Portrait: Capturing in Painting vs. Photograph
A portrait is a painting, drawing, or photograph of a person. Typically it captures a subject from the shoulders up and has them staring directly into the camera. In today’s blog, we’ll discuss the various aforementioned mediums of portraits, the history of portraiture, and how you can create your own pictures at home.
A Portrait is Worth a Thousand Words
Portraits have existed since somewhere between 9000 and 6000 BC. Primarily these likenesses were reserved for rulers and focused more on idealised artistic conventions rather than capturing individual features. Eventually, portraiture would transition into a harmony of the capturing the subject’s appearance and personality as well as displaying the artist’s creative sensibilities.
Painting vs Photograph
While there are a many different artistic mediums that can be used to create portraits, the two most popular forms are painting and photography.
Painting
When it comes to capturing a subject’s likeness in paint, several factors must be considered:
- Materials. What paint are you going to use? Oil or watercolour? A mix of different paints and materials? How “true to life” do you want the portrait to be in terms of colours and light?
- Size. Portraits can range from grand wall-consuming pieces to miniature stamp-size momentums.
- Time. The best way to create a person’s portrait is to paint them live. However, this requires them to sit in the same position for as long as you need them to. Thus, you should consider: how long do you think it will take you to do each stage of the painting (drawing, underpainting, etc.)?
While it is possible to make copies and take digital pictures of the finished painting. Only one true “original” painting will exist when the journey is over. Who knows what the life cycle of this art piece might be and where it might end up years after the subject and their painter have passed on.
Photography
Like painting, photography has it’s own components to consider:
- Film-type. Are you shooting on a digital camera? Or do you prefer to use film? If so, what sort of film do you want to use? Are you capturing in black and white, sepia-tone, or colour?
- Lighting. Perhaps one of the most important factors in photography. Not only do you need to ensure that the subject’s face is well lit, but also lighting can be used to convey ambience and mood.
- Multiple takes. A photo can take as short as a millisecond to capture. Therefore, it’s easy to acquire as many different versions of the picture as possible.
- Re-touching. Most photographs undergo some kind of editing before the final product is shown. Re-touching gives the photographer the chance to fix small errors and introduce different filters and colouring.
Unlike painting, it is hard to tell what the true original copy of the photograph is.
The Self-Portrait
A self-portrait is when the artist uses their own likeness as the subject. There are many ways the can go about doing this:
- A Mirror. An artist using paint as their medium can use a mirror. However, this will mean that their portrait will be a “flipped” image of themselves.
- A Reference Picture. Painters can also use a picture of themselves which they can recapture on the canvas.
- A Selfie. A common staple of the instagram app, selfies are the easiest way to create a self-portrait.
- A Timer. Most cameras come with built-in timers. This allows the photographer to set the scene then rush into place before the camera clicks.
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