I always enjoy painting a good old-fashioned portrait because there is something fascinating about the human face. Not only does it resemble a living person, but a portrait also captures his/her mood and emotion at that particular moment in time. It's easier to create an interesting painting from the human face than a bowl of apples.

In this painting, the static posture of the sitter is contrasted with the swirling movement in the background.

Green shirt
8 x 10 inches, oil on Masonite

Limited palette

I paint using only four colors: Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Yellow, Phthalo Blue and Titanium White. Basically red, yellow, blue and white. From these colors, you can create any shades you want from the color spectrum.

• Red, yellow and blue are the primary colors which you mix to create secondary colors: red+blue=violet, yellow+blue=green and so forth
• White is used to lighten the colors
• To create black, mix all three primary colors

Mixing colors from a limited palette will create harmony and unity in your paintings, as all the colors in your painting are derived from only these four colors. For example, the green that you mixed will always complement your yellow and blue. On the other hand, you could buy a tube of ready-mixed green but this green might not be the same green that you get if you mixed the yellow and blue from your palette.

Untitled
12 x 16 inches, oil on stretched canvas

Soft and hard edges

The human eye is naturally attracted to sharp angles and strong contrasts, such as light color next to really dark color. In paintings, these are called hard edges. Artists create hard edges to attract the viewer's attention to a certain section, usually the point of interest. In this portrait of my friend Miguel, the hard edges can be found on the outlines of his torso.

Then there are also the soft edges (or disappearing edges) that connects the main object to its background. (Hard edges all around will make the object look like a cutout.) Soft edges can be found on the right side of Miguel's hair, face and elbow. The right side of him has a cast shadow and seem to disappear into the dark hedge behind him.

Miguel

16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas board

Art Design 101

I came across this picture of two men in a wrestling pose, and I just had to paint it! It has the basic elements that they teach in any art design classes. Certain parts can be underlined by blue horizontal and vertical lines, which convey solidity and stability. The red diagonal lines convey movement and excitement. Too many horizontal or vertical elements can make your paintings static, while too many diagonals can make it chaotic. In addition, the outline of the two wrestlers create an upright triangle, as illustrated by the yellow outline. Composition utilizing geometric shapes were commonly used by Renaissance artists.

The wrestlers
16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas board

Masonite hardboard

Masonite hardboards have smooth surfaces, compared to canvas boards which are textured. I find it easier to use hardboards when I want to apply thick paint so that the brushstrokes are visible. This technique is called impasto and was made popular by the Impressionists. I use Masonite hardboards for my 8"x10" paintings.

Shy
8x10 inches, oil on Masonite hardboard

My niece

My niece Isabella (or Isla as her parents call her) is such a beautiful baby and already exudes a unique personality. I told my sister that Isla should be a baby model! They live in England. This painting is based on a picture of her when she was three months old. She is about six months old now.

Isla

12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas board

Reflections

Painting a person and his/her mirror reflection is always a challenge. You want to make the reflection resemble the subject, without them being too identical that you end up with a painting of a pair of Siamese twins.

The common approach is to make the reflection darker, cooler or less defined than the main subject. If you were to take a picture of a person with his/her reflection, you can observe that these attributes do exist, albeit very subtly.

The mirror

16 x 20 inches, oil on canvas board