Draw a Lifelike Sketch for an Acrylic Portrait

Lifelike Sketch + Accurate Acrylic Layers + Patience= Realistic Acrylic Portrait. The equation works every time.

Even when you make mistakes. 🙂

Don’t worry, this won’t be a math lesson. That was not one of my better subjects in school!

But there is something to be said laying down a good foundation for your acrylic portrait with a lifelike sketch. When I mean lifelike, I don’t mean that it looks photographic, but rather that you capture the likeness of the subject–the person (or pet) you’re going to paint.

When you do that, you exponentially increase your chances for success in painting a realistic acrylic portrait.

Notice I didn’t say perfect. You don’t have to have a perfect sketch, just one that is as accurate as you can make it.

Today, I’m going to show you how I drew the sketch for a commissioned 16″ x 20″ acrylic portrait I’m working on of three children…

…based off a candid photo of them just hanging out on a bed. I tilted the image because I thought it was at an awkward angle. You can obviously see the original angle in shown in the edges.

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Tools Needed:

You’ll want to use a sepia-toned colored pencil, like burnt ochre, dark brown, or terra cotta.
And then a white eraser.

I started with a canvas that I drew a grid on–with 1″ squares, using a light colored pencil (light grey, tan or peach is fine). It is important to seal the grid in with a mixture of matte medium and gesso. This provides a barrier on the canvas so that when you need to erase anything on your sketch, you will not disturb the grid lines beneath. Also, it makes it amazingly easy to erase a sketch on your canvas–much easier than graphite pencil. This is a technique I discovered just by being frustrated with pencil and experimenting.

The photo reference is also gridded correspondingly to match the squares on the canvas. I used a grid drawing tool at ArtTutor.com and then printed out the image.

Alright, now let’s begin…

Step 1: Get Started in the Right Place

When using the grid technique, it’s so important to make sure you start sketching in the right place. Otherwise, you may end up sketching for a while, only to realize your composition will be off.

Yes, I made this mistake.

So, count off your squares, and double-check that you’re matching up on your canvas, what is on your reference photo.

Watch this video to see the beginning portion of the sketching process…

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Step 2: Start Your Outlining the Forms of the Subjects

Here, we only want to get just the outside edges of the subjects and then fill them in. I start usually in the lower left corner and then work my way up and across. You don’t need to achieve perfection in this. But it is good to see where the major lines representing the shapes are intersecting the squares. Break it up into fractions.

(Uggh, math again. It’s OK. If I can do it, so can you, believe me!)

You note, “Okay, this line crosses through the vertical line of this square at about 1/2 of the way up.”

Or, “this line intersects the horizontal line of the other square about 2/3 of the way to the edge.”

You may see fractions like 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/5, etc. You’ll begin to see them naturally and not even think about it with some practice. When you learn to do this, your gridded sketching will become very accurate.

Here is the sketch, with all the outlines filled in.

 

You’ll notice that I made a pretty large mistake, but thank God for erasers! I considered editing it out of the video, but then I figured, “Why not keep it in there, to show an accurate recording of my process?” We all make mistakes, but it’s what we do after we notice them that counts.

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Step 3: Fill in the Features

After getting the proportions of the subjects in correctly–the outside edges of the hair, the shoulders, the faces, etc., then you’re ready to move on to drawing the features. The reason we get the main forms defined first, is because we want to make sure we have an accurate foundation to drop the features on. In addition, you’ll be able to tell if you like the overall composition.

Now, when I start drawing in the facial features, I work from left to right, and then top, down. (Of course, if you’re left handed, you may naturally work in the other direction.)

I start by noting the angle of the eyebrows and sketch them first. Doing this will really establish the alignment of the face and your other features will need to be in conformity with it.

Then I draw the eyes loosely, and not too dark, so I can refine them later. The eyes are the most important feature on the face, so I really pay attention to them.

What is the overall shape? Are they skinny, angled, rounded? Are there prominent eyelids or are they barely perceptible? How far away are they from the eyebrows? How close are they together? Ask yourself these questions as you draw.

If you can get the eyes about 85% or more accurate, you’ll have a good portrait.

If you can get them 95% or more accurate, you’ll have an outstanding portrait, provided the other features are drawn fairly well.

Next, draw in the nose. Observe your reference photo to see how far down the bottom of the nose is from an imaginary line that intersects the eyes. What is the shape of the nose and nostrils? Is it wide, narrow, rounded, sharp? Observe carefully and draw what you see.

After you get the proportions and shape of the nose accurately defined, it’s time to move on to the mouth.

I start with the top of the mouth, drawing in the bottom edge of the top lip and then the top edge of the bottom lip. I sometimes will draw the top edge of the top lip, if it’s very prominent–like, for example, when a woman is wearing lipstick. Of course, that is not the case for this drawing of three children.

I finish with the bottom edge of the bottom lip. Of course, I also draw in the teeth, but only lightly suggesting their form by showing the gumline, and the shadows on the sides where the teeth are foreshortened in perspective, and the lips cast shadows on them. The space between the visible teeth and the edges of the mouth is very important, and you’ll want to indicate it as a dark value, because it is in shadow.

One of the main mistakes I see artists making in their sketch is when they over-define the teeth. It makes the person you’re drawing look like they have braces. Pencil lines are just too dark of a value for the teeth, and it’s hard to overcome in the painting. Draw them lightly, and you’ll get better results.

Watch Part 2 of my video lesson below to see exactly how to do it…

 

 

After I get the features sketched in loosely and lightly, then I go back over everything. I darken and refine.

I repeat the process on the other faces.

TIP: Look at your reference photo often as you draw–much more than you are currently. At least 30% is a good rule of thumb.

I can tell you from teaching portraiture in person, that students only rarely look at their reference photo. But you can only draw what you are observing, so observe more and draw better.

But if you make a mistake, you can always use an eraser!

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Step 4: Finish Off the Forms

After filling in the facial features, I draw in the hair, hands, wrinkles for the clothing suggesting the shoulders and arms.

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Step 5: Shade in the Major Values

Everything we see in the three-dimensional world is viewed in the context of differences in value and color. There really aren’t lines separating anything in nature, even though the concept of a line exists in geometry and we can obviously draw them.

So, with that , I feel it’s important to define the major values in your painting during the sketch stage. You’ll be much better prepared when you start painting. You won’t have to wonder subconsciously, “What do those bunch of lines represent?”

The values will let you know where to apply your first layers in the blocking-in stage of your painting. You can dive right in and do it.

So I fill them in, using the side of my pencil lead, rapidly. It doesn’t need to take much time. I just try to see the major areas of contrast, like the shadows under the faces, wrinkles in the clothing, locks of hair that aren’t illuminated, and represent it on the canvas.

Lastly, you can double-check the facial features on everything, and make sure it’s accurate.

And here’s the final sketch. Not perfect. But close enough that I can rectify any mistakes in the painting and bring it closer to a very accurate likeness.

I’ll be showing more of the process of this painting, breaking it down step-by-step and teaching you as I go along. I look forward to sharing more with you !

Have a blessed day,

 

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

A 48″ x 72″ Commissioned Portrait Adventure, Part 2

Last week, I shared with you the beginning of my adventure on painting a huge 48″ x 72″ portrait.

Thank you so much for all your kind words and feedback on this project!

In that post, I mentioned how I tracked down the canvas, brought it back, and then created a layout for the portrait with Photoshop.

 

Today, I’m going to show you the sketching process, and with that, maybe spark a little controversy! 🙂

Controversy? How can sketching be controversial?

Well, there’s a huge debate in the artist community on tracing/ using projectors and whether or not it is cheating.

I’m going to show you the process I used and argue that it is not cheating. But I am open to discuss it.

First of all, I wondered with this big canvas, “should sketch on it using the grid method, or even freehand?” I’ve done hundreds of freehand sketches for portrait drawings and paintings, and in fact, it was the only way I ever drew anything from my childhood up until I started doing murals in 1999, when I was 22.

Then, through a contact I made while studying at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, I got in touch with Bob Jenny, a prolific and successful muralist from Ft. Lauderdale. We did several murals together, starting with two 6′ x 30′ murals in Womack Army Hospital in Fort Bragg, NC, and then a couple in Kenner Clinic in Fort Lee, VA.

Here are some images of those murals…

“You paint like an artist!” Bob chided me when he saw my technique. I used tiny brushes, piddling away on a large surface.

It would be like trying to paint your average 16″ x 20″ portrait using toothpicks.

Not only that, but I attempted to sketch out an expansive scene of the army medic serving in World War I & II in freehand on the hospital wall.

It looked good, but it was taking way, way too long. It wasn’t just a matter of it eating into our profits, but it was also the fact that there were many contractors working in the hospital, and the thing had to be done by a certain time.

So Bob showed me how to paint like a painter. He taught me how to use large brushes and even a roller to cover large areas quickly and effectively.

For setting up the sketch, Bob instructed me to use a projector. Some artists spend a fortune on snazzy art projectors that can project a regular photo print on the wall, but Bob used just an overhead projector–the kind that people used for teaching and media presentations, “back in the day” before PowerPoint became the thing.

You just make a transparency of your photo reference at your local copy shop and you’re ready to go. Or, you can buy transparency film that runs in your inkjet home printer and make your own.

Using the projector on a mural or large painting saves a ton of time. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get accurate proportions drawing freehand over a large surface. Your brain just can’t see the whole picture. So, I learned to use a projector while working with Bob, and it’s been great for quickly getting a sketch up on my canvas or panel.

Some artists feel like it’s cheating.

I don’t.

I see it as a tool. It’s the same way you would expect a carpenter to use a ruler, level, clamps, power saws, power sanders, nail-guns, etc. to get his job done quickly, reliably, and effectively.

But as an artist, you don’t want to use it all the time. It’s important to learn how to draw freehand as well. You can use a grid to start with. And then go completely freehand as you gain confidence. These drawing skills will translate into painting skills–because painting a realistic portrait is always fighting the internal battle of painting what you actually see, rather than what you think you see.

If you want to paint a portrait from a photo, and do it well, it will be a lot easier if you learn how to draw.

With this 48″ x 72″ portrait, the size is large enough that I decided to use a projector to accurately transfer my Photoshop design onto the canvas. I thought about using the grid system for a moment, but I decided it would take too long to set up all the grid lines, seal them in, and then try to mask them out at the end after doing the sketch.

The figures in the portrait just have too much detail for that to work, not to mention the background.

So I set up my projector. I use an Apollo Horizon 2, which I purchased for about $200 several years ago.

I printed off the design on my inkjet printer and then laid it flat on the surface of the projector.

Now, you will find that the lightweight plastic sheet will want to curl on you from the projector’s heat. So, if you put a piece of glass on the top (I tape the edges with masking tape, so it doesn’t cut me by accident) it will be enough to keep your transparency in place.

After that, I set up my canvas vertically against the wall. I have pretty small studio, but the room is long, so I faced it so I had room get the projection lined up straight on the canvas.

Next, I turned on the projector and lined it up. There were a few inches on either side that I couldn’t cover, but that would be easy enough to fill in later. Also, I needed to move that chair out of the way! 🙂

I used a sepia toned-colored pencil to do the tracing. I work from the left to the right, keeping my body from obscuring the projection.

You would think that tracing is just a mindless process, and so simple that a caveman could do it. But you have to discern what lines are important and what are excessive.

Why?

The projection will take the image and flatten it out. Background, foreground, subjects all become a jumbled mess of contours and details. You will lose discernment over what you’re actually tracing when you are close to the image. It’s good to hold a printed image of what you are tracing, or tape it up next to your canvas. That way, you’ll see the whole picture and if you can’t tell what it is that you are tracing, you’ll get a clue from your reference photo.

It’s good to fill in some of the shadow areas even while tracing, or you’ll have a tough time recognizing what the lines represent visually, when you shut your projector off.

It took me over an hour just to trace everything. And with that, my work only had just begun.

When you have a tracing done, you are not finished yet. Not by a long shot.

This is where your freehand drawing skills come into play. If you want an accurate sketch as a solid foundation for your portrait, you have to go back over the tracing and enhance it.

You may be able to pin-point where the eyes or mouth are on the face with the projected image, but you’ll have to actually draw their shapes in. You’ll need to take the jumbled lines representing the background and subjects and add detail to them. The projection just won’t do that for you. All it does is give you the overall composition and proportions.

You’ll also need to darken some of the lines, and leave other lines light.

That’s what I did with this picture. In addition to that, the client wanted some changes. I think I mentioned that in my previous post. He wanted he and his wife to look younger, and their sunglasses to be removed.

So, after I finished the tracing, I put in a couple hours changing their faces, using reference photos that the client supplied as a guide.

I also refined the details of their clothing, supplying the visual information that the projection left out. I went into the background, making sure I could identify what were the edges of hills, and what was just foliage within the hills.

I defined the edges and rock formations within the waterfall, because in the tracing, I could only make out just a couple angles and nothing more.

Finally, after about five hours or so, I’ve got the sketch finished!

The client has approved it, and now I am ready to paint. I’ll share that part of the adventure next time. ‘Til then, have a fantastic Easter/ Resurrection Sunday, and I’ll be in touch! (Here is a video I recorded where I talk about a mural that a friend and I painted that goes along with the Easter theme. Enjoy!)

Be blessed in your painting and creative ventures…

All the best,

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

A 48″ x 72″ Commissioned Portrait Adventure, Part 1

There’s something about a large painting.

It just seems to have more impact.

Recently, I was commissioned to do a 48″ x 72″ portrait by a man in Brunei (an island near China) of he and his wife hiking in New Zealand.

It was based off this photo.

It’s a beautiful scene, showing the couple winding their way up the scenic mountain ridge, with gorgeous hills and a misty waterfall in the background. I feel honored to be asked to capture this moment–and adventure–for them. This project ties up for the largest canvas painting I have ever done, and it will keep me busy for a while.

One of the challenges is to be able to find the 4′ x 6′ canvas for the painting. My local art store doesn’t carry any that big. But after doing some research, I found out Blick Art Materials in nearby Minneapolis carries them.

Although I have stretched canvases before, in this case, the cost for a high-quality 20 oz. pre-stretched canvas was only slightly more than what it would cost to stretch it myself. And I know there are purists who say you must stretch your own, but I would rather spend my time painting than stretching.

So off I went to hunt down a canvas.

I had never been to that store before. When I walked through it was love at first sight. I have only been to arts and crafts stores. But to be at a true art supply store, and especially one this size was amazing!

It didn’t take long to find my canvas.

Buying it was easy…

Getting it to fit in my SUV was a little more challenging! Would it fit?

Like a glove.

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Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!

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Once I had it home, the next step was to prepare the design. The client didn’t want a straight-up reproduction of the photo he sent me.

First, he wanted he and his wife to look younger.

Second, he wanted the two of them to be much larger, more prominent within the image.

Third, he wanted the waterfall in the background to be larger.

This sounded like a job for Photoshop!

The first step was to cut out the figures, so I could resize them larger and insert them back into the image. That takes a little work! After that, I cut and pasted pieces of the background and stitched them together to cover over the areas left by my earlier incisions.

I felt it would be good to move the man and wife close together, and have them slightly overlapping to enhance the three-dimensional effect of one being slightly closer than the other.

Because the format of the photo is a different proportional ratio that the canvas I will be painting on, I had to add extra material to the top. But my client also wanted a larger waterfall.

So I took this picture and added it in…

And then cut and pasted pieces of the hill together. It’s a process of cutting, stretching, warping, sometimes even rotating the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle to make them work.

Finally, I got a cohesive design, ready to paint from.

With the client’s approval, I am ready to begin the sketch. But that will be an adventure I’ll save for another day!

Be Blessed,

 

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

How to Create A Realistic Portrait by Defining Your Shadows

How to Paint Teeth Realistically in an Acrylic Portrait

This is just a small bonus portion of my 30+hours step-by-step video course (including the bonus footage), “Paint Your First Amazing Acrylic Portrait.” 

Now, here is how to do it. You’ll need:

• Napthol Crimson
• Titanium White,
• Raw Sienna
• Raw Umber Dark
• Matte Medium
• and a small round brush (size 3-6)

How to Paint a Montage Acrylic Portrait

 

Today, I’d like to show you how I painted a montage portrait–several images put together into one design. This is one of my favorite portraits from several years ago, a 16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas. 

 

This was to be given as a gift from the mother to her son and his fiance as a unique wedding gift. The idea was to incorporate a large image of them, a picture of them with their dog, and then a scripture verse in the background, that would go with the marriage theme.

Here’s how I did it.

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Step 1: The Sketch

After getting my photos together from the client, I did a layout.

This was before I started using the grid method, so I sketched it with a projector and pencil, following the outlines of the photographs closely. The projector sometimes gets things wrong, so you have to go back, double-check your lines and refine accordingly.

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Step 2: The Foundation with Light Glazes

The purpose of this step is to quickly establish the tonality of the portrait by getting the colors in the right place. Secondarily, I want to set up my values, by creating immediate contrast between light and dark. I start attacking the darkest values first, using cooler colors like ultramarine blue, raw umber dark and dioxazine purple to create a rich, nuanced black.

This way, when it’s all done, and the viewer takes a close look at the painting, it won’t be flat. You will be able to sense the folds of fabric, and contours around the body of the person within.

My goal is always to create a painting that has immediate impact, but also rewards the viewer for taking a closer look.

For the subjects, I use raw umber dark for the darker values within the hair, raw sienna for the lighter values, and burnt sienna, raw sienna, raw umber dark, and alizarine crimson for the skin tones.

Of course, as with virtually all my painting, the pigment is mixed with a generous portion of matte medium to thin it out, and create the translucent depth that’s similar to the Old Master’s techniques.

Notice how for the trees and background I use a light green, made up of phthalo green, raw sienna, and a little indian yellow. It will give it a lot of luminosity as the light shines through the layers.

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Step 3: Darkening the Deep and Mid-Tone Values

Now that I have the foundation, I go back and add several layers to all the areas within the painting. But mostly, I want to bring the darkest values to about 80% of their full strength. This will give me something to work with as I move the other values in the picture in accord.

I could just go and use full strength pigment, but it gives the painting a nicer finish to darken everything slowly. In addition to that, it gives me the ability to precisely blend even within the dark areas.

Is a black shirt just straight black?

No.

Not when there’s light shining on it. We don’t want to use straight black. Otherwise how can you paint the shadows in representing the beginning and end of arms, chest, waist, and all the appropriate wrinkles within the fabric? Instead we get it dark enough and leave room for the shadows.

And by the way, ivory black is not the darkest color you can get. You’ll get an even deeper black with dioxazine purple, aliazarine crimson, phthalo blue and raw umber dark mixed together.

Why not just settle for black? Well, it’s the same reason why HDTVs boast of having higher contrast. I used to sell LCD TVs years ago when they first came out on the market. They were terrible. The darkest values on the screen were just grey. Therefore the lightest values were not very impressive, and so the whole picture looked weak.

With a painting, you will get a way more dramatic effect if you can use really dark values to set of your lighter areas by contrast. It just reminds me of the way the darkness of sin makes the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ that much more glorious. You have to have some darkness to set off the light. Enough said.

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Step 4: Adding Nuances to the Faces

At this point here, it’s time to turn my attention to the most important part of the portrait: the people. And especially their faces. In the previous step, I blocked in the darkest shadows within their faces, but now, I want to add some tie-in values. Those are the tones that bridge the gap between the lightest and darkest values.

So I keep the ones I put down as a good foundation. But now, I’m adding more on top, glazing over translucently, so the bottom layers still remain. That’s how we do this with acrylic–with layers.

I feel like their features–the important ones–like the eyes, eyebrows, nose, and mouth need some work. So I begin to darken them, adding detail wherever it needs it.

It’s good to remember the old adage, “Rome wasn’t built in day.” You have see the big picture and slowly comform your painting to the reference photos. Patience is key. For example, I darken the eyebrows as one solid mass of color–just one shade, but I know after this layer dries, I’ll come back to it again–and again, if need be. Then I will go in and darken just a portion of the eyebrow, while leaving the other part with whatever I did in the previous layer.

By doing this, I can suggest that the eyebrow hairs are thicker in a certain area, or the eye sockets are creating a shadow over that portion. That’s all you have to do. You don’t have to get crazy with drawing each individual hair. That actually detracts from your realism. Just hint at it and let the viewer’s mind’s eye interpret the rest and create the reality for you.

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Step 5: Building Up More Nuances Everywhere

In this step, I keep on adding layers to the faces: more layers of alizarine crimson, raw sienna, and some titanium white. Using a average size flat brush (3/8 or smaller) I keep adding nuances to the faces. When I start a portrait I use my largest brushes: typically 1″ or even larger. But as I get toward the end of the project I switch to smaller.

Why?

The smaller brush is good not only for detail work, but also those precise areas of nuances–the subtle transition of shading from the cheek to the area below the eye socket. Or the fleshy area under the chin and neck where the light is reflecting from another illuminated surface.

In this portrait, that is happening: we have the woman’s illuminated chest area reflecting as a secondary light source onto her chin. And so with that, I have to make sure I don’t paint the shadow underneath too dark. Since both the man and woman are outside, it makes sense that the light will really illuminate them well and the shadows won’t get very dark, except on the darker clothing and hair.

Another area I want to touch on is the Bible, which shows the scripture verse. That’s important part of the painting. I chose to just suggest the text by creating random out-of-focus lines. But the actual verse, “Love never fails” from the famous Corinthians 13 passage, is clearly in focus.

To paint something this detailed on canvas, you have to really make sure you have a nice detail brush, like 1/0 or smaller round, twisted to a point, with very fluid paint. Mist your palette and make sure the paint is about as thin as it can go before getting watery, and it will glide right over the canvas.

It makes painting text a whole lot easier.

Finally, I went over the greenery of the background trees and grass, just adding more nuances. I used phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, and raw sienna for the darker shades. Once you have your initial light green set up, it really sets it off beautifully.

In addition, I painted the dog’s eyes, using brown tones to give it some contrast. I still left the areas representing reflections quite light.

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Step 6: Highlights and Advanced Blending

The portrait, at this stage, is starting to look done, but there’s still a lot of work to do. One of the things that can really enhance the realism is using highlights. Although I do like to leave a lot of areas of the canvas untouched for creating my lighter values, it is nice to go back in with some opaque highlights for certain areas.

I feel it gives me the best of both worlds: Glazing is fantastic for building depth and achieving fine gradations in shading, but it creates a roughness that must be overcome with some opaque layers. The trick is to use them just in a few areas.

The hair is one example. Here, I go back in and add just a little titanium white toned down with raw sienna to add the look of diffused light reflecting just at the top of the woman’s silky smooth, straight hair. I also go in and add some slightly darker highlights to the man’s textured short haircut. I already have the base color and value down. Now as I add these highlights, it will quickly change add depth to that area.

Also, I add detail to their teeth. We want to make sure that we don’t overdo it though. We want to use just enough of a light amber grey to suggest that there is separation between them. Raw umber dark mixed with titanium white and thinned by matte medium) is a fantastic way to create shadows for the teeth–in the right value and color.

Once I have the teeth darkened slightly, I can add even more depth by going over with a pin-point highlight of pure titanium white. With this, we just suggest reflections of light over the moist teeth. After it dries, add a tiny glaze of indian yellow, thinned with medium and it will give that white a bit more warmth and luminosity.

You can also do this on the gums. For some people, depending on the structure of their mouth, and the lighting, the gums will catch more of those highlights than the teeth. That was the case for this portrait.

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Step 7: Adding the Details

Because this is a collage–or montage–portrait, there’s a lot different elements that need attention. So just when you think you are done, there’s just a little more.

Now, it’s time to add in some more detail to this couple’s background portrait. I noticed that the woman appeared to be looking away from the camera, but by adding just a few darker spots within her eyes on the right side, we suggest that she is looking toward us. It’s just a small amount of work, but it pays dividends in creating that visual connection with the viewer.

It’s time to add the long blades of grass in. I already have the base tones in. It’s just a matter of putting in some darker shadows in angular shapes, and then going over with highlights. Phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, raw sienna, even some yellow ochre and titanium white is what’s used, from darkest to lightest in capturing the effect.

Moving to the left of that, I tackle the jeans for both the man and woman, using the same two blues on my palette. I tend to use ultramarine blue for the darker values and phthalo blue for the lighter. For the darkest shadows I add in some diox purple and raw umber dark so it doesn’t get too bluish.

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The Final Painting

With some more nuances here and there, I can call the painting done!

Here are a couple detail shots…

Hope you enjoyed this post and found it valuable. If you have any questions on the techniques used to create this portrait, I would love to help.

Have a blessed day,

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

 

How to Get a Smooth Look in Your Acrylic Glazes

Today, I’m going to post a mini-tutorial on how to get a smooth look with the acrylic glazing technique. Many artists struggle to overcome canvas texture, especially on a portrait–where that smoothness for skin is so important.

One of my online students wrote this question:

After following the videos two aspects I struggle with
The fine detail … I used a 0 and 1 round paintbrush but still I paint above the indentations in the canvas.
Dark colours create a matrix pattern
i.e. paint on top of indentation nothing in the holes
So fine work is a struggle.
Just wondering if I need to push the paint into the canvas as opposed to brushing?

Here’s my answer:

These are some excellent questions, and they get right into the heart of the acrylic glazing technique. I may need to touch on this more in future video lessons. You do need to push the paint in–actually “scrub” the paint into the texture of the canvas. Here’s how to do it, using a flat brush:

The Scrubbing Technique for Glazing

Step 1

First, get a good amount of paint on the edge of your brush, almost “scooping” it from the pile of your mixture onto the edge of the bristles.

Step 2

Next, “scrub” the paint into the texture of the canvas, pushing the paint in the grooves with edge of the brush more perpendicular to the surface of the canvas, rather than parallel. You can see I’m using quite a bit of pressure to get the paint into the little holes of the canvas weave.

Step 3

Then, spread the paint out.

Step 4

After that, even it out with long strokes, applying lighter pressure. First use diagonal. Then go over with vertical.

Step 5

Finally, go over the entire area again with diagonal strokes. You may need to criss-cross them to get an even blend. Use even lighter pressure for this. The trick is to just glide over the surface without digging in too far.

Step 6

This is how it should look when you’re done.

Finally

After this layer dries, you can apply more layers, and change the direction of the diagonal strokes to get an even smoother look.

For a small round brush, you can’t scrub or push the paint in. That would ruin your brush or at the very least, lessen your ability to paint precise detail. With that, what you need to do is thin the paint down with a mist of water from your spray bottle and make sure you’re using fresh matte medium in your mix. By keeping the paint fluid it will go into the grooves of the canvas.

However, the glazing technique works even better on a flat surface like hardboard. I love the traditional look of canvas, but sometimes I get tired of fighting the texture and get out a smooth board to work on–especially for smaller paintings.

Let me know how this helps!

Be blessed,

 

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!

 

Monochromatic Acrylic Portrait of a Family in the Cities

When I was younger I often thought, “What would it be like if I hung out with my dad when he was my age?

Would we talk about girls and shoot hoops? Or maybe play guitar? (that’s more up my alley)

 

 

I had a client who brought that idea to life. It was his idea, actually that he wanted me to paint–a massive 48″ x 72″ realistic acrylic portrait–in black and white– of he and his wife as they looked in their 20’s, along with their two children, who are currently in their 20’s, all hanging out in the same time and place. In the background is New York City, where they were originally from, merging into Minneapolis, which is close to where they and their kids now live.

 

After meeting together, I got to work putting together a layout of what the painting would look like when finished. It always helps to have a good-looking family to do your painting from! My client kind of reminds me of Scott Baio or Tony Danza in these photos.

 

 

During the layout and approval process, I also worked on building the canvas. I started with professional stretcher bars made in the USA, complete with locking mitre joints and beveled edges, and assembled them. It is extremely important to have a strong support for a 4″ x 6″ canvas, to be able to withstand the tension of the stretched fabric, and to keep from warping. I made sure to include cross braces and diagonal braces as well.

 

 

Next, I stretched the canvas with pliers and stapled it extremely carefully, measuring every mark to ensure even tension. Just this process alone took several hours.

 

 

Finally, the stretched canvas! I apply hot water with a brush to add just a bit more tension and get out any wrinkles. If you tap it, it sounds like a drum!

 

 

The next step was to gesso (prime) the canvas. I use a high quality gesso, which is white acrylic paint plus ground pumice to make it sandable. I used three or four coats to get a really smooth and durable surface.

 

 

With a blank canvas to work with, I feel good.

It doesn’t feel daunting. It’s like a clean slate, ready to add something beautiful and intricate to. It makes me think of what God does in our lives when He forgives our sins through Jesus Christ, and then we are clean, perfect, and ready for Him to work with us to create a masterpiece!

 

 

It was around the beginning of March when I started painting. My client and his family approved the layout after a few changes, and so I was ready to go! I decided to skip the pencil sketch, and get into the painting process right away.

Many people ask me how I do the sketching process. It depends on the project. Most often for small portraits, I freehand sketch them. For a large scale and incredibly detailed project like this on a canvas, I will either grid or project the design with an overhead transparency projector. Canvas is very difficult to sketch on with a pencil. In this case, I projected the design I created in Photoshop, using a small brush and a grey paint to quickly capture the lines of the image.

The portrait took nearly 200 hours to complete, from the time taken to build the sizable canvas stretcher frame to the last dab of paint.

I underestimated the challenge of painting in monochromatic.

Although it is easier to do a painting this way than full-blown color, it presented a few difficulties that I didn’t foresee, at least to the extent that surfaced in this work.

You would think that to do a black and white painting that you would simply just use black and white paint and mix various amounts to arrive at the grey tones in between.

It didn’t work that way for me.

I typically paint with a translucent glazing technique that allows light to reflect through the canvas and back to your eye through the layers of paint, like the Old Masters, giving the final painting a vibrance that is hard to capture with opaque paint alone.

So, when you mix black with the clear acrylic medium, even mixed with some white, and apply it to the canvas, the resulting color is not slate grey, but a brownish grey, because the light shining through the canvas warms up the color.

Then, when certain areas become more opaque than others, the predominance of white mixed in with layers gives the grey shade a cooler, bluish cast.

Maybe I’m just picky, but I don’t want certain areas of the painting to look brown or blue (at least without my say so) when I’m shooting for black and white. If the client commissions a black and white painting, that’s what he expects to get.

The solution?

 

So even in a monochromatic painting, I still end up using color!

But that’s OK, because color is fun to use. 🙂

Now I did make the background just a bit cooler in tone, so that it would visually recede. But it’s nice to be able to do that, when you, the artist chooses to, not just letting the paint do whatever it wants to.

 

Next, I painted a glaze over the entire painting, to give me a mid-value grey tone to work from. I add in darker values and highlights, working my way across from left to right. I try to develop the painting as a whole and not get too hung up in any one area.

 

 

It took over fifty hours to paint the background. I thought I was making it too dark, and had to constantly remind myself that the subjects, the people in the front would be much darker, with areas of pure black paint, and make the background look lighter by comparison. I wanted to “fix the background” and try to lighten it up, but I kept telling myself, “just wait until you paint the people.”

 

After finishing up the background, I really honed in on the people in the foreground. Here are some photos of me working taken by a talented photographer, Tom Gardner, at Artisan Forge Studios, where I used to work. At this stage I am nearly finished with the portrait. Yes, I can see the finish line from here!

 

 

 

How often in our lives do we judge something or someone prematurely? We ought to reserve judgment on many things in our lives, and especially in others’ lives, believing the best, and wait until everything shakes out. God has a purpose and a plan that we don’t always see. Things can look horribly wrong, when God is creating something wonderful behind the scenes.

When I finally finished it, hours upon hours later, I was satisfied with the results.

 

 

Here is a closeup of the father when he was young…

 

 

 

And then the mother…

 

 

The daughter…

 

And the son…

 

 

Here is a detail of New York City, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

 

 

On the right side of the painting is Minneapolis, with that recognizable round tower…

 

 

The best part of the entire project was to deliver it to the client and later to see it hanging in his home. What a conversation piece!

 

 

Hope you enjoyed this post and have a blessed day,

 

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much!

Realistic Acrylic Portrait of a Couple, Step-by-Step

 

Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!

 

How I Painted My Children Walking in the Woods

In this step, I added some phthalo blue, raw sienna and yellow ochre in a glaze to the background to suggest trees, and went over the trees with some raw umber dark, napthol crimson and ultramarine blue.

This painting took about 20 hours to do. It was my pleasure going on this journey with you, showing the process, and maybe even help you to think about warmer weather at a time when many of us are ready for spring!

P.S. Did you find this post helpful or encouraging? If so, send it on ahead! Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much!