process of let's say the Byzantine process of painting hair I will just paint a proplosmos a middle color to cover let's say everything And I'm just astonished on how much hair gave to the resemblance of the portrait of George It's really nice And after I'm done with this first proplosmos I will paint some lights on the hair According of course to the photograph The photographic reference I'm not too preoccupied about Painting hair in a very photorealistic way And in some way Egg tempera Freeze me, makes me more free I tend to be Say servant of the photograph But I don't need to be And thank God Egg tempera doesn't allow For too much photorealism So at this point I'm OK With painting hair that Don't really look as photorealistic As they can look I know that painting In a photorealistic way It's very let's say charming And many painters Enjoy painting that way But in my opinion I think that Why paint in a way That a photographic camera can paint Why paint in such a way That you lose every sense Of your brush stroke And your painting character When you paint with egg tempera Or when old masters painting Their signature was their brush stroke And that's what we enjoy How let's say with tiny Masterful brush strokes They could give an illusion Of their reality Instead when painting In a photorealistic way You just mimic what a camera sees And there is no brush stroke That reveals your personality As a painter Or some elements of you as an artist So anyway Egg tempera does not allow Much of photorealism You can't blend as much As you want Or in the way that Oil painting Oil color permits And I think that's fantastic Anyway this was the process Of painting the portrait of George Who is my godson And I really love him And if you find this content helpful In any way Please consider subscribing Please find me on Patreon And consider supporting me there as well And it's always nice to read your comments They are very generous And answer your questions To the extent that I can I would like to thank you all For participating to this channel And I'm always glad When you share your progress Have a beautiful and blessed week And I will see you soon again Bye