Chris Saper - Beautiful Portrait Painting in Oils: Keys to Mastering Diverse Skin Tones and More

Face to Face With Greatness: The Adventure of Portrait Painting by John Howard Sanden (The Portrait Institute Press, 2009)

Portraits From Life in 29 Steps by John Howard Sanden with Elizabeth Sanden (North Light Books, 1999)

Harley Browns Eternal Truths for Every Artist by Harley Brown with Lewis Barrett Lehrman (International Artist Publishing, 2004)

Painting Beautiful Skin Tones With Color & Light by Chris Saper (North Light Books, 2001)

On Becoming a Painter by Robert A. Johnson (Sunflower Publishing, 2001)

Painting the Visual Impression by Richard Whitney (The Studios at Crescent Pond, 2005)

Photo-Imaging for Painters: An Artists Guide to Photoshop by Johnnie Liliedahl (Liliedahl Publications, 2005)

Color Choices: Making Color Sense Out of Color Theory by Stephen Quiller (Watson-Guptill Publications, 2002)

Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting by Richard Schmid (Stove Prairie Press, 1999)

Its a pleasure to present Beautiful Portrait Painting in Oils, the expanded edition of Classic Portrait Painting in Oils.

All of the principles stressed in my previous publications, including the key concepts of perfect practice, the importance of regularly working from life, and an insistence on excellent photographic reference material (for those who work from photos) have informed the new material presented in this book.

I began painting commissioned portraits in 1991 and have made more mistakes than I can countincluding breaking the three concepts I identified aboveand I wish I could tell you Id made them only once. Working a high-pressure corporate job while caring for two young children, in those early years, left me precious little time for perfect practice. I worked when I was stressed and exhausted. I worked at night under poor lighting conditions and with wretched reference material. You name it, I did it. Sometimes, you just dont have a choice. But at least I worked, and I worked as much as possible from life.

While I cant add hours to your day, or take worry from your shoulders, I hope that some of the information youll glean from this book can help make your path a little smoother, and your successes more frequent and closer together.

Painting commissioned portraits is a world apart from the type of painting you might do for yourself or for a gallery. In the new sections of the expansion, youll find information about how to approach and execute your commissions, as well as new demonstrations for both corporate and family subjects. For those of you interested in the nuts and bolts part of commission portraiture, youll be able to augment your reading with For Love or Money: A Business Handbook for Portrait Painters, also available through North Light Books.

Even if you arent particularly interested in painting commissioned portraits, I hope youll find the sections on preparing your work for themes and exhibits helpful, especially in terms of creating visual and thematic continuity among a group of works.

Pursuing a career painting commissioned portraits may not be right for everyone, but if youre reading this book, theres an excellence chance its right for you. Whatever goals you set for yourself in your artistic life are uniquely yours, and you should be proud of all your efforts to get there. As we each move forward, we sometimes find that our initial goals need to be changed. So change them. Follow the path and the timeframes that work best for you, and dont allow anyone to dissuade you from what you choose with your heartyour hands will find the way to express whats inside.

Chris Saper

Payne in Profile

Oil on linen

20" 16" (51cm 41cm)

The set of tools and materials you select as an artist is generally straightforward. The selection of materials within each category is, however, very personalized.