Philip de Laszlo: Painting a Portrait, Palette & Brushes

"In a book Philip de Lazlo wrote in conjunction with Mr. A. L. Baldry, he explained his methods while at work on a portrait of Miss Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. The book was illustrated with a series of photographs of the portrait in its successive stages, and was published in 1934 by The Studio Publications of London, in volume six of their 'How to Do It' series. John Howard Sanden posted excerpts from the article on his website: http://www.worldofportraitpainting.com/instruction-delaszlo/laszlo1.htm which I will copy here:

1. The Artist's Palette

The best way to make people understand properly the methods which de László employs in his work is to follow him through the evolution of a portrait, explaining stage by stage how he arrives at his results. Let us, by putting questions to him, get this explanation from him in his own words and induce him to tell us what he is aiming at as he builds up his pictures and what is the purpose of the various technical processes he employs.

First of all, it would be well to know something about the materials he uses, so the most appropriate question to begin with would be:

Q: What is your palette? May I have a list of the colors on which you mainly depend ?

"It is not a very long list. Here they are, in the order in which I put them on my palette-ultramarine, madder, rose madder, zinc white, light cadmium, dark cadmium, yellow ochre, burnt sienna. These are the chief colors I use and ordinarily they are sufficient for any work, but sometimes, when there is a particular reason, I add to them ivory black, Veronese green, lac garance and orange cadmium."

Q: I notice you choose zinc white. Why is that ?

"Because it is more brilliant than flake white and is not supposed to darken. I may say, too, that I have it specially prepared for me with poppy oil; I like it thin as it would not work freely if it were too stiff."

2. The Medium

Q. What is your reason for having it prepared with poppy oil?

"Poppy oil is a slow drier and that is the reason why I prefer it. I like my painting to keep wet as long as possible so that I can finish straight away the part of the picture I am working on before the paint dries; the slow drying is helpful, it enables me to finish more deliberately and it makes the consistency of the paint more pleasant to handle. Work finished while the paint is still wet always looks fresher and more direct."

Brushes used by de László. The artist allowed himself a
wide range so that a clean brush is always at hand.

3. Brushes

Q: You have there a remarkable sheaf of brushes; do you really use them all?

"I do use most of them because I am very anxious to keep my color always clean, and for a clean touch a clean brush is necessary. I have my sheaf beside me and I can pick a fresh brush from it whenever I want one. By the way, too, I would like to mention that for the sake of purity of color I avoid, as far as possible, mixing more than two colors together at any time." 

To be continued