This video is a step by step guide on how to paint the perfect portrait. Here Irv, creates a Dual portrait and uses some very clever ideas to capture a picture with an interesting mix to it.

Irv Rudley is an artist who from his early childhood had a compulsion to draw faces.  As a child he would draw in the empty margins of his notebooks tiny heads sketched in with pencil, pen,crayon or anything that would make a mark on paper. He would draw classmates, teachers and anyone who happened to pass his way.  If someone had an interesting face, the compulsion became overwhelming, and he just had to stop whatever he was doing  and a grab a likeness.

The portraits that he paints normally would take many weeks and would require a great deal of time from the sitter,  he prefers to paint from photos that he takes, or ones that are supplied to him if he feels they will make a quality painting.

When he does the photography, he will take many shots with a digital camera and review them on the spot with you, to see which one is best suited for the painting. Sometimes a composite combination of differentshots, possibly substituting a different background or clothing will be the final selection. In any case, you will know, before he makes the first brush stroke, exactly what the finished painting will look like.

Many times he will make small colour sketches for later use to compare with the photography while  he is painting. And occasionally he might ask for one or two live sittings when the painting is finished, just to check for any additions or corrections that you or he might see.

To view other paintings by this artist visit his own website which is www.cfsvideo.net