Completing an Expressionist Portrait Painting

Series Summary

Painting is the art of using a pigmented medium to create a picture of reality filtered through the imagination, the senses, emotions and life experience. Artists the world over have multiplied the uses of painting as a vital mode of human expression, whether recording history, retelling myth and legend, expressing religious fervor or exploring the unknown. From early history to the present, it is recorded that humans strive to graphically represent the world. In this free video series on painting, an artist demonstrates how to complete an expressionist portrait. Learn about the concept of finishing, and find out how to know when to walk away from a painting. Avoid overworking a portrait to maintain the fresh feeling of the paint. After the painting is deemed finished, learn to install eye-hooks and wire to hang the completed piece on the wall. Completing an expressionist portrait is a satisfying experience for any artist.

Video Transcript

"Now with all this work and revision, it might be difficult to know when to walk away from a painting. And eventually, you do have to leave it at a state that is ready to go out into the world. So, we have developed this, for two sessions now, and it's getting close. It needs a little more to click together, but not much. So, we're going to discuss the concept of finish. How to know when your painting is finished. The dangers of over working a painting, relative to the dangers of under working a painting. And, how to hang your painting, and exhibit it. Different options for putting it out into the world. So, we're almost at the point, where we can call this painting, ready."