Cooler colors really can help to add the realism you are aiming for. In this brief tutorial video, using a commissioned portrait as an example, I’ll show you what colors to mix and why.
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this video. Please share it with your friends and family. Let me know if you have any further questions. I’ll greatly help you.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and video class today.
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this tutorial and watch the video. That means a lot to me. I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting.
Yours for Better Portraits,
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!
In this video, I’ll show you how to add a highlight to the eyelid, a nuance to the nose and cheek, and a few details of the hair. When you learn how to do this correctly, you too, can finish your painting well and create a portrait you can be proud of!
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this video. Please share it with your friends and family. Let me know if you have any further questions. I’ll greatly help you.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and video class today.
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this tutorial and watch the video. That means a lot to me. I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting.
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!
In this video, I’ll show you how to paint earrings, especially the highlights.
Watch my free tutorial to learn more on how to paint earrings in your acrylic portrait.
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about this video. Please share it with your friends and family. Let me know if you have any further questions. I’ll greatly help you.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and video class today.
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this tutorial and watch the video. That means a lot to me. I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting.
Yours for Better Portraits,
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!
As an example, I am using a commissioned portrait I did of a couple wearing colonial garb.
Watch my free tutorial to learn more how I painted a woman’s hair detail with acrylic.
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this video. Please share it with your friends and family. Let me know if you have any further questions. I’ll greatly help you.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and video class today.
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this tutorial and watch the video. That means a lot to me. I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting.
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!
Now what? Begin painting? Not so fast! 🙂 In this video, I’ll show you how I’m refining the traced image, freehand, to make it ready to paint upon.
In this video, I’m going to work on this sketch of Isaiah or Hezekiah.
This is for the book of Isaiah by Russell Stendal and it’s an illustration based off this image here of a man in intercessory prayer. And originally, I did a video showing the tracing process, asking whether it’s ok to trace. And I think I answered that question, that it is—as long as you do freehand sketching and work with grids. But especially as you work with freehand sketching, which will help you to improve as an artist.
Now, I’m going to work in this sketch to show you the process of tightening up a sketch done by tracing initally and the tracing process does leave you with a lot of work left to be done. So, I’m going to show you how I’m going to add additional shading in detail and then have a sketch that I can paint on top of.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and video class today.
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!Thank you so much for reading this tutorial and watching the video. That means a lot to me. I hope you find it very helpful in your portrait painting!
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!
I’m going to answer that question today.
Up until COVID-19 hit, I participated in a Fall studio art tour every year. An artist on the tour, who was also the founder and coordinator for it, had some strong opinions about tracing.
“Matt, tell me you didn’t trace that sketch for the mural project you did.”
“I’m not going to lie,” I told her. “I did use a projector to get the proportions up, and then refine it freehand.”
“How could you do that? What if your client found out?”
“Well, first of all, this project was done for my church, as a gift,” I replied. “And secondly, I would be upfront with them if they asked about my process.”
She chided me in a motherly kind of way, and I listened respectfully and smiled.
This is the first time I ever really thought about the concept of tracing as being a bad thing, at least to this degree. But is it?
Here is a fun video I did on tracing. I go over a few of the ideas I shared with you above, and I also show you, if you choose to trace, how to do it, using a painting I’m doing right now as an example…
Is it OK to Trace as a Portrait Artist?
What are YOUR thoughts on tracing? Let me know below, in the comments!
Yours for Better Portraits,
Matt
In this lesson, you will learn how to draw an accurate sketch that will help keep you from getting frustrated while painting. You will also be set up to create a portrait with realistic proportions, and a true likeness—where it really looks like the person you’re trying to paint.
That’s the kind of portrait you’ll be proud to show, sell, or give as an exquisite gift!
Just as a contractor wouldn’t build a house without a proper foundation, you shouldn’t paint a portrait without one either. A rock-solid sketch is the best way to establish a firm foundation for the rest of your portrait to be built upon. Take your time to do it right, and you will set yourself up for success, and avoid a lot of potential hassle later.
In our previous step, I showed you how to prepare your canvas for the sketch by creating a well-formed grid.
If you followed my instruction, you will have sealed that grid with first a layer of matte medium. Then you followed up with a roughly 50%/50% mixture of acrylic matte medium and white acrylic gesso, and let it dry for at least a couple of hours.
Now, you have a canvas that is ready to sketch upon. The matte medium/ gesso layer provides not only a barrier to the grid so you can’t erase it while sketching, but it also gives the canvas the perfect texture to sketch with a colored pencil. Back in 2017, I discovered that colored pencil erases like a dream on a properly prepared canvas. And you can seal it in without minimal loss of detail to your sketch.
Try it, and you’ll find out how fun it can be to sketch on your canvas. 🙂 You’ll never want to go back to graphite pencil again!
Another benefit: you can pick any colored pencil hue you want to match the skin tone of the subject. Remember, with my glazing technique, you will be able to see through the paint layers, down to the colored pencil until you have enough layers to cover it up. And in a few areas, even when your painting is finished, the colored pencil will shine through a bit. So pick a brown color that works best for you. Sepia, Chocolate, brown ochre, and terra cotta are all good colors for sketching.
Ready to go?
Now, before we begin…
Are you registered for the challenge?
If not, register below for FREE and I’ll send you:
REGISTER TODAY. The challenge is ongoing, something you can do at your own pace. It’s not too late to enter!
Register for the Challenge!Here’s the steps to creating a masterful sketch, a firm foundation for your painting.
Watch my in-depth Masterclass acrylic online tutorial below to see these steps in action.
After learning from this video, You’ll know exactly how to do it.
Before you watch, I want you to know that this lesson is VERY in depth. It’s one hour long! But please, make the investment in your art talent, grab a cup of coffee or tea, and watch the whole thing. If you do, I promise that you will have greater clarity on how to begin an acrylic portrait from here on out. Every portrait you do will be that much better.
Here’s the video…
Acrylic Portrait Challenge Masterclass Lesson #2: Sketching Your Portrait for a Firm Foundation
How accurate does it need to be? You only need to have a likeness 90% of the way there to have a fantastic sketch.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. The painted layers will dial in the likeness the rest of the way. You don’t need to make this sketch into a drawing. Meaning, you don’t need to shade in everything to the point that it looks like a finished drawing that you could hang on your wall.
No.
The sketch is for YOUR benefit…and also that of the portrait!
It doesn’t have to amaze others at this stage. It just needs to be accurate. It needs to describe the form, the contours, the three-dimensionality of the subject with line and value. You simply need to make yourself a guide so you know where to place your glazes when you segue into the painting process.
Now the painting, when it is finished, let THAT amaze others! (and you 🙂 )
There you have it! Now you know exactly how to create a great sketch for your portrait, a firm foundation you can build the rest of your portrait upon. The next step is to seal in your sketch and ease your portrait into a painting with the first few glazes.
I’ll see you in our next class! Until then have a blessed day and use that talent God gave you to its fullest!
Yours for Better Portraits,
If you found this post helpful or encouraging, would you send it on ahead? Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much!
Let me know if you have any questions about the challenge that I didn’t answer. Leave your question in the comments below and I’ll get back to you!
Again, if you are taking the challenge, I commend you. It’s not easy to paint a portrait. Many artists desire to do it, but never actually begin, because it’s difficult to paint a fellow human being accurately. It’s my goal to show you how to do it, so you can paint an amazing portrait from a photo you’ll be proud to show others.
Now, you might feel like rushing this step, but I encourage you to start slowly and build a good foundation for your portrait. You’ll be glad you did.
Before we begin…
Are you registered for the challenge?
If not, register below for FREE and I’ll send you a “Welcome Kit” with a Supplies List and a Palette Color Layout Guide. I’ll also send you high-resolution images of the photo we’ll be painting from for this challenge. (It’s not too late to enter!)
Register for the Challenge!In this video lesson and tutorial, you will learn how to create a grid for your canvas. If you have several years of freehand drawing experience, you could skip this step and start sketching right away, but from my experience in teaching, most artists are not ready to do an accurate sketch for their portrait.
So, most likely, the grid method will be best for you. It allows you to create accurate proportions while still compelling you to use your hand-eye coordination and spatial perception to draw shapes and detailed forms. And that’s how I will be teaching this portrait demonstration for you.
There’s three steps to creating the grid in preparation for sketching:
I’ll show you how, step-by-step, in this video lesson…
And now you know how to create a grid on your canvas, and you’re ready for the next step: sketching the subject! I look forward to being your guide for the rest of this adventure.
I’ll see you in our next class! Until then…
Yours for Better Portraits,
If you found this post helpful or encouraging, would you send it on ahead? Let others know with the share buttons below. I’d love to hear your comments. Thank you so much!
Let me know if you have any questions about the challenge that I didn’t answer. Leave your question in the comments below and I’ll get back to you!
I use the glazing technique to slowly bring the portrait from a white canvas to completion. The glazing technique is achieved by mixing your paint with clear acrylic medium (usually matte medium) to disperse the pigment, thus allowing light to pass through.
Although you could use water, it’s not recommended, because it breaks down the acrylic resin binder, causing a rough visual texture and possible poor adhesion. For a smoother look, you want to use clear acrylic medium.
I hope these questions and answers were helpful to you as well. I know some of this stuff seems pretty basic, but it’s good for all of us to pause and think about why we do what we do. It then makes the doing that much more significant.
Let me know if you have any questions of your own about acrylic portrait painting and I’ll do my best to help!
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!
Is it by learning a new skin tone recipe? Is it by getting a new glazing medium? Or is it by watching a bunch of time-lapse videos?
All of these things can help, but what will get you the fastest results is to go to the foundation: accurate drawing. Most painters spent months or even years doing drawings before ever picking up a paintbrush. There’s just something about drawing that works wonders for your painting skills.
I think part of it is that it bypasses the other concerns of handling paint: mixing colors, brush technique, drying times, etc. You only have a few simple tools: your pencils, paper, and an eraser. And you work in monochromatic so it forces you to think only about your form and shading.
So, why do I have a drawing tutorial here in Realistic Acrylic Portrait School? Because drawing is a fundamental skill, and it will drastically improve your painting. It won’t help to learn advanced skin tone and shading skills unless you know how to see three-dimensional forms and translate them to a two-dimensional surface. You want to be able to see the likeness of the person you’re trying to paint and accurately capture that. Drawing will do this for you faster than anything.
One of my neighbor’s friends’ sister died recently, and she asked me if I could draw a sketch of her to commemorate her. I agreed, and when I had some time in my crazy studio schedule, I got out my paper, and pencils and started sketching.
I set up the photo on my Kindle Fire, right next to my paper and started working. Now this drawing is definitely not fancy since it’s just a sketch done in under an hour, but I try to draw freehand often, to keep my skills sharp. I’m still learning, and trying to improve my skills.
Here is a a free training session showing how I drew the 11″ x 14″ pencil portrait, from start to finish, in about 45-50 minutes. In this video, you will learn:
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!