Online Paintings

The Meaning of Character Portraits

Character portraits are drawings, paintings, photographs or sculptures of a famous person or character. Often, realism is used when creating these portraits.

Why? This is because in the beginning, a character portrait was requested to record a person's image for posterity, to honor him, or to express something about his personality.

In the past, artists were commissioned to paint portraits of wealthy patrons, members of royal families and religious figures.

Today, portraits can be of anybody for whatever reason. You need not be a famous celebrity to commission an artist to paint a portrait of yourself. Also, the purpose of a character portrait has changed.

If it used to be mainly to honor someone, now it can also be another means of giving a gift.

The term character portrait ' has also changed drastically over the ages. It still centers on the famous but it can be anything now. Browse online and you will see that a popular character portrait will lead you not to a person but to an animation character!

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