How to paint a realistic portrait using only 12 colors

This tutorial demonstrates how to paint a realistic portrait using only 12 colors, using the ArtistAssistApp.

Portrait is a genre of painting that most often requires realism. You can paint a realistic portrait with just 12 colors. With ArtistAssistApp, it's easy!

Creating your color set and importing your reference photo

Open ArtistAssistApp.com in your web browser and press the "Start now" button.

Let's say we have these colors: Titanium White, Dark Yellow, Reddish Orange, Vermilion Red, Bordeaux Red, Sapphire Blue, Prussian Blue, Dark Green, Reddish Brown, Natural Sienna, Platine Grey, and Schwarz.

Import a reference portrait photo.

Draw perfect outline

See your portrait photo with the grid over it, then draw it on paper to get the right proportions.

Don't want to draw? Print an outline of your photo and trace it on paper.

Studying tonal values and simplifying your reference

Study tonal values to learn how to create contrast and depth in your portraits. Balancing tonal values is as important as accurate color mixing.

Smooth your portrait photo to reduce detail and focus on the big shapes and proportions. If you like to paint more impressionistically, you need to simplify the reference photo. Avoid squinting your eyes to blur your reference.

Accurately mixing colors with ArtistAssistApp

Just click or tap anywhere on the portrait photo, and the app will show you the color in the photo and how to mix it with your paints.

Save instructions for mixing your favorite colors so you can quickly access them using the "Palette" tool. There is a separate palette for each reference photo.

The photo displays all the colors in the palette stacked on top of each other in color swatch mode.

About ArtistAssistApp

ArtistAssistApp, also known as Artist Assist App, is a web app for artists to accurately mix any color from a photo, analyze tonal values, turn a photo into an outline, draw with the grid method, paint with a limited palette, simplify a photo, remove the background from an image, compare photos pairwise, and more.

Try it now for free at https://app.artistassistapp.com to improve your painting and drawing skills and create stunning artworks.