Painting Portraits in Oils: Capturing Character from Life
Reference Adult Education Art Instruction Hobbies & Crafts Oil Painting Portraiture Visual Arts
Rob Wareing’s first-edition hardback “Painting Portraits in Oils: Capturing Character from Life” is the 2021 master-class that portrait artists have been waiting for. Across 160 heavily-illustrated pages the South-African-born, UK-based portraitist distils four decades of commissioned work into a repeatable method: how to block-in accurate shapes, mix truly lifelike flesh tones, and finish with the subtle glazes that make a face breathe on the canvas. Every step is photographed in Search Press’ trademark large-format (280 mm) colour plates, so you can zoom in on brushwork, palette-knife mixes and edge control exactly as if you were standing in Wareing’s studio.
What sets this book apart from other oil-painting manuals is its laser-focus on “character” rather than mere likeness. Wareing devotes entire chapters to posing nervous sitters, manipulating natural light, and editingreference photos so you still end up with a painting that feels alive, not photographic. A unique “skin-tone matrix” organises mixtures for every age and ethnicity, while mini-demos on eyes, mouths and hands solve the classic stumbling blocks that derail most portraits. Whether you paint commissioned work or family keepsakes, these pages show how to push beyond technical accuracy into storytelling.
Collectors and students alike prize this clean, unmarked first printing with its protective dust jacket—no ex-library stamps, no dog-eared corners, no smoke odours. At just under a kilo it feels substantial in the hand yet lays flat for easy reference at the easel. With contemporary realist portraiture booming in today’s art market, having Wareing’s proven system on your shelf is both a practical tutorial and an inspirational gallery of finished works. Secure this very-good-condition copy now and give your own oil portraits the professional edge that wins commissions and juried shows alike.
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