I was browsing through my subscribed news feed and bound onto this site showing a collection of portrait photographs. Those close-up photographs of models, artists, and celebrities are stunningly beautiful and alluring.

View it as you scroll down one after another photographs posted in 35+ Captivating Images of Beautiful Portrait Photography.

Lady Gaga Portrait Photograph

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, commonly known as “The Absinthe Drinker”, is one of the best and most celebrated Pablo Picasso’s portrait paintings. Signed and dated in 1903. Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto has also clearly demonstrated his extraordinarily work during Picasso’s Blue Period (1901–1904); the crucial period in his early 20′s career.

Picasso’s Blue Period consist of paintings which express the characteristic of tense, grave, gloomy or melancholy mood. Paintings dominated by shades of blue and blue-green, only occasionally warmed by other colors.

Similarly, in this paintings of Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, the artwork depicted an insight into the subject’s life and circle of friends. Elegantly dressed sitter, portraying with his glass of absinthe and his pipe. His depressed look attribute a particularly intense gaze to viewers. The bold, loose, swirling brushstrokes and the cloud of smoke hovering above him, has perfectly manifested a distinguished characteristic afflicting to inner agitation and sadness.

Picasso referred Angel, who was also a painter, as an ‘amusing wastrel.’; literally a lazy person who does not try to achieve anything in life. And it so true that Angel was indulged to drinking and partying, than to the enthusiasm in art.

Angel and Picasso twice shared studios in Barcelona, the second time being during the 1903 trip when Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto was painted. This was the same studio in Riera de Sant Joan that Picasso formerly shared with his friend and fellow artist Carles Casagemas, whose suicide had partly inspired the Blue Period.

Immersed again in these surroundings and these friends, Picasso’s Blue aesthetic flourished, culminating in portraits such as Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto which introduced a revolutionary, subjective psychological quality.

Famous artworks of Picasso’s portrait painting during this Blue Period has now in museum collections. Works includes, Portrait of Sebastià Junyent (1904), Sebastià Junyer-Vidal (1904), Portrait of Señora Soler, Portrait of Benet Soler, and The Soler Family

Recently announced by Christie’s on 17^th March 2010, Picasso paintings on Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, will be offered in the evening auction of Impressionist and Modern Art in London on 23 June 2010. Christie’s will be priced at £30 million to £40 million and all the proceeds will benefit The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, a charity founded by the celebrated composer in 1992.

The paintings, Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, has received much controversy on ownership claims, during an earlier auction in 2006. To the extend that the auction was called off and deemed as an unsuccessful sales.

Click here to read more in this press release by Christie’s – Fine Art Actions.

Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto, 1903, Picasso Portrait Paintings

Viewpoint for shooting portrait refers to the best position from which you photograph the subject. This is one of the basic aspect that most amateur photographer has neglected. It is so easy to hold the digital SLR camera and photograph the subject at eye level. The outcomes of having a humdrum photography maybe effective, provided your subject is spontaneous, experienced to modeling, and constantly having different pose in front of the camera. Think twice, do you want to hire a high-paid model just to learn basic portrait photography? So how to achieve the most effective viewpoint for shooting portrait? Simply put it, which shooting angle is best to produce a more flattering result in your composition? Below showing 4 methods for using viewpoint that enhance your portrait shooting.

1. Experiment with different height and angles. Be proactive. If the your subject is static, you should be the one to move and try shooting at different position. Shooting at high or low angle can drastically change the effect to improve the overview results and creativity. Try kneel down and shoot at waste level, or from extreme low ground to produce majestic statues-alike. Viewpoint can also have a subtle effect on how the subject appears – looking up can make them appear submissive or cheeky; looking down can make them seem dominant or even naughty.
2. Identify the unique facial features that characterize your subject. In caricature for portrait drawings, key features are intentionally exaggerated to make a face more easily recognizable. Likewise, have an extreme shooting angle for a portrait close-up will also achieve a whole new dynamic. For example, shooting from above will accentuate the feature of high cheek-bone, portraying one with stern look and strong character.
3. Use wide-angle lens for portrait close-up. Most versatile zoom lens for that I have used is Canon’s EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM. For more professional, I would recommend EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. For ultra-wide, use EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. Or EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, for unique and intriguing effects. As a beginner, would you choose to invest on a good SLR lens with resale value or to hire an experienced model who has to pay hourly?
4. Its always better to have eye contact. Your subject without eye-contact in portrait will reflect your composition with voyeuristic feel, than with intimacy mood. Re-quoting from a popular photography blog “Without eye contact, the whole mood of the image changes – the camera is now simply an ‘observer’ and this is a great opportunity to show a subject in a different way.” Source from http://digital-photography-school.com/eye-contact-in-photography

Here is an examples for shooting at side angle and slightly above eye-level.

Viewpoint of Portrait Photography. Source from Flickr: "TheHopscotch's Photostream"

Well, who will believe me if I tell someone that I have drawn the portrait of famous pop star, Madonna. That was 25 years ago, and I did it using just a small passport-size photo cut out from an old magazine. Spending 3 days to transfer the portrait onto 14” x 14” paper, with graphite, free hand technique, without grid lines and magnification. Adding to none of my portrait work posted in this blog, it is not convincing enough on my portrait drawing skill. I am not exaggerating how good I’m capable of, but wanting to share with you why portrait drawing using grid lines is still the best practice for beginners. At the same time, below points may serve a good reason to motivate anyone who want to be a natural portrait artist.

Why Portrait Drawing Using Grid Lines is The Best Practice?

1. It is a proven technique since the Renaissance period. Famous artists using grid system to transfer scale drawings will help to produce portrait art work, that look natural and without distortion. Michelangelo gridded the Sistine Chapel, in fact he got his students to do it for him.
2. This is definitely not cheating. Drawing using grid lines is not the same as tracing or projection. There is no originality in tracing and does not help a beginner as a stepping stones. You will be comfortable, if this is just a simple school assignment. However, you will not be able to develop good drawing skill.
3. The purpose of using smaller squares helps the artist to isolate shapes of subjects, thus making it easier to define and draw accurately. Logically thinking, any shapes appear within a small square grid will not mean anything. And that is the main reason to makes drawing less complicated and help focus on smaller scale of shapes. Have you been troubled about where should be the starting point of the portrait drawing? Use grid lines, anywhere can be the starting point.
4. Another name for drawing using grid lines is called graphing technique. Its helps to make it easy to enlarge or reduce a drawing based on photograph. To enlarge the portrait, simple make the grid on your drawing paper of a larger scale than the one on the photograph. Bear in mind that you only use 3H pencil to draw the square grid very lightly on the paper.
5. Do you want a distorted portrait drawing? Proportionality is one of the key element in portrait drawing, and using grid lines will definitely guide the artist strategically. Eventually, portrait should resemble the real person, their features and facial expression.
6. Develop a strong skill in drawings before one is able to paint. This is true! With lot of practice, justification to draw accurately comes in hand when you start painting a photo portrait.
7. It is still a piece of natural art work, even with the aid of grid. Though shapes are define in a smaller squares, you are still using free hands to draw. As your skill improve, you may just focus on using this smaller grids for drawing the eyes.

Perhaps the next post, I will show my portrait drawings using grid systems. Do you think it will work?

Below are a few guidelines for portrait proportion, while drawing a typical adult head. There are a few standard view in portraiture, however, here in this post, you will be reading basics references to a person who is looking straight ahead. These generalities apply not just for your graphite drawings, but also as a rule of thumb for basic fast sketch in starting portrait oil paintings.

1. The eyes are about halfway from the chin to top. This is the usual starting point in portrait drawings. So always check back with reference from the chin. Make sure you don’t begin drawing the eyes level to high, and leaving forehead too small.
2. The inside corner of the eye lines up with the outer edge of the nostril on a vertical axis. There are times, when this point is very slightly overlap for people who have broader nose.
3. The corner of the mouth lines up with the inner corner of the iris on a vertical axis. Since the eyes are the most important features, its worth the time spent on placing the iris on the right position. Otherwise, the result of your subject may appear to have squint eyes, instead. This is true to most of the portrait sketches.
4. The lower part of the face from chin to base of nose measure about the same as the area from the base of nose to a point between the eyebrows above the bridge of the nose. Proportion will differ, if your subject is drawn with a laughing mouth. In reality, your subject would not be able to pose with a laughing mouth for hours, however, do you know that some artists practice drawing directly from a candid photograph in realistic portrait? So always keep at least 2 logical references, to maintain every features are in the correct alignment.
5. The eyes are usually separated by a further eye’s-width across the bridge of the nose. The only difficulty in this proportioning, is when your subject is wearing spectacles. The outline of frame, particularly small over shape, may tend to distracts your attention in justifying the gap correctly.
6. Ears are generally on a level with the nose. No artist wants their portrait to looks like elf, with ears drawn too high.

There is a simple illustration below that I have sketch out, based on the above-mentioned points. Image may not look perfect to be realistic, however, you may want to give feedback if it does not relate well to the context here.

Proportion of Face drawing

The most accepted placement uses ‘Rule of thirds’ for composing portrait photograph. It is the basic and a proven method used by professional and amateur photographers for many years.

The design is very simple, yet requires some imaginations while taking photographs of people. A simplified ‘Rule of thirds’ divides the rectangle frame into 9 smaller ones by placing two lines across the rectangle horizontally and two lines across it vertically, creating a grid. Each set of lines divides the rectangle’s horizontal and vertical sides into three equal parts. Some camera’s feature includes imaginary grid lines when you look through the viewfinder or the display panel. It allows you to focus on the subjects and composition, instead of figuring out where to create the lines by yourself.

By understanding and applying the fundamental rule of thirds, you will not bind onto problems of where your subject should be placed in the photograph frame. This is typically useful when portrait become tighter within designated area, and probably includes one-third or less of the background for a complete composition. Examples are half-length portrait.

To photograph great portrait, always take note of the level of subject’s eyes contribute to the essence of the composition. It is also most central feature out of the facial landmarks that beautify people. The closer the portrait is, the more important the level of subject’s eyes is.

After placing your subject within the frame, adjust your view slightly so that the level of subject’s eyes is placed just above or intercepting the higher of the two horizontal lines. Next, make use of the 2 vertical lines as boundaries to help centralize your subject, ensuring that the portrait is not one-sided. Lastly, engage your subject and take your snap shoot with confidence. On top of these steps, just in mind that you are photographing people and not a pattern design. So be creative and alive, and not make your photography too symmetrical. Challenge yourself to take candid shots, it provide you with natural pose.

Rule of thirds is worth knowing and practicing, thus, regards as the cornerstone of many great portraits for beginners. Technique is also very suitable for any amateur, well pleasing to an average viewer. The resulting effort can be considered simple and ‘clean’ portrait. It’s not very unique and certainly not daringly creative. If were to evaluate and compare to the standards of ‘good picture’, in the aspect of photography art, you probably have to learn the advance methods

Most of the beginners who learn to draw realistic people are not natural artist. They don’t see the reality of the world around them, they also don’t place the portrait features in correct proportionality. You may encounter problems at the start of every practices, while staring at the piece of white drawing paper. At times, asking yourself questions as in where should be the starting point in drawing people, the features of the portrait, the eyes, nose, facial, etc. Its mainly about finding causes for why it is so difficult to draw realistic people. How should you organize visual information into understandable patterns, or fundamental knowledge about perceptions. There are two factors to understand about perceptions,

1. Perception as filters through which you see the people, and

2. Perception changes on how to make you see and draw accurately.

Perception as filters through which you see people. It comes naturally to every learners. You will recognize every people looks differently. Looking at the photographs of your close friends, you know the one standing on your right side is Billy, where the one on your left is Jane. Memory plays an important role as well. You are able to differentiate their facial features and shapes clearly. Processing the visual information through memorizing, recognizing and filtering what is necessary, while others are refer as redundancy. The more identical any two person are, the more specific you have to segregate, absorb and memorize the right information in your perception. Are you able to distinguish the difference between 2 identical twin siblings? That will be a challenge to every portrait artists who wanted to perceive and draw out the correct features of people.

Thus, for an untrained mind will based on memorized patterns or shapes. Features like people must have the nose, eyes, mouth, lips, etc. Memorized patterns are rather standard and simple drawings representing the portrait faces. These that I have mentioned are the fundamental requirement to understand how a non-artist process information, not about techniques to draw accurately.

Perception on how to make you see and draw accurately. Second factor is about how you should change and improve the drawing from the way you have memorized. Perception don’t change easily, unless there is a drastic difference that make you realize the way it looks. The idea must be in tangible manner; factual and not fictional. Real people that you are seeing, not based on memory from the past, or the standard patterns on how kid doodle a face with a pencil. It involved more technical aspect and detailing to achieve realization, thus, allowing perception to change. Two best methods are to look at the real person, face-to-face in a realistic way. And drawing people from a clear photograph in your album. Never try to imagine, look at it constantly. Breakdown and analyze the way you perceive, repeated comparisons between features of realist people and your memorized patterns. Realize and correct; improve and assemble only the filtered information in your thoughts. Then interpret the visual information into drawings. Then you will be able to draw it accurately. Always look at it.

Through this, you will improve naturally without having troubled thoughts on why drawing people is difficult. With the above two factors on perceptions of drawing people, what comes next is about disciplines and practicing. Eventually, its makes you perfect.

Below showing my pencil drawing, practicing drawing right eye of a portrait. Just having a thought of wanted to do some study and sharing in this blog. If you look closely, some of the area has sharp pencil marks pressed onto the paper. I didn’t use the correct pencil, this is drawn with a mechanical pencil.  Free to give comments.

Right eye, Pencil drawing practice

Full length portrait in photography, allows you to show your subject in an entirely different way from the more classical, tighter, close-up compositions. The key difference from other type of portrait is to capture the wholeness of subject, while keeping the subject focused from the surrounding. Detail of facial expression will be less emphasized, however, it allows you to incorporate with the environment as background, be it indoor or outdoor. Additionally, it provides the freedom to explore stance, posing and body language.

The list of possible poses and variations on those poses is almost endless. The challenge to compose a full length portrait is how to creatively fill the frame. Below, I have highlighted 3 key points.

Firstly, subject does not necessarily restricted to standing position. Other poses that you may want the model can be sitting, lying down, or kneeling. Perhaps, the arrangement of your model’s limbs and the angle of shoulders and their position in the frame.

Legs can be straight or crossed, hands can go into pockets or behind the back and arms can be stretched out of folded. Other poses, like making use of wall or posts, and asking your model to lean against it. All this makes up good composition for full length portrait, conveying body languages in an outwardly expression. Whatever you decide to do with your subject contributes to the same factors for close up composition can have, that is detail of facial expression.

Secondly, challenge on creatively fill the frame depends on the relationship between your model and the background. When the composition is tight it is relatively easy to make the background incidental, but when you have the whole person featured it becomes more difficult. Beside engaging the use of depth-of-field for SLR camera, basic photographic composition still applies. Such as inclusive of the foreground, mid and background will impact the composition of full length portrait as an entirety.

The last one that you have to take into account of is the costume the model has to put on, in order to feature an appropriateness with the selected background and theme. For examples, portrait depicting an Elizabeth era; your subject should not dress up in an 21^st century fashion that totally not fit into the theme. Basically, this may be subjective because it also depends on what you intended to convey the message to your viewer.

In all types portraiture it takes time to establish your own style. With fewer conventions about this kind of portrait you are likely to feel a lot less certain, when you start to experiment, but most photographers quickly learn to enjoy the freedom presented by full-length portraits.

Full Length Portrait (Standing, with High Contrast Background)

Full Length Portrait (Sitting, with a Simple Background)

Image Credit: Flickr

Portrait painting serve the purpose of recording an outward appearance of an individual, mainly capturing the facial expression that is able to make oneself recognizable to the real person, at a particular moment in his/her life. Before photography was invented, family members from the noble family, wealthy people, officials, merchants would have their portrait painted. During that time, or the early centuries, artists were employed by all these affluent people. There do not have any choice: their position obliged them to paint what was demanded of them.

In the next following paragraphs, you will be reading different types of portrait paintings that have been practiced traditionally by master artists. You may see some of the illustrations below.

1. Profile portrait focused attention on the outline of the face without distracting you, as the viewer, with any particular expression. Side view is used, instead of other angle facing. It was to emphasized one’s authority and nobility, such as those ancient medals, coins or currency notes which you have seen. See illustration 1.1, The Liberty Head nickel

2. Frontal full view portrait painting during 15^th century, appears mostly for godly figures, myth and heroes, highly worshiped immortals. Theses rare portraits with only frontal view makes an important association between the model and God and eternity.

3. Three-quarter portrait is somewhere in-between, is considered better suited to illustrating the transitory nature of man. It allow the artist to play with nuance o expression. It is less commonly seen these days, that one will preferred three-quarter portrait.

4. Bust-Length portrait shows a person from the shoulders up. You will not see their hands with the portrait frame. See illustration 1.2, Portrait of Camille Pissarro

5. As compared to half-length portrait, you will see an individual who is either sitting on a chair or standing. Artist will paint any area from waist level onwards. Quite often, with their hands cross-folded or resting on the arm of the chair. One of the most popular half-length portrait is The Mona Lisa, painting by Leonardo da Vince.

6. Full-length portrait shows the subject standing up. Portrait of this kind were developed in the 16^th century. Such a pose is particularly aristocratic, majestic-looking, or even regal, underlining the social standing of the person. At times, the artist will include the surrounding landscape. This kind of paintings depict height of elegance and supremacy.

7. Self-portrait during the early days referred to artist who paint himself with the help of a mirror. It is stand-alone as works of art. The best artist in the late 19^th century, who self-portrait himself was none other than Vincent van Gogh. Over 30 pieces of his work consist of him. See illustration 1.3, Self-Portrait, Vincent van Gogh

8. State portrait is generally an official portrait, highlighting the social position of an individual and power he holds. See illustration 1.4, The Emperor Napoleon

9. Group portrait consist of 2 or more figures posing together, showing a significance of togetherness or unity. It is becoming popular these days that group portrait, including wedding couple, friends and family portrait, children portrait, or even with their pets, has been reproduce from photograph.

10. Photo portrait, as the term speak for itself. In this context, we are referring to painting directly from your photograph. It is different from portrait photography, where a mechanical device is involved, including digital editing from your computer. The uniqueness of photo portrait is capable of combining figures from different photographs and combine into one handmade paintings. Physical appearance of the model is not necessary. It is contemporary, yet preserving traditionalism.

Illustration 1.1, The Liberty Head nickel Image Credit: Flick	Illustration 1.2, Portrait of Camille Pissarro Image Credit: Wikipedia
	Illustration 1.4, The Emperor Napoleon Image Credit: Wikipedia