Process // Sargent Study and applying the technique to my own self-portrait

Today I want to walk you through the process and struggles of creating a Sargent master study in the digital medium. This is not something I attempt too often, because fine art is incredibly tedious in digital, specifically when beautiful brushwork is a concern (and it is to me, I've spent 10 years trying to come as close as possible to the freshness of traditional strokes).

I made a few quick sketches for general color notes in Rebelle, then switched to Photoshop and started on a large canvas, building up on what I have learned in the thumbnails.

I have no idea how long this took. I know it did not take one or two hours, it took much more. To be honest, if I didn't have podcasts to focus on and be intellectually stimulated, I would've probably left it as a mere sketch. This is not because I do not have patience, per se, but because the process of obtaining beautiful transitions by painting shape into shape, as Sargent would've done, just takes forever and is pretty mindless. You paint a stroke into a shape, then you build it up again. You overpaint back and you paint it again. Over and over and over. Adding to that the particular challenges of the zoom level, of painting with a pen tip that is very small but with a brushstroke that can be 1 pixel or the size of a house (and having to watch a cursor on the screen as your only indication), and dealing with unpredictable texture brushes, well, I cannot say that these things are amazing or particularly fun. There are many good things about digital, however, there are plenty of clunky things about it as well. 

Anyway, I pushed through and layered strokes as Sargent would do and spent as long as it took. I have to say that the result, once you get to it, is very, very satisfying. Possibly also because I had no idea if I could pull it off (it's my fifth or sixth portrait, I believe, and anatomy is not really my strong point, yet). 

I decided to stop when I reached this point because it can become an obsession easily, to copy everything stroke by stroke, but there's no real use for that. Instead, I wanted to apply the technique I learned to my own painting because, without actual application, studies are pretty useless. 

Since I have never attempted a self-portrait, I thought that would be a good, novel idea to attempt. I took a photo by the window, made a rough line drawing after it, and started. This is the result. But, as expected, it did not come easy.

With time, I started to notice the challenges. I did not pose myself in exactly the same position as Sargent. I have different colored skin than him, and the angles of my face are not exactly the same as his. Also, the reference of me was taken into a completely different lighting condition, and it was extremely difficult to override what I see with my own eyes and just apply values similar to his painting. Obviously, it is infinitely easier to execute from a reference than to adapt one to a different lighting scenario and thus change all the shapes on the face. After all, in life drawing and fine art, people are drawing exactly what they see, and that is challenging enough. On top of everything, capturing a likeness is extremely difficult, at least for me, and the misplacement of very small details by a few pixels changes the person. So a lot of very tedious work.

I also tried to start a different portrait and attempted again to change the lighting, but I miserably failed and I finally ran out of patience because it occurred to me that I am not learning anything past this point. 

I made some quick sketches for my head. These took 2-3 minutes, not a couple of hours, which really made me wonder if I would still attempt another fine art painterly piece anytime soon, given the immense amount of time it takes for (not necessarily) better results than a sketch. But, one way or another, I will keep painting portraits for my own enjoyment, this is something I want to learn before getting on with the full figure.

I ended by applying a few effects and color treatments to my self-portrait, and this is the result.

Do you paint portraits? And if so, what style do you prefer? Do you find getting a likeness challenging? Let me know in the comments. 

Thank you for reading!