Portraits.

Some samples of portraits. Click on the individual paintings to see a larger version. Portraits are done in two media: oil, and oil glaze on wood. The portraits here are all glaze on wood.

By their nature, oil glaze on wood paintings are quite small, 5" x 7" being not uncommon.

A piece of wood is sanded smooth, then painted white. The colours are very thin, translucent layers, built up one at a time. Opaque colours can have 15-20 layers. Everywhere you see light, is the white background showing through.

This transparency makes doing a starting sketch almost impossible, usually being limited to getting the relationship between pupils, nostrils, mouth, etc. worked out, and marked with just a faint dot done with a pencil. The rest is by eye alone.