How to Paint a Woman Portrait from Scratch – Finishing an Oil Painting

Art Lesson 51, Part 6

Discover How to Paint a Woman Portrait from Scratch

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Finishing an Oil Painting

The fan brush is an excellent tool for creating unusual effects. Here’s a semi-rigid fan-brush which leaves hair-marks on the surface of the paint layer. This brush is very helpful for mixing bordering tones; a fan-brush leaves marks that are impossible when using a regular brush. A fan-brush can also be used for paint strokes – as a regular brush. The brushstrokes of a fan-brush are broad, thick and textured. Such brush-strokes can be rubbed into the bottom layers, thus mixing the paint directly on the canvas.

Now we’re using a thin brush making the color nuances, both small and sharp, as well as washed out with the previous layers.

The dress at the bottom of the canvas is almost fused against the dark background, with no visible borders; it’s blurred by against the background.
The whole head is contrasting to the light background.

The main focal point of the painting is the sitter’s face, which captures the most of attention.