A self-portrait is mostly a type portrait where the subject is the artist herself or himself. Self-portraits were essentially founded throughout the ancient period of Greek and Egyptian civilization. Today a variety of self-portraits are present.

A self-portrait can vary in manifestation, especially if the artist herself or himself is the subject. Paintings are recognized as popular media of self-portraits. Throughout the period of Renaissance, those categorized as beautiful self-portraits were innovative and bold ones.

There are numerous artists throughout their period that have delved into the skill portrayal for several reasons. Male self-portraits have been much abundant throughout the early period because of the understandable emphasis on the male species. On the other hand, female self-portraits have started to become more popular when female liberalism arose.

Charcoal is one of the earliest used art materials. It is used as a tool for making rough portraits or sketches. There are three forms of it used by several artists. There is a vine charcoal, compressed charcoal and powdered charcoal.

One of the most modern forms of self-portrait is the black and white. The motivation of black and white self-portraits can be traced to artists like Cindy and Bruegel Sherman. Their design was used for various media. Black and white gives a classier and elegant effect in contrast to colored ones.

Self-portraits have been classified into eras. The most current of these are Modern Art Portraits. This portrait was developed with particular consideration to the needs of the generation, together with the basic techniques of painting which followed more through the years.

There are numerous popular art forms that can be considered under these modern art portraits. Several of these are traditional oil portraits, graphic style, graffiti style, Andy Warhol portraits, photo mosaic portrait and silhouette portrait as well as screen-print portrait, airbrush style portrait and simple illustration style.

Graphic styles offer a funky appeal great for persons who love modern interiors. This style is similar to cartoons or animation styles. Screen-print styles are derived from simple colored screen-prints. This style is great for persons who love pop art and the artistic use of this style that does not need a beautiful picture to start with. Simple illustration and styles are great for persons who love that minimalist type of cool.

Here are a few tips on painting a self-portrait. However, bear in mind that painting is a gift. You must first have the raw talent for it even if you can take classes for it also.

Begin with a photograph or a mirror. Set-up the mirror close to the canvas so it can be simply seen and the portrait can be finished with a “back eye glance”. If you are using photograph, place it in viewable places like on the easel on top of the canvas.

Draw lightly on rough sketches of the face on the canvas with a pencil. Once you are done, an under painting can also be implemented. An under painting is the monochromatic background on the painting that can develop the dark and light tones of the painting. Numerous artists or painters use black and white for under paintings. This can be done using a thin layer with much pigment as compared to medium and before continuing to dry the under paintings.

Paint the overlying levels of color on the under painting and create color tones first, adding more information or details later. Thinning paint can pose as the medium for a fewer opaque appeal that can consistently allow the under painting to mix together with the new layer. Keep in mind that you still need to paint the background.

Add the finishing touches using a smaller brush. Details like eyelashes and highlights in the eyes can help make the portrait look complete.

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One of the best digital programs for this kind of art is Adobe Photoshop. In early days people were using MS paint software, but it has very less features compared to Adobe Photoshop. You must have computer if you want to create digital sketches. It is a very unique method to create all the sketches amazingly using latest software and hardware on the computer.

It also provides a better image quality then you have ever expected. It makes very easy for the artists who wants to create images for commercial purpose like product posters, book covers, video games and many more. Also the best feature of digital painting is that you can send it to anyone via email. Let me tell you something important about the adobe photoshop software. This software is the most advanced software ever researched for painting, photography and doodles.

It gives high quality images and gives effective print quality. It is very easy to create sketches using adobe photoshop. If you are facing difficulty to create sketches using mouse, then you can get digital pads or cordless pen to make it smoother. The cordless pen will act like a mouse and it transfers image on the computer drawn by the artist. From this software even photographers can develop some special effects in their photographs and can give them an attractive look. This is the amazing revolution introduced in the world of painting and sketches.

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Painting wildlife and animals in oils can seem like a very daunting prospect for beginners and novice painters, but it needn’t be. When you follow a few simple rules and procedures.

Oils the most forgiving medium Beginners often perceive oil painting as a difficult medium, but actually it is one of the most forgiving. Over the years I have used just about everything, but always come back to oils. I find Acrylics just dry too fast, and you need many layers to get the coverage of oils. Watercolor is all about timing, put a wet color in to another wet color at the wrong time and you can have all manner of terrible things happen such as run backs, bleeds etc.

I have found watercolor to be by far the most difficult medium to master - particularly for beginners. Oils on the other hand give me enough time to relax as I think out the next stage and plenty of time if I want to blend one color in to another, when creating a nice smooth sky colour for instance. The New Oil Paints Also new developments with oil paint manufacture means that they can now dry over night - these are called Alkyd Oil paints and odorless thinners means that you don’t have to stink the whole house out with the smell of turps, so there is no reason why a beginners 1st painting should not be done using oil / Alkyd paints. Wildlife Art Secrets (what I learnt in 10 years) Wildlife / Animal painting is very popular - lots of people would love to be able to paint their pet, or perhaps they had a special holiday in Africa and would love to paint their memories, but beginners can be disappointed with their 1st attempts at capturing animals. I know I was when I started to paint wildlife about 10 years ago - I read just about every book on the subject and watched lots of video footage as well, but they all seemed to have one thing in common - they left out the detailed instruction and jumped too many steps, it was quite frustrating. So

Over the years I have learnt a many key secrets that helped to rocket my wildlife paintings from mediocre to professional standard. Such as - always having the under layers of fur and feathers darker so that you have something to lay the detailed fur on top of. How to make a chiseled edge on a round brush, essential for making realistic for marks and many more.

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“Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird?…people who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.” - Pablo Picasso

What Picasso says about understanding art is very relevant to how we approach abstract paintings. Many people think that abstract paintings must have a specific meaning of some sort, which could be clearly understood and articulated if only they knew how. This misconception is not helped by the endless supply of people prepared to spout nonsense about what they think the artist was trying to say. The almost inevitable consequence of this situation is that people can either feel as though they are being excluded from sharing in some secret knowledge, or alternatively conclude that abstract painting is in fact all a sham. Either way, the result is that many people do not feel well-disposed towards modern art or abstract paintings.

I certainly identify with Picasso’s remark as far as my own paintings are concerned. If I had a specific message or a meaning that I could articulate in words, then I would articulate it in words - the painting would have no purpose. The whole point of creating an abstract painting is that it embodies something that only it can, in a way that cannot be put into words. It is not an essay it is a painting - it encompasses and expresses things in a language that is unique to the medium of paint. That is why we should not try to ‘understand’ abstract paintings in the way people sometimes feel they ought to be able to.

The viewer should not look for a clear narrative in an abstract painting - it is not going to tell a story, or refer to an external ’subject’ in the same way that a figurative painting will. But that does not mean there is no meaning or no subject, or that abstract paintings cannot communicate with and move people. When asked about subject matter, the Abstract Expressionist artist Jackson Pollock said, “I am the subject”. Pollock’s statement is not just true, it is inevitable.

The experiences, personality, memories and mood of the abstract artist cannot help but be fed into the painting if the artist approaches the work in an open and honest way. I do not need an external subject or idea before I can create a painting - I simply begin. The fact that I am me and no-one else is what makes my work different to anyone else’s, and the same is true of all artists. The colours I choose, the marks a make, the accidents I choose to leave, or to obliterate, these are all things that I choose because of who I am.

If you were to present several different artists with the same basic design on a canvas and ask them to pick up a brush and develop the painting, the differences in what they would choose to do would be enormous. I have watched other abstract artists at work on paintings and thought “I would never in a million years have chosen that colour and put it there.” Not because I think it is wrong or bad, but because they are who they are and (to quote that other leading artist, Morrisey!) “only I am I”.

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People who are new to still life probably place their emphasis on drawing the main objects. This is not really probably the best line to take, as normally the shadows are what will enhance your drawing.

Shadows can make your drawing, so they are vital to your work. To readily achieve these results you will require the following items. An eraser, your pencils, of course, a sheet of cartridge paper and some mounting board.

A backdrop for your work is needed and the board will have to be big enough to hold the shadows you wish to transfer to your paper.

So now you have your backdrop, you can put your chosen objects in front of it. Maybe something like bread and cheese with a plate with a knife on it or even a bunch of bananas. You then need a lamp of some sort to cast shadows, for instance from the right side.

A bit more help is needed here. With a 2B pencil you need to draw three inch squares on your backdrop. When you have done this, you do exactly the same on your cartridge paper, only with smaller one and a half inch squares and only with a light touch.

Have a good look on your screen before you put pencil to paper. Observe how the shadows fall. Easily seen, as they will be dark.

The shadows for me are the positive, important element, with the objects being the negative, less important element. Therefore I would always concentrate on the shadows first.

Shadowing will give your picture more interest. From the far left of your drawing, draw your shadow outlining. Noting how the shadow outline crosses over your boxes. Once you have done this, you can transfer this to your paper using a 2B pencil.

It may look slightly different however, but no need to get disheartened. Continue with filling in your outline shadows and you will begin to see the surprising shape it may take.

If you have completed your shadow lines, you can then begin to erase the boxes gently where your shadows are within. Try not to rub too hard, or your paper will suffer.

The dark shadows now have to be filled in, often you will have white spaces in between, but this is nothing to worry about. You have to exercise caution here, as it is all too easy to smudge your work doing this. Use a piece of white paper under your hand to remedy this.

To fill in shadows you need to do it by cross hatching quite closely with a 6B pencil. Draw straight lines across, then draw straight lines down. It doesn’t matter if the down strokes are on a slant. Don’t just fill in by scribbling in madly.

Use a 2B pencil to outline the objects at the back. Take your time filling in the object outlines, then erase the boxes in which they were contained, giving you both positive and negative shaping. Remember to sharpen your pencil before you start.

Still using the 2B pencil, on the darker parts of your objects, do some light cross hatching. Do not try to hard, try it on the edges for example.

Bear in mind you need some light tones too in your work. To finish it, use the 2B pencil to light hatch, just don’t do too much so that it intermingles with the shadows. Good Luck!

This is my brand new blog dedicated to the arts….digital art, photography, paintings, dancing…anything and everthing having to do with art.

I hope you enjoy this site, please feel free to drop me a line here and there….make  a few suggestions…. or just leave a comment on any one of my articles…

Look forward to sharing my ideas with you!