matt harvey art
Portrait paintings, art demonstrations, figurative painting, landscapes
Taylor Swift portrait in the manner of William Bouguereau
Posted on October 14, 2019
Portrait of Taylor Swift in the manner of William Bouguereau. An oil painting demonstration
Hi there I have just painted this portrait of Taylor Swift to demonstrate an aspect of Bouguereau’s technique, working straight into colour from the drawing. I worked on it for around 4 hours including the drawing stage. Below is the drawing stage which I completed using Burnt Umber and Linseed oil medium in a kind of ‘bistre’ effect. I did model some of the lights and darks in the hair but that was only so that I could clarify the drawing. A true bistre might also model the forms of the face, but here my intention was to finish the drawing so that I could focus on the colour in the video demonstration.
Portrait of Taylor Swift – Burnt Umber bistre drawing
Here is a before and after picture. The first colour glaze took about 90 minutes
Portrait of Taylor Swift showing the drawing stage in burnt umber and linseed oil medium, and then the first colour glaze
In my portraits I would use this colour layer as a kind of underpainting and continue to refine the modelling in further glazes. The demonstration is on my youtube channel, link below.
New Caravaggio technique video – underpainting stage
Posted on February 27, 2019
Underpainting stage for Boy Bitten by a Lizard, after Caravaggio
Hi there, I’ve just posted this on youtube. Its going to be one of 2 videos there but 6 in total on patreon where they are also unedited and in real time. This video is cobbled together from 3 real time films, about 3 hours painting in all. I loved copying this painting and learned so much. Looking forward to the next one! I still have to finish the Rubens copy I’m doing as well. And the glazing for this painting. After that Velasquez and Van Dyck.. all the Baroque greats. Thank you for looking!
Portrait painting video demonstration
Posted on November 21, 2017
My latest film, another shot while putting on the first glaze over a grisaille underpainting, is now finished and on youtube. Here’s a link to the first installment:
It’s been an interesting experience filming myself working, and quite strange to watch it back as I’ve never seen myself working before. I wanted to make an authentic account of working with this method, and create the film I was looking for when trying to learn how to do it myself. Of course thats a process that never stops!
Portrait painting commission – grisaille layer waiting for the first glaze
Posted on November 2, 2017
This is the first stage, the grisaille. I will be posting a video of the first glaze in a few days. The sitter is the sister of the earlier portrait posted. I will be able to continue modelling the forms as I glaze. I have talked about this elsewhere but the drawing never stops while glazing is taking place, each glaze revealing new areas to develop in the painting. The grisaille is not perfectly formed but is enough to form an anchor for the rest of the painting. Hue or colour is in itself drawing and form and all the imperfections and flat areas are transformed with the glazes.
There are many different ways to make a grisaille underpainting; with black and white as here, or you can make a ‘verdaccio’ which is monotone green and white, or burnt umber and whites. In the future I would like to do some paintings with very limited palettes, like the Zorn palette which has Yellow Ochre, Black, red and white. Or like the one I used at school, Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Blue and White. Just thinking about it is so nostalgic and I fondly remember swimming in warm and cool tones back then.
Portrait of Ruby, grisaille painted in oils, Titanium White and Ivory Black
