In the third of five articles on portraits in oils, Peter Keegan describes the ‘inside-out’ method of painting, which allows you to go straight in with the details
When we are faced with the prospect of painting a human head, shoulders, body, hands (and potentially more) on a blank canvas you’d be forgiven for feeling somewhat overwhelmed and daunted by the prospect of it all. Some approaches to portraiture require you to map everything out from the start, having a relatively strong idea of what the finished painting will look like from the outset.
Other aspects of starting a portrait can require an enormous amount of accurate draughtsmanship, with outlines mapping out exactly where each facial feature is and precisely where each brushstroke needs to be placed. Whilst these approaches are neither right nor wrong, they do demand knowledge from the outset and lend themselves to a more classical and traditional approach.
The inside-out method
Some painters require an approach to painting that allows them to explore their subject matter in a different way – one that doesn’t require much in planning and one that allows them to go straight into the details and modelling of facial features without worrying too much about the overall structure and form of the subject. The inside-out approach to painting is just such a method. Famously used by portrait painter Lucian Freud, its principle is based on focusing on one specific part of the face, for example an eye (often the focal point for a portrait anyway) and painting that eye in as much perfection and clarity as possible. When that eye has been painted, you move very slowly across the face to the next feature, painting the skin and the way the light and shadows play on the skin as you go.
I like to think of it as if you’re imagining the face as an Ordinance Survey map, with its lines, wrinkles and features on the face as the rivers, fields, hills and landmarks on the map. The job of working with the inside-out method, is like following the footsteps of someone walking through this interesting terrain, painting the pathway of the terrain as you go. This process requires a large amount of close scrutinisation from the artist and this scrutinisation can often be seen in the final painting. What the painting may lack in energy and movement, it will gain in a deep focus and stillness about it which, for some painters and sitters, works highly effectively.
One of the other benefits to working inside-out is that it doesn’t require the artist to ha
