Direct Painting

Direct painting means to begin and complete a portrait with minimal drawing.

Alla prima (direct painting wet into wet) is a method of direct painting in a single paint layer usually on a white ground.

Instead of spending a lot of time drawing and detailing a mass or value "macchia" then doing additional refinement through more careful drawing, one develops "on the fly" a color "macchia" or pattern, sculpting the head's form and features through direct application of paint.

Each stroke of the brush imparts both value and hue simultaneously and has to be correct.

If incorrect, it must be immediately scraped off and re-applied. Paint directly and quickly.

The most famous proponent of this method was John Singer Sargent. But many of the renouned masters of portraiture used this method to some degree, especially Fran Hals and Rembrandt.



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