By Milt Caine Portraiture is arguably the most difficult and exacting of the graphic arts, calling into play the keenest of eyes, the surest of hands, the firmest of disciplines. Without these, portraits become likenesses, superficial and empty. Just as there is a world of difference between a portrait and a caricature, there is an equal difference between face that is a portrait and one that is merely a likeness, even a good likeness. The approach to painting portraits is strictly individual, as varied as the subjects themselves and the artists who paint them. Rembrandt's portraits for example reveal the artist's dark and somber nature, Daniel Greene's his flair for the dramatic, and Everett Raymond Kinstler's his precision and generally light palette.
Methods vary as well.
Daniel Greene stands away from his subject, then gradually moves closer. Flora B. Giffuni, President and founder of the Pastel Society of America, believes in measuring everything precisely. Richard Pionk, member of the prestigious Salmagundi Club and a teacher at the Art Student's League, asserts that measuring can't be overdone. John Howard Sanden, honored by the American Society of Portrait Artists, bases everything on observation and advises leaving nothing to guesswork. Jeff Webb, teacher and artist, takes a freer approach and does little measuring.