Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was a printmaker and sculptor as well as a painter. Initially his work was considered so outlandish that he and his kind were labeled ‘Fauves’ – wild beast, in French. The Fauvists rejected the pastel hues and representational values of the Impressionists, preferring strong colors and vigorous, almost aggressive brushstrokes. Initially, as with so many art movements, the result was an outcry: as one French critic put it, ‘a pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public.’ Matisse formed a close friendship with Picasso, and the two saw themselves as artistic rivals. Reproducing his style of painting is difficult, because so much of his work depended on his use of color and texture: but we can look at how to simulate his painting Portrait of Madame Matisse, above.
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Here’s a suitable subject for our painting, cut out on a separate layer. Too many portraits show the subject grinning at the camera, and this isn’t a style which Matisse would choose: he far preferred a melancholy expression.
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Next, apply the Paint Daubs filter (Filter > Artistic once again). Choose a small brush size with medium Sharpness in order to get this detailed, almost three-dimensional oil paint texture.
The hair has to look painted, rather than naturalistic, so cut off the loose fringes on top with the Eraser tool. We can also use the Smudge tool to smooth out those loose strands of hair that are falling on the forehead – don’t worry about the resulting blurring.
The texture we produced following the Paint Daubs filter is all very well, but the result is just a little too sharp to be believable – it looks too crisp to be a painting. Use a small amount of Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur) to smooth it out: around a 1 pixel radius should be sufficient.