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Over 20 years ago I attended a portrait artist conference where Everett Raymond Kinstler was the speaker.  He gave a piece of valuable advice that has always stuck with me: “Don’t strive to become a portrait artist; instead strive to become a better artist. If you want to paint better portraits, learn to paint landscape.”

At the time I found the advice confusing. How can painting a landscape make you a better portrait painter?  I took his advice and began plein air painting. As I slowly learned how to record the outdoors on my canvas I found that my portraits became stronger. Soon I found myself happily going from portrait to landscape to still life.  The three subjects share much in common yet stretch you in different ways.

Portraiture is about draftsmanship.  In portraiture, drawing ability is incredibly important, and to be successful you have to train your eye to run constant checks on placement of shapes.  In a landscape you can fudge the height and shape of a tree.  In a still life a lemon can be larger or smaller than it really is but in portraiture we know when an eye is in the wrong place or if a cheekbone is placed too high.

"Cowboy"  14x11 watercolor

"Blue" 14x11 pastel

Landscape is about atmosphere. A successful landscape captures the light and distance in the surroundings.  Learning how to paint different weather conditions will help you paint portraits and still life under different lighting.  Painting with a time limit in plein air will also help you learn to edit your compositions and lose unimportant details.

"Lowland Wisps" 8x10 pastel

A plein air oil painting from the quick draw paint out in Glen Arbor, MI where it rained, rained, and rained. 

Still life is for study.  When I want to explore a new technique or color palette I can use a still life to challenge myself and gain confidence.  Have trouble with color? Paint white on white.  Do you want to learn perspective? Put books and boxes into your still life or draw your set up from above.  Depending on the objects you choose you can take endless time to explore ideas and techniques.  A tea cup will not ask for a break and a plastic plum will never rot. 

"Onion Roll" 9x12 pastel  This painting is heading to California, it has been juried into the Pastels USA exhibition hosted by the Pastel Society of the West Coast.

Piano Forte 8x10 Pastel $400, available.

All the subjects support each other.  Once you learn how to create atmosphere and distance in your landscapes you will become more sensitive to your backgrounds in portrait and still life.  When you have rigorously trained yourself to draw correctly in portraiture you can use the tools of measuring and cross checking to make certain your perspective is correct and your shapes true in your landscape and still life.  Finally if you want to experiment and push yourself further you can set up still life subjects to teach specific lessons.  Then when someone asks if you paint portrait, landscape or still life you can smile and answer, “Yes.”

For a recent plein air paint out I chose an old truck at a car show.  This was a stretch, I don't usually paint cars, but just thought of it as a series of shapes and values.  My oldest brother, who is a car buff, was happy to take it home.