The Biggest Mistake People Make When Portrait Painting

In this Portrait Painting Tutorial, realist painter Alex tzavaras talks about one of the biggest mistakes people make when portrait painting - Over Modelling. For Alex’s course on the fundamentals of oil painting visit: Over modelling happens when you focus in on each small are of your subject separately and exaggerate the differences in light and dark tonal values in oil painting. If you then exaggerate the tonal values in painting within each small area, you loose the larger value relationships and your image so it no longer appears 3D. This is a really common beginner oil painting mistake. To avoid over modelling, you need to see the whole before the parts. You need to establish the larger tonal value relationships by simplifying your subject into 3 or 4 main tonal values. However, simplifying your subject into large value masses is one of the most difficult things we have to do when painting. But in this video, Alex demonstrate