Painting the Head in Oil

by John Howard Sanden

Dust jacket notes: "'I cannot think of anything more difficult, or more fascinating, than attempting to paint an impression of a human being, in oils, in one sitting.' John Howard Sanden is a master... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0823036405
• ISBN13: 9780823036400
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
• Length: 152 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.

Customer Reviews

excellent instruction book for portraiture

I'm not sure why this book is still out of print. The dated look is to be expected, but the advice is rock solid and will never change, As a painter, this book has changed my perspective on portraiture for sure.

Highly Recommend!

This is one of the best, most thorough books on Portrait Painting. I especially benefited from the information on color mixing for the various skin tones, which I have seen in other books, but his is more in-depth. I won't let my book go!

most instructional oil painting portrait book i have read

this book gives you step by step instruction and teaches the basics as well as advanced ways to get portraits the way they should be. it includes the artist's palette and pictures of demostrations. he explains the colors of his palette as well as showing you how to make it with a chart for future reference. The darks, shadows , and light, the way in which he uses it to get the true illusion of 3 dimensional picture. i recommend this book to all artist alike.

This is the oil portrait painting bible.

Whether a beginner or experienced oil painter, this is a must-have book for your art techniques library. Sanden begins with general oil painting information about materials and equipment. He reviews his color palette in detail, discussing warms and cools, earth colors, and mixing your own flesh tints. He covers the basics of drawing the head and then talks about value, light, halftone, and shadow. Sanden's in depth color review includes hue, value and intensity, color mixing recipes and charts which you can make on canvas paper to keep for future reference. He shows you how to set up your palette, and gives clear and concise step-by-step painting instructions. After a review of general painting procedures, he paints (with examples) the head, including the mouth, teeth, chin, ears, forehead, hair, eyes, eyeglasses, and nose. Explanations are very clear and easy to follow. Lastly, he tells you how to capture the essence of your sitter. There are several color examples of his work throughout the book, as well as, black and white ones. He also discusses dark flesh tones, sitters attire, and the background. He encourages the painter to reduce the portrait into five parts: the light side of the face, the dark side of the face, the hair, the costume, and the background; to simplify. I use this book with my oil painting classes.