In this portrait painting tutorial, realist painter Alex Tzavaras shows you how to place the 5 essential shadows of a portrait.

The 5 essential shadows of a portrait, the 2 eyesockets, the shadow under the nose, the upper lip and the shadow under the bottom lip are vitally important. Whenever you are drawing a portrait or portrait painting in oil, getting a likeness in a portrait depends on placing these 5 shadows accurately. You should have these shadows placed correctly before you start working on the refining stages of your portrait, or adding any details, because no amount of detailed work will make something look like your sitter if there is anything wrong with any of the 5 essential shadows.

In this alla prima oil painting tutorial, Alex domonstrates with a plaster cast how he uses centerlines to help him place the 5 essential shadows accurately. In addition to this oil painting demo, there is a full length version, filmed in real time, available to watch on Alex's Patreon Cannel. You can also download a high-res reference image of this cast and have a go at this exercise yourselves, here:

https://www.patreon.com/simplifydrawingandpainting

Alex Tzavaras is a contemporary realist artist offering portrait painting and alla prima oil painting tutorials. Alex teaches the traditional painting techniques artists used to draw and paint from life up until the start of the 20th century.

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