How to Paint an Outdoor Oil Portrait

Katie's Graduation - 30 x 24 oil on lilnen

Portraits in outdoor settings are a challenge to paint. Colors are affected by the light source (in this case the sun). The shapes of light and shadow are constantly morphing when outside, due to the movement of the sun and your subject. With the sun moving quickly, everything changes drastically within half an hour and it is difficult for a subject to hold an exact position as well. For this reason, having a subject pose from life for an entire portrait would be an extremely daunting task. Every day is different, even at the same time of day and, of course, different times of year would be completely different as well. In this case, a week after this young woman posed for me, the pretty purple tree in the upper right corner that we wanted to include was finished blooming, so it would not have been possible to include it even such a short time later.

Experience painting outdoors from life a lot really helps. Making quick decisions, locking in the shadows and painting fast is a habit you need to develop when painting en plein air, especially on a sunny day. I really love getting outdoors and trying to capture a scene from life just for the sake of learning something - the chances of painting something really wonderful are not high in this situation, but the experience is essential. It is a matter of discipline, putting in the hours to eventually achieve mastery - as Malcolm Gladwell said, we need 10,000 hours of practice to get there.

Another problem with outdoor portraits is the propensity of subjects to squint due to the strong light. Obviously you need to have the face in shadow, which destroys the 3-D effect we usually want to achieve. Rather than being about the features (as in a posed, indoor setup) the painting is more about light, atmosphere and color. In this case, catching my subject with a relaxed expression, her eyes wide open and in a pleasing pose with highlights placed in key compositional areas meant a lot of photos - I usually take hundreds in a single photo shoot.

To remember the light key, I usually do a painted study of the colors in the scene. This is not a detailed, finished painting but rather just color notes of light and shadow areas done on a canvas board or piece of canvas taped to a board. I keep this close by my computer monitor later on to refer to when I am questioning my color memory.

Photography is useful in getting the drawing right later on, since posing someone outdoors for hours won't work and I need to get a perfect, accurate likeness of my subject. I never paint from photographs any more as I find using a large computer screen is much closer to reality with a depth and accuracy of color that is second only to life and the bonus is that light never changes. I purchased a screen that can be rotated in order to have a vertical aspect to work from. When I am working on the head, I enlarge it to approximately life size, with my canvas right beside it - in this way I can simulate working from a live sitter.

Fine Art Oil Portrait Commission by Canadian Portrait Artist Laurel McBrine

Oil on Belgian Linen - 24x18 inches

I recently completed this head and shoulders oil portrait of a lovely young woman. I also finished a larger outdoor piece of another beautiful girl, which I will be posting soon, after it is framed and picked up by the family. Both girls are 18 years old. This is a great age to capture a daughter, just on the brink of womanhood.

I find this pose and expression reminiscent of the Mona Lisa as her eyes follow you no matter where you stand to view the painting and she has a mysterious expression with a slight smile.

I like to call my painting style "Brushy Realism" since the portrait accurately captures the appearance of the subject, but it is still very much a painting, with visible brushstrokes and not photographically detailed which, in my opinion, makes it more interesting and flattering.

Close-up of face

Reilly or Mattelson Palette vs. Colourist Oil Painting

I recently received this comment from "anonymous":

I found your blog while searching for the Mattelson pallette. Thanks for posting it. I noticed this painting was done using Reilly or Mattelson technique. Yet your other paintings are done in a colorist impressionistic manner. My question is can you start a portrait with the earth colors and then bring it up in chroma? Or should you decide on one or another approach before you start the painting? You seem to use both approaches.

Hi there, anonymous! Thanks for stopping by.

For this recent portrait, the palette is not exactly from Reilly or Mattelson (although you are right that it has been an influence on some of my methods) as I have added a few extra colours and do not pre-mix the strings of colour. Although I think it is an excellent approach, I personally find it too tedious and time consuming to mix up all those values. By the time I am done, I am too exhausted to paint. Also, I can never seem able to keep track of all the brushes and end up using a dark value brush for a light value, not to mention having to wash all those brushes at the end (which is why I sometimes paint solely with a palette knife)! It just doesn't work for me so I just mix values and colours as I go along.

My subject in this case posed in a north light studio. For reference, I use a colour study I painted from life and however many live sittings I can finagle, plus photographs. I do use a variety of approaches, depending on the subject. I tend to use the underpainting approach for indoor portraits, since the chroma (especially in human flesh) is naturally subdued. It is all about the light.

When painting out of doors (and for still life indoors) I usually use more of a colourist approach. I will sometimes use a "wet" underpainting, using various colours, not necessarily raw umber. Sometimes I use the Cape method of patches of bright colours, starting with a palette knife. Also, when doing alla prima portraits I do not use an underpainting and my palette would include more colours since it is necessary to get the final effect in one session. I don't think that high chroma is necessarily desirable throughout a painting, especially a portrait - greys are important so that the touches of chroma can stand out, although outdoors under the sun you will have more brilliance and less greys.

I am showing this painting as a work in progress and the stage you commented on needs more colour, it is still at an underpainting stage, so you will see more life in her cheeks soon.