I'm not blessed at this point in my life to have children, but if I did you can bet I'd be one of those mothers who want portrait paintings of her children at every stage of their lives. Even better, I could learn how to paint children like artist Brian Neher does--capturing the childlike sweetness of his subjects in ways that are incredibly heartwarming. Enjoy this step-by-step painting techniques demonstration from Neher and perhaps turn your skills toward creating an oil painting of the young loved ones in your life.

Step 1-3: Neher uses a thin mixture of raw sienna to mark the top, bottom, and sides of the face, and then indicates the line of the eyes, nose, mouth, and neck. Using straight lines, he indicates the placement and proportions of the rest of the model's head. Before moving on, Neher blocks in the background surrounding the model so he can judge the relative value of the skin tones.

Step 1-3 Step-by-step painting techniques demonstration from Brian Neher.

Step 4-5: Using ultramarine blue, cadmium orange, and titanium white, Neher blocks in the dark shadow shapes of the eye sockets and hair of the model. He mixes a basic flesh color using gold ochre, cadmium scarlet, and titanium white with viridian, French ultramarine, and Prussian green in it.

Step 4-5 Step-by-step painting techniques demonstration from Brian Neher.

Step 6-7: Neher paints the rest of the face, adjusting the value and temperature of the flesh color. He paints the model's shirt and moves onto the secondary details in the scene. 

Final sketch Step-by-step painting techniques demonstration from Brian Neher.

If you'd like more step-by-step painting lessons from professional artists and instructors, look no farther than a year's worth of Workshop magazine on one convenient CD. You can take it wherever you go, and find the instruction and guidance you are after with just a few clicks. Nothing easier! Enjoy! 

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