Making a Psychological Portrait
Talia sketching the sitter during the personal interview stage of a portrait.
an Intro to psychological portraiture
In this post, I will take you through some of the key elements of the portraiture method I have developed, integrating humanistic psychology and classical portraiture.
My aim in making portraits is to bring out a person’s unique personality and positive psychological strengths and values in a portrait format. I want the physical portrait paintings I make to serve as a reminder, a map of virtues, a representation of the strengths and hopes of the person.
I have always been fascinated by portraits, particularly by Rembrandt’s and Velazquez’s exquisite depictions of human characters. I also greatly admire the portraiture work of Rinjeke Dijkstra for her sociological richness , and Lita Cabellut’s brilliant portrait paintings.
I INTERVIEW THE PERSON BEING PORTRAYED
As a humanist psychotherapist, I have met hundreds of patients over the years. The first thing that I read in a new person is always their facial expression, and have become used to interpret people’s faces so that I can quickly adapt my psychological interview and screening methods.Ideally I start a portrait with a personal interview, an experience of dialogue to understand the personality of the sitter, and to help this person clarify their unique strengths, aspirations, values. I am looking for the person’s own “ideal self” version, because ultimately, this is what I want to portray. I take sketches in pencil and watercolor and notes in person during the interview, gathering live information which a camera tends to miss.
WE CREATE A COLLABORATIVE MOODBOARD
In the personal interview I note the sitter’s story, passions, mottos, favourite songs. If we have time, we make a joint collage “mood board” for the portrait, where the sitter is actually participating in the final portrait piece. Pinterest also is a great tool to collaboratively create a mood-board, and if the person wishes to share their board, we can incorporate some of her preferred visual elements into the portrait.
I PHOTOGRAPH THE SITTER
In order to ensure resemblance, I photograph the person myself, and this is a way of capturing the different expressions and gestures which I know will work well in my style of portrait. If I have already interviewed the sitter, this photo shoot is very relaxed and easy, and I know exactly how to guide the person so that the poses fit in with the mood board. I shoot with a digital camera, which allows an easy sharing of the photos with the sitter and even facilitates choosing the main portrait photograph together. There is always at least one photograph which I immediately recognize as the “aha”, that is it.
I DRAW, COLLAGE, AND PAINT THE PORTrAIT
Once I have my preparatory sketches, photographs, and mood-board ready, making the portrait is my favourite part, where I draw, paint, collage in a free and intuitive way. Here I like to work alone in my studio, with a lot of available time, and granting myself full freedom to interpret the person.
The drawing and painting of the face, body, clothes follow a more classical methodology of drawing proportions first in pencil by checking my photographs and sketches, then shading volumes in charcoal, painting thin acrylic colour washes to create the hues of the skin, and painting finer details in oil paints.
I integrate the most prominent parts of the sitter’s mood-board and interview contents mainly in the collage layers of the piece, where elements such as lyrics, quotes, names of loved people, places, old photos etc. can “surround” the portrayed person. These layers of writing, collaged paper, collaged photographs interplay with the drawn and painted elements and so I gradually blur the limits between writing, collage, photography, and painting.
If you would like to commission a portrait of yourself or a loved one, feel free to contact me to discuss how it works.