Want to try painting portraits but don't know where to start?

 

Feeling intimidated but at the same time inspired to do so?

 

You can do it!

 

Just follow along and you’ll be painting portraits easily!

 

 

Preparation

First things first: Prepare your tools.

 

I just use the default brushes in Clip Studio Paint.

Oil paint - I like the canvas texture

 

Paint & Apply - for the smudged look, perfect for shading certain areas of the skin like the collarbones

 

Gouache Blender - for rendering/blending

 

Real G-Pen - for painting areas where I want more definition such as the eyes

 

If you want to download custom brushes, feel free to do so especially if you’re looking for a particular flow and texture for your painting.

 

You can also customize your own brushes by changing their textures by selecting the brush that you want to experiment on, and then under Tool Property, choose a different material for Texture.

Next thing that you’re gonna prepare is changing the background color of your canvas to a more muted color (for less eye fatigue), but still bright enough to easily see any spots you might have missed while making sure that it’s different from your portrait’s mid-tones.

 

Gather any reference photos or models you wanna study. The most important thing here is to know what your goal is in doing this portrait session, and then basing your reference on that goal.

 

Knowing beforehand what you want to learn or improve on will help speed up your progress.

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So there are two paths in painting (in general):

1. Inside - out: Painting lights and shadows, more focused on form (like sculpting something from a clay, but in this case, it’s through colors and light), tends to be free-flowing and intuitive, more dynamic feel, can easily cover up any mistakes but harder to grasp if you’re not yet familiar in using lights and shadows to show volume

 

2. Outside - In: Sketching the outline first to have a structure, easier for total beginners and also those with illustration background, more precise and less forgiving when there are errors in proportions

Both approach can result in amazing paintings — it’s all up to you which approach feels more natural and go with it!

 

Since I’m more used to illustrating first as support for my paintings, I’m going with the 2nd approach for this tutorial.

Structure

Time to build the outline for our painting.

You can use the 3d models available in Clip Studio Paint for reference. You can adjust how the lighting bounces on the 3d model by clicking Operation (the one with 3d box icon) and then go down to Light Source.

Painting

Once you’re done and happy with your portrait’s outline, it’s time to build the shadows.

 

For the skin. I used darker shade of brown, which I tried to mix in the palette, and then for the clothes I used darker shade of gray. I applied them using the Oil Paint brush.

I then started painting the mid-tones of the skin.

 

When painting portraits, I follow this general rule:

 

forehead/top part - bright warm shade

cheeks/midzone - pinkish hues, peach

chin/jaw - cool blue or purple shades

 

 

It also still depends on the overall mood of the portrait you’re painting — you don’t have to follow this to a T. In my portrait, I just did so in a more subtle way because I was striving to learn and apply the way they paint skin in renaissance paintings (well I tried, at least).

Unlike with traditional oil painting where you have account the paint’s drying time (that's why master painters render their art work in smaller sections so they can blend and render them on time before it dries out), in digital, we don't have to worry about that.

 

So I just slapped the colors in my portrait using the Oil Paint brush. Followed by blending them afterwards using the Gouache Blender brush.

I also changed the color of my outline for the skin parts into a more brownish hue — and you can do the same by selecting your outline layer and then under Effects > Layer Color.

 

I also changed the line width of my outline so the portrait looks more painterly. To do that, click Filter at the top most Menu > Correction > Adjust Line Width.

 

Change the Process to “Narrow”. I tick the box saying “At least 1 pixel” to avoid losing definition in other parts.

 

 

For the lips, I made sure the inner parts are darker, then it fades and lightens outward. You can add more realistic details if you like. Totally up to you.

 

For the eyes, as much as possible, I want to hide my original outline because it's too jarring and repaint that to more natural colors.

 

So I started with outlining the inner eyes with gray, followed by flesh with some gap in the middle for some light glare where I put white and yellow. For the eyeballs, you want it to look 3d as much as possible, so it looks alive

I then added some eyeshadows to the outer corner of the eyes:

 

For the left eye, since this is the bright side, I used brown.

 

For the right eye. since it's the shadowy side, I used a darker shade of purple.

 

Now that the more challenging parts of creating portraits (for me at least) are out of the way, I then painted the hair and his shirt last. I also added a bit of glow to certain areas where light tends to shine more, then played around with the background last.

It’s not by any means perfect, but overall I’ve been pretty pleased with how I’ve improved on the skin blending (compared to my previous digital oil painting attempts).

 

Again, always go back to your main goal in painting a piece. Focus on achieving that goal, and don’t feel pressured to achieve “perfection”.

 

Most importantly, enjoy the process!