ChatGPT Oil Painting Portrait Prompts: Skin Tones, Brushwork & Style Guide

Skin tones using: warm ochre lights, cool [blue-gray/lavender] shadows,
vermillion in cheeks, green earth in half-tones

Luminous glazed skin — warm amber underpainting visible through cooler surface layers

Payne's gray and alizarin crimson in deepest shadows, titanium white with
yellow ochre highlights, warm mid-tones

Create an oil painting portrait in Rembrandt's mature style — the psychological
depth of his late self-portraits. Subject: [description]. Lighting: Classic
Rembrandt lighting — dramatic single light source creating the signature triangle
of light on shadow-side cheek. Shadows: Rich, warm shadow tones — umber, raw sienna,
with almost no reflected light. Skin: Multiple transparent glazes creating extraordinary
luminosity. Lead white highlights: Applied thickly and confidently on lightest areas —
almost impasto in spots. Eyes: Deep-set, thoughtful, alive with psychological presence
despite deep shadow. Costume: Suggested rather than fully rendered, subordinate to face.
Background: Dark, graduated warm-to-cool shadow. Palette: Earth palette — lead white,
yellow ochre, raw sienna, burnt sienna, umber, black. Museum quality.

Create an oil portrait in John Singer Sargent's alla prima bravura style. Subject: [description].
Method: Single-session painting, each brushstroke placed decisively and not reworked.
Brushwork: Visible, confident, varied — each stroke shows direction and pressure.
Values: Strong light-dark contrast, brilliant whites in highest lights.
Palette: Black, white, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, cadmium red — Sargent's typical
limited palette used with extraordinary skill.
Background: Loosely painted, impressionistic, suggesting setting without competing.
Face: Accurate and alive, with the freshness that comes from not overworking.
Clothing: Fabric suggested with single confident strokes capturing material quality.
Speed: The painting should feel like it was completed in hours, not days.

Create a contemporary oil painting portrait in the tradition of living realist painters.
Subject: [person description — include specific character details].
Technique: Modern realism — the precision of Old Masters technique applied to
contemporary subjects and sensibilities.
Light: [Specific lighting — natural window/studio/mixed] captured accurately.
Skin: Sophisticated color observation — warm, cool, and neutral areas carefully
distinguished. Not photographic smoothness — painted with visible consideration of form.
Brushwork: Varied — smooth where form is smooth, textural where texture exists.
Background: [Simple/environmental] treated as a deliberate choice supporting the portrait's mood.
Palette: [Specific palette noting warm/cool bias and any signature colors].
Psychological: Something specific about this person captured — more than technical likeness.

Create an oil painting study demonstrating the rich color complexity within [specific
skin complexion — deep ebony/warm sienna/olive Mediterranean/cool Nordic/warm East Asian].
Approach: Each complexion contains extraordinary color complexity — this painting
should reveal it.
Shadow colors: [The actual colors in shadows for this complexion — deep brown-umber/
cool blue-gray/warm ochre-brown].
Mid-tone colors: [The transitional colors].
Highlight colors: [Warm or cool highlights appropriate to this skin].
Reflected light: Subtle bounce light in shadow, colored by environment.
Layering: Evidence of multiple thin glazes building depth.
Light: [Specific lighting enhancing the skin's inherent beauty].
Intention: Celebrate this complexion's specific beauty through accurate, loving observation.

Create a dramatic oil portrait using extreme chiaroscuro — the Baroque approach
of Caravaggio or Georges de La Tour.
Subject: [Description] emerging from nearly total darkness.
Illumination: A single light source [candle/torch/lantern/single window beam]
providing all light in an otherwise dark scene.
Lit areas: Brilliantly illuminated, every detail visible — almost harsh light
quality in brightest spots.
Shadow areas: Deep, warm darkness — umber shadows with very little reflected light.
Transition: Rapid transition from light to shadow — Caravaggio-style dramatic darkness.
Light source: [Visible or implied]. If candle or lamp visible, the flame itself
as light source creates warm tone.
Hands: [If visible] particularly dramatic in chiaroscuro.
Expression: [Specific emotional state] intensified by the dramatic lighting.
Background: Essentially black — no detail.

Create an Impressionist oil painting portrait in the outdoor light tradition
of Renoir, Morisot, or Cassatt.
Setting: [Outdoor setting — garden/café terrace/water's edge].
Light: Dappled outdoor light — the complex, moving quality of sunlight through
leaves, creating varied warm and cool patches on skin and clothing.
Technique: Broken color, visible brushstrokes, color placed next to color rather
than blended.
Skin in sunlight: Warm highlights, reflected sky-color in shadows, complex color
even in a small area of skin.
Background: Impressionist treatment — suggestions of environment rather than
detailed rendering.
Palette: Pure Impressionist pigments — cobalt blue, cadmium yellow, rose madder,
viridian, titanium white.
Mood: The specific pleasure of a moment outdoors — light and warmth captured.

Create an oil painting portrait study including both face and hands — the
traditional academic combination study.
Subject: [Description] in pose showing both face and hands naturally.
Hands: Carefully rendered — hands are the most expressive secondary feature
in portraits after the face. [Specific hand pose].
Compositional relationship: Face and hands creating a triangular composition,
each reinforcing the other's emotional quality.
Skin: Same color approach for face and hands — consistent, warm, beautifully
rendered oil skin tones.
Lighting: [Specific light source] creating consistent light and shadow on both
face and hands.
Background: Simple, not competing with this dual-focus study.
Artistic tradition: This study type was practiced by Old Masters — bring that
seriousness of purpose to the image.

Create an oil portrait study page showing the same subject [or different subjects]
from multiple angles and in different lighting conditions. As if:
Four separate oil portrait studies arranged on one canvas or shown in sequence.
Studies: [Front view/three-quarter left/profile/three-quarter right] or different
lighting conditions [frontal/Rembrandt/top light/backlit rim].
Each study: Different quality and character from the lighting or angle change.
Technique: Each painted with oil paint on toned ground — consistency of medium.
Purpose: Academic study purpose visible — exploring the same subject under
different conditions to understand form and light.
Palette: Consistent across studies — same materials.
Academy quality: This is serious fine art academic painting practice.

Create an oil painting portrait of a child [age description] in the tradition
of great child portraiture.
Subject: [Brief description] with the particular quality children have —
unselfconscious, present, full of specific personality.
Skin: Children's skin has different quality from adult skin — more luminous,
faster transition from warm to cool. Paint it accordingly.
Expression: [Specific — focused on something/laughing/absorbed/quiet].
Eyes: Wide, bright, alive — the focal point.
Hair: [Description] with the specific texture of a child's hair.
Lighting: [Gentle window light/soft outdoor/tender studio light].
Background: Simple or softly environmental — nothing competing with the child.
Color palette: Fresh, clear — avoiding the heavy earth tones that might feel
right for adult portraits.
Tradition: [Velázquez's child portraits/Mary Cassatt/contemporary realist child portraits].

Create an oil painting self-portrait of an artist in their studio, in the
tradition of artists' self-portraits throughout history.
Setting: Studio environment — [easels/canvases/paint supplies] visible in background.
Pose: [Specific — holding palette and brushes/working at easel/direct gaze at viewer].
Lighting: Studio lighting — [window/artificial studio light].
Artist's hands: [If visible] showing the tools of the trade.
Expression: The specific quality of self-examination — direct gaze, honest observation.
Background: Studio in soft focus — recognizable as workspace without competing.
Meta-awareness: The painting acknowledges the artist painting themselves.
Palette: Warm oil painting tones — the self-portrait in oil tradition.
References: [Rembrandt/Vigée Le Brun/Frida Kahlo/contemporary tradition].