Found you by exactly that, trying to find a way to improve my backgrounds. I was blow away at how beautiful, bright and stunning your portraits are. They are almost romantic and dreamlike. Just beautiful. New subbie!

Thank you Alain! I am just starting out with portraits and love the "mark-making" approach, with lost and found edges advice!!!

I'm so excited to find this video. I have a portrait of a dear couple that I've been struggling with the background. I've put in four backgrounds and don't like any of them. I'm going to take your tips to heart and try again. Thank you so much.

Perfect Timing!...I am working on a pastel painting of our close friends little dogger that they just lost...I usually won't do this...but they are such good friends I could not say no and I was wondering about how to handle the background...this clarified and answered a lot of questions for me...thank you so much and appreciate you doing these videos for us, very generous and I am very grateful...❤...Your Portraits are Stunning!!!!

Your work is such a delight to view. Thanks for sharing the helpful pointers and beautiful examples.

Merci mon ami. That was the best I have seen on any channel, specifically simple instructions for amateurs and professionals

Excellent topic! Your dynamic backgrounds are wonderful. Thank you for sharing your tips and beautiful portraits.

Thank you for the video, very nice paintings and and explanations of the background. I will try to experiment with this .

Amazing portraits.. Lovely background and ideas too. Thanks

Alain your advice is golden,so helpful,Thank you so much

Excellent advice. I can use them for close up painting of flowers. You always are very practical and helpful as I work to be a better artist

What a wonderful video. Just what I needed. Thank you very much for sharing your wonderful skills and knowledge.

Thank you Alain for your advice.You are a great artist.

ommmmmg thank you for finally addressing what must be the most overlooked topic in learning art. it makes such a difference hearing concrete tips to try when looking at well done backgrounds, they seem so loose and free and effortless. so helpful and so inspiring, thank you!

That was an awesome tutorial Alain. Thank you so much, now I have more ideas. Blessings.

This is such a helpful video for me and others too I'm sure. Thank you again Alain, your portrait paintings are magical.

Thanks for sharing these great points to remember. I do flower portraits and these will work great with them also!

I couldn’t find any videos specifically on portrait backgrounds and this video helped a ton!! Thanks

Finally i found a vid about making a background, thanks for this sir alain🥺 im a superfan of yours here in Philippines❤🔥

Thank you so much for all your help and tips, just used broken edges around a duck’s head/ shoulders love your work you are so talented

I think your work is amazing and inspiring Thank you for sharing your wonderful insight A joy to watch you at work

Thank you Alain. As always wonderful teaching

Great video about an important part of any portrait, assisting my first acrylic paints portrait for my new hobby, with thanks ...

Wow, your portraits are so good! The faces are so alive, like movement has been captured, and so beautifully.

Beautiful portraits! thank you for the information.

All such great advice! Thank you so much for sharing, I continually look forward to your videos

glad I found you, such an amazing portrait artist :) And thank you for the background tips, valuable info

Came back for a refresher and again am struck by how special these portraits are. Sargent, Rembrandt, Picard. Believe it!

Thank you. I didn't realize so many ofus struggle with backgrounds

Super helpful! You are an amazing artist and I appreciate any knowledge you are willing to share. Thank you.

Thank you. Don't usually do portraiture, but one of my clients commissioned me to fix a bad background on a portrait from years ago. The artist had apparently changed his mind about the initial background, and covered it all (including some of the foreground edges) with BLACK! This was a very helpful video about principles, and I'm ready to try tomorrow.

Thank you Allen for very useful tips and examples!

This has been such a huge help. I now see what I need to adjust with background and air in the shoulder area. Thank you so much.

Super helpful. Thanks so much. I do lots of pet portraits and this info will help with that as well.

Alan I’m speechless. I had no idea your work was at THAT level. You’re a modern master. Truly exceptional among the exceptional. Simply breathtaking. WOW! A++

Excellent advice. Thank you!

VERY HELPFUL SIR! I'm an amateur pet portrait painter and always looking for that little bit of extra to help a portrait pop! This was very well done. THANK YOU so much for sharing.

I love your video Alain . It is very educational. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

Wonderful video and such beautiful portraits. Thank you for sharing.

Thanks for another informative video Alain, I always have trouble with backgrounds, mine are always too ‘matt/flat looking, so your advise about lost and found edges as well as use of different colours in the same background is really helpful! Love how you have used red in the painting of your lovely wife, as red is the colour associated with love.

Thank you, so much , for this video. I struggle with appropriate background and background colors. Your examples with your list of what to consider was supreme! Many thanks, again!!

Thank you for this. Some very useful and practical tips

Just the thing I was looking for, I always feel I struggle mostly with backgrounds, thanks!

Thank you Alain for this video, very helpful. Am waiting for my New American Portrait set to arrive from the US, then am going to explore portrait painting. Thank you again for taking the time to help, very much appreciated. God bless🙏🏻🙋🏼🇦🇺

What a great video....I didn’t even know I needed these lessons! Joshua and the girl in snow backgrounds are stunning and I love the soft edges theory. This is why I love KZfaq. Thanks Alain.

Wonderful knowledge about your fabulous backgrounds. thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks Alain, i particularly noticed the shadow cast by the hair on the edges of the face, very beautiful

Thanks for watching! Let me know in the comments what your greatest struggle is with portrait backgrounds. Were these four points helpful to you?

Great video. Thanks for sharing this information !

Great info! I'm not yet at portraiture but I can use these pointers for my dog portraits. Thanks

Wonderful!!! Thank you so much for sharing. Your work is just beautiful!

Beautiful!!! Love this. So helpful . I'm learning to paint portraits, and this is so helpful. I'm working on my second portrait, of a couple. Thank you so much!!!!!

Oh gosh your portraits are gorgeous! Just incredible. This was a fantastic video. Thank you. Your wife is beautiful.

Alain, at one time or another I’ve asked myself all the questions you covered in this video and you given me a lot of work on. All of my drawings are charcoal and graphite or a combination of them but, now I want to use pastels. Thanks my friend for sharing the most helpful tips I’ve come across. Subscribed? Yes sir I sure did.

Excellent advice and exactly what I needed!

Really helpful, I realized I've used the same blue/grey background for my last 3 portraits, this is giving me a much better direction, thank you.

Extremely helpful and clearly stated. Thank you so much.

Your work is amazing

Anyone I asked about backgrounds could never give me a straight answer, but you did. Thank you so much Alain!

Your videos provide a wealth of great ideas and training tips. You are an excellent communicator. Thank you. I am glad I discovered your series.

Great pointers haven’t tackled a portrait yet but helpful overall to any painting

Great tips! Although I’ve only done one portrait all these great tips apply to the every day painting. Thanks so much for your generosity in sharing your wisdom. We all appreciate it so much!

Thank you so much it's so helpful thank you for your advices and for sharing with us. I love watching your videos.

Super wonderful tips, of course. Your portraits are so awesome. Thanks for sharing. And that was a lovely tribute to your wife. :) She is beautiful and the portrait was beautifully done. I'm in awe.

You are amazing, and your art work marvelous!

Thank you for your tips, Alain!

Thank you very much Sir for very useful information. God bless you

I think you pretty much covered all of my questions. Now if I could just paint them like you!! Great info!

Thank you!!! this was the best explanation on how to approach the backgrounds!

Was very helpful thank you so much

Magnificent backgrounds

You are just soooo wonderful! Thank you. ❤️

That was awesome! Very helpful!

Great portraits, awesome 👏 👏👏

Thank you for your tips Alain !

Merci Alain!

i love following your instruction. Thank you so much.

Such a useful info. thank you!

Thank you very much, great video👍🏻very useful and... what a great portraits, just wow!

Thank you soooooooo much!!... it helped a lot!

Gorgeous paintings. Thanks for sharing.

Love Love! Great pointers!

Thank you! You are a master! Just what I needed to know!

Yes this video is so inspiring! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge in a way that was very easy to understand. My struggles are painting blonde hair that looks real :(

Superb tips, thank you!

What a fabulous style and talent!!!

Great video, thanks!

Thank you for your help .

Very helpful thank you!

That was sooo interesting, I listened to bits several times, I have just "finished" maybe not! A portrait of my Grandson's fiancé and dog out in the forest, I had sunlight around her head, what started of fun ended up giving me stress, I changed so much so many times, still think I can do better, I shall re- look following your advice Alain, Bless you and your beautiful wife, your portraits are exceptional 😊

Extremely helpful...Especially leave out more than you leave in....I need to get better at that!! Thank you!

You do such beautiful portrait work with pastels, I can more or less draw anything I see and I do crazy detailed work in graphite, oil paint and colored pencils (doing a 4x8' wall mural in graphite, plus I'm also a writer and doing a trilogy as well as the book covers), but I haven't used pastels in YEARS, so I'm trying to relearn how to use them, especially in doing detailed work (also wanting to learn watercolor), but I'm subscribed to your channel and I'm greatfull for your teaching- God bless you and your family from NYC! 😊🌷🌻🌹🎨

Amazing potraits with pastels

Thank you, Alain, for these useful tips! Using the color to attract the viewer's attention to the face, adding air through soft edges and simplifying the background are valuable hints to me. I often tend to focus on too many details.

Thanks for the tips...it was helpful🙂

Very useful. Thank you.

Thank you! This helped me so much!

Thank you for this video! Fantastic!

What a great video! Thanks so much! No other artist will seriously give you guidance the way you have done in this video. I’m sure you didn’t learn it at school either. Blessings and stay well.

Thank you! Great advice!