Artist of the Year 2025: Masterclass - Season 1 Episode 39Narrative in Portraiture
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00:00Today's tutor, Jude Wainwright, won her heat on Portrait Artist of the Year, painting German
00:17comedian Henning Wain, who chose her portrait to take home.
00:22I mean, it's an old brainer, isn't it?
00:24Absolutely perfect work.
00:26Thanks so much.
00:29And earned her a place in the semi-final, where she painted singer-songwriter Rebecca
00:35Ferguson.
00:36I love the expression that she's got.
00:38I love the way in which she dealt with the glitter, the sparkles.
00:42She sort of matted them down.
00:43She did them on her own terms.
00:46Jude loves to weave stories into her paintings, which is why she is leading today's Master
00:51Class, Narrative in Portraiture.
01:18Today I'm going to be showing you how you can insert narrative into your paintings,
01:22whether it's inserting a subtle backstory into a portrait or getting yourself a whole
01:28crazy new surreal world.
01:30I'm going to show you some tips and tricks as to how you can achieve that.
01:36It's quite daunting starting with a blank canvas.
01:39You don't always know what you want to paint.
01:41I've started following through with like flashes of thought or dreams that I've had to come
01:46up with ideas for my content of my paintings.
01:50And quite often you'll find that they're a lot more exciting to do because they come
01:55from your heart, from your head, from your subconscious.
01:59What I do quite often is I use my phone to jot down drawings and ideas.
02:05And today I'm going to show you how I would take that original sketch that I did in the
02:11night at 3am that seemingly means nothing to creating a whole painting just from that
02:19small idea.
02:20I've printed it out here a bit bigger just so I can make sense of things a bit better.
02:26So what's happening here is I have a book for a head and I'm eating eggs that are fried
02:36and I'm holding some cutlery and a plate, basically.
02:41And you know, when I had the dream, I was like, that's weird.
02:45Can that be a painting?
02:46What will people say?
02:48When people say, what does that mean?
02:50What will I say?
02:51But, you know, you don't have to worry about that because it's your dream.
02:55Do what you want.
02:56It's your painting.
02:58And it's fun and I recommend it.
03:03So what I did was printed off various images of me in this position.
03:12So now I'm just going to have a bit of a play with these images on the canvas.
03:17This is quite a fun bit.
03:19It just gives you a chance to sort of have a look on the space, see how things are going
03:25to work together.
03:41When you've picked your composition, now you can start putting on the individual elements
03:48onto your canvas.
03:51What I like to use is this really cool stuff.
03:55It's carbon paper, so there's a sort of shinier side and a matte side and we want the shiny
04:00side on the canvas, kissing the canvas.
04:08So I don't know what this is called, but it's a pointy stick that jabs through the image
04:17onto the carbon paper, onto the canvas and you should have your image at the end.
04:23So it's super simple.
04:25You literally just trace around your image like you would on tracing paper.
04:33Just anywhere that you want to be printed.
04:38Just draw around.
04:51So there you go.
04:54The composition's coming together really nice.
04:56It all fits together on the canvas.
04:58There's just a few bits that I just need to add in with a pencil.
05:03I'm going to put just a round table.
05:10It can be so loose.
05:14So yeah, I think I'm happy with that.
05:16I'm done with the pencil part.
05:18Let's paint.
05:24For this particular painting, I'd like to do quite a deep colour in the background.
05:30I sort of picture this scene as being in a dingy restaurant and so I was trying to
05:36think what kind of colours that might evoke and rich, deep ones were the ones that came
05:42forward.
05:43So I'm going to do that.
05:47I'm making a sort of blood red, weirdly.
05:53Just make sure you get all your colours mixed together, blended nicely.
05:58What I then like to do is mix in some turpentine to thin things down.
06:13So I have this handy dandy contraption here that holds my turpentine.
06:19A good thing about this contraption is it's got this fun little sort of netted thing in
06:27it that separates the silt from your brush.
06:32You use it to clean your brushes and the silt settles below and you can use the clean turps
06:39up above it.
06:40All you have to do is just separate it out.
06:42I like to store mine in jam jars after a session of painting and then if you come back to it
06:48the next day, the silt will have separated at the bottom and you can pour off the top
06:55turps and reuse it a few times.
06:57You just want to mix in a bit of turps at a time into your colour.
07:04So let's just put some on in the background.
07:09Ooh, that's a nice colour, I like that colour.
07:15And then just spread it around.
07:17Don't be too precious.
07:20Basically I'm just trying to fill this space so I can get on with the rest.
07:43Okay, so I think I'm happy with that background for now.
07:48It's just a loose representation.
07:51It's more the colour that I was after and filling the canvas.
07:55I'm just going to clear this part away off my palette.
08:02So you can start mixing a fresh colour without the colours mixing together and bothering
08:07each other.
08:17I'm just going to start mapping out these areas of shadow and darkness.
08:32It doesn't have to be super precise but at this stage I just want to fill as much canvas
08:40as I can with a colour.
08:56When you're putting together different images that were taken at different times and places,
09:04it's hard to make them look like they're part of the same image and the same picture
09:10and that they all happened at the same time.
09:13One of the ways that you can help this is by ensuring that the light comes from the
09:19same direction on each of the objects.
09:22So here I'm just putting the shadows on this egg plate.
09:34As you can see on the figure, the light's coming from this direction.
09:39On the egg plate, the light's coming from this direction.
09:44It just helps everything marry together a bit more.
10:01I'm going to block in my book, my head book.
10:10So again, this bit is just really loose.
10:13I'm just trying to find the dark areas.
10:18It's all about just getting some colour on your canvas, filling in these gaps and then
10:24the detail comes later.
10:41So when you use a thin turps method of doing the background and making the shadows, sometimes
10:48the lines can get a bit blurred and I like to just keep checking in with them and going
10:53over them and making sure the image is clear on the canvas.
10:58I'm just going to go in and outline certain parts.
11:17This is a good point to really accentuate where all the shadows are on the painting.
11:34So once again, fulfilling your narrative and trying to recreate that original dream.
11:56I'm going to paint in the diamonds of the leotard that I'm wearing in this image.
12:02For years I've painted myself in it because I didn't want to have to keep thinking about
12:07what to dress myself in.
12:09It's a bit of laziness really, but I really liked it and I ran with it and I thought it
12:14looked cool and now it's sort of become its own thing.
12:18Clothing in general can add to your narrative.
12:21For instance, if you wanted to put someone in regal clothing or in, I don't know, rags
12:28or something.
12:30It connotates different things depending on what you dress your characters in, which is
12:35cool because it all adds to the narrative of your painting.
12:39It all helps you be enveloped into this world that you're trying to create on the canvas.
13:02I've mapped out the diamond pattern there and everything's starting to come together
13:08really nice now.
13:09I think next it might be cool to move on to the head.
13:13Just to keep marrying the picture together, it'd be cool to sort of get an idea as to
13:20the personality of the book head.
13:23So when I was thinking about the book, in my head it was a sort of antique-y, old-style
13:30book that I went for and I really like this green colour to use, especially with the background
13:38being this rich red.
13:41I think the green will stand out quite nice from it and bring it forward as the central
13:50part of the painting.
13:59Colour can evoke so many feelings and when you're creating a piece of narrative, I don't
14:05need to tell you that hot pinks and reds bring energy and vibrance to a painting and
14:12greens and blues can calm you down and there's so many different ways you can use colour
14:19to your advantage.
14:21It's a great tool.
14:36I'm quite happy with how that's looking at the moment.
14:39More and more, as you add each step, the painting starts to come to life.
14:42It's quite exciting.
14:44I'm just going to paint in the pages now in just a simple beige.
14:57So I'm just keeping the top of it quite light and then I'll do the sides in the shadow to
15:04sort of give it that 3D look.
15:11The book's starting to look quite booky.
15:14One important aspect I need to add now, as it's a self-portrait, is the face.
15:22Now, considering it's a book, we have to be a bit creative and I'm thinking what it needs
15:31is just a good pair of eyes.
15:34You know, they're the window to the soul.
15:36They'll add some good character and once you have that on your painting, there's a lot
15:43of emotion that can be depicted from the eyes and it'll help with the narrative because
15:49it will denote the feeling of the painting a lot more, adding some personality into it.
15:54So I'm just going to use this teeny brush now just to draw out quite quickly the eyes
16:00and then I'll paint in the detail after that.
16:03Something I like to do is reuse colours that are already on my palette.
16:33When making colours for elsewhere on the painting, because I think it sort of helps the painting
16:42become more unison if I use the same colours throughout it, as opposed to mixing one colour
16:51then mixing the next colour.
16:55Okay.
17:12I like to keep it a bit illustrative.
17:15It's just playful.
17:17It's fun.
17:18And like I say, when you're painting certain bits from your head, from your dreams, it's
17:26a lot easier to keep it less absolutely realistic, especially seeing as the whole topic is, it's
17:34from a dream, like the narrative is whimsical and fantasy.
17:42It sort of marries in if you paint in an illustrative way as well.
18:01Why don't we now concentrate on what we're eating?
18:07I've done a couple of paintings now with eggs in and I wonder, because all of these paintings
18:13come from dreams or subconscious thoughts, I wonder if there's something about eggs that's
18:22symbolic to me.
18:26Quite often, months down the line, I'll realise what it means.
18:32It's always good when you come up with an idea to just do it, whether you know what
18:37it means or not.
18:40On the egg yolks, I've paid attention to the shadows and light areas and added the darker
19:06yolky colours here at the bottom and then the shiny, lighter yolky colours on the top
19:14just to add that sort of 3D yolky, globby look.
19:19Next up, I'm just going to put the white colour around the yolks.
19:38I'm quite pleased with how the eggs are looking.
19:41The one final flourish is to put some highlights on top of the yolk, just to set everything
19:47off a bit.
19:48So just get the lightest white you can and blob it on, no turps.
20:04That just really sets them off, makes them ping.
20:09And there we go, eggs on a plate.
20:12I think we're going to do the flesh tones on the skin.
20:16I paint myself all the time and you just sort of get a feel for what your particular
20:23tone is.
20:26And also, I like to accentuate certain colours, like I really like the crimson colour and
20:33so I add a bit more of that in, but I just sort of make colours now off the top of my
20:40head and use the reference as more of where to put dark, light and middle, as opposed
20:47to where the exact tones of colour go.
20:53I'm going to start out with this big fat brush that I like and work quite big at first and
21:00then go down to the finer, detailed areas.
21:18So because I want these areas to be highlighted, I'm going to add this bright white just in
21:25those bits.
21:26Not a lot because you can overdo it, but again, it's just to sort of marry everything together.
21:46I'm really happy with how that painting's coming along.
21:49I think I'm going to go away and do a bit more rendering on it, a bit more work, but
21:54I'm so happy with the layout that we've got so far and I'm pretty sure it's a good reflection
22:00of my dream.
22:02I used to paint paintings that I thought people wanted to see and need an explanation, but
22:07now I follow my gut and my dreams and the work I'm doing is a lot more authentic and
22:12fun and I really encourage you to do the same.
22:16I hope you can try and do it because it'll just bring out a lot of joy in your work.
22:25If you'd like to find out more about these masterclasses, go to our website www.skyartsartistoftheyear.tv
22:46and check out our website at www.skyartsartistoftheyear.tv