How to Paint Realistic Black and White Portraits

Part 1: Establishing the Face and Hair – 1:34:56
Part 2: Mastering Edges and the Background – 15:57
Part 3: Background, Hands and Edges – 18:47
Part 4: Painting the Hands and Arms – 10:53
Part 5: Painting the Dress – 20:07
Part 6: Highlighting and Illumination – 17:53
Part 7: Texture and how to distress the background – 10:36
Part 8: Final details and edges/ Closing thoughts – 13:51

Welcome to intro to How to Paint Realistic Black and White Portraits by Noah Elias. This masterclass will provide you with the inside look at how I create photo-real portraits with just three colors. If you are just a beginner or intermediate level, this masterclass will help refine your approach to becoming advanced. My goal is to get you painting photo-real as soon as possible and the sky is the limit for you!

What to expect: I highly encourage my students to learn how to paint monochromatic images and black and white before attempting to paint color. This allows you to nail realism and believability before attempting color mixing. I believe that nailing realism is first priority and where we can break all bad habits.

This masterclass will reveal my approach to lighting and shadows with just a couple of colors. You will be watching over my shoulder during one of my real-life commissioned paintings. You will then have the chance to apply this same.

A word from Noah:

*Note: If you are a beginner I would encourage you to first take the Intro to Airbrushing course to get your fundamentals down to ensure your confidence when attempting to dive into portraits. This masterclass is for those that have mastered the fundamentals and are ready to take their skills to the next level. However, you might just want to sit back and watch to gain an understanding of what’s needed to achieve this level of execution. You will also have a great deal of insight as to what is needed when you decide to do your first portrait.

Pro tip: The key to this technique is to look and match your reference. Matching the lighting patterns and shadows is paramount to the realism of the figure. If you guess and “make up” the strokes, you can easily cancel out the believability of your work.