PAUL DUNCAN

PHOTOREALISM by Paul Duncan

I  first started drawing cartoons and creating animation which led me to develop a portfolio for Disney animation studios in Florida to become an animator, unfortunately computer animation became the art form for the future and this wasn’t for me. After a few years I became a landscape artist training in traditional and wet on wet style oil painting, which I still do to this day but there has always been a love and passion for portraits. Being able to create a painting of a beautiful moment in someone’s life still amazes me and is my absolute pleasure to bring the same feeling to you.

​The technique –

My style of painting portraits is called the dry brush technique, this is a method that uses oil paints on canvas or a textured paper with synthetic and natural bristle brushes to create an photo-realistic effect. Firstly, it starts with a sketch which I use my training in animation to accurately draw from a photo . Once initial sketch is complete I then clean the drawing up ready to paint.  Then layer-by-layer I build up the tones, It’s a long process and a single study can take anything from 15 to 30 hours to complete. I mainly use black oil paint, but they can be painted in colour.

The word drybrush or dry brushing means just that, I use the smallest amount of paint on my brushes, rubbing of any remaining paint onto my palette ensuring the brush is completely dry and then very carefully add the paint to the paper or canvas, Once I have finished getting the tones right I then take a kneaded rubber (eraser) to create the highlights.