In this portrait painting tutorial, realist artist Alex Tzavaras paints a master copy of Juan de Pareja by Baroque artist Diego Velázquez. Filmed entirely in real time.

Master copies of old master paintings are a great exercise, which will give you valuable insights into the oil painting techniques used by the artists of the past. You can also do them at home if you don't have access to a model. This was copied from a high res Image that you can down load for free from the Metropolitan Museum of Art website:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...

This portrait painting tutorial was filmed in real time, with nothing taken out. So, if you want to try this exercise yourselves, you can follow along.

0:00 Introduction
1:00 Palette of Colours
2:15 Toning the canvas
4:20 Mapping Out the head with Lines
7:20 Wiping Back the Lights
19:40 Mixing the Shadow Colour
20:00 Massing in the Darks
30:20 Mixing the Flesh Tone
31:15 Massing in the Lights
34:30 Mixing the Highlight Colour
34:45 Placing the Highlights
42: Mixing the MIdTones
42:30 Massing in the Mid Tones

To let Alex know how you got on with this exercise, please tag him on instagram:
  / alex_tzavaras  

To see Alex's video on "How to Place the Features in a Portrait":
   • How to Place the Features in a Portrait  

Alex Tzavaras is a contemporary realist artist offering portrait painting and alla prima oil painting tutorials. Alex teaches the traditional painting techniques artists used to draw and paint from life up until the start of the 20th century. .

For Alex's course on the fundamentals of oil painting visit:
  / simplifydrawingandpainting  

Or connect with Alex:
  / alex_tzavaras  
  / simplifydrawingandpainting  
http://alextzavaras.com