One of the trickiest things about acrylic portrait painting, especially when using the glazing technique, is knowing how to achieve color. How many layers do you use?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There is something more important than color, even skin tones in a portrait.

Here is a recent question from a subscriber:

Currently, I am working on a portrait of my friend’s grandfather.  My reference photo is of him as a young man in his dress greens from his younger days in the Army. I really want to capture his likeness and be proud to present this to her as it is a gift for her mother but I’m finding myself “stuck” in a sense. From watching your videos and using the matte medium as a glazing technique, I am having trouble building up the layers of his uniform to the correct tone and shade of green. I find the medium lightens the acrylic paint.  I’ve only applied one layer so I still have time to correct it before making a mess of it.  Should I have painted in the dark value of his uniform before going in with a glaze to help it along or just keep applying layer after layer until the desired color is achieved?

Regarding your question–yes, you can keep building up the green glazes for his uniform. However, it’s best to think of values before color. What I mean is, you are right to think that you should have done the dark value of the uniform first. That’s exactly right.

The reason is, value is more important than color. Value (light and dark and the difference between them) describes all the contours and three dimensions of a face or body. If it weren’t for the strategic placement of those values, we wouldn’t know whether it was a person, animal, rock or tree that we painted.

Theoretically, you could have a person whose skin tone or clothing was a bit too red, or greenish–whatever–but it the values were accurate, it would still look human, and would look like a pretty good portrait. You can see in this painting I did, the colors are a bit too red. (I also intensified them on Photoshop, exaggerating them a bit to make a point.)

All of these many layers is how you make an acrylic look like an oil. I learned this glazing technique several years ago from Norbert Kox, a university art professor. It made all the difference for me in my portrait painting with acrylic. Learning this technique and applying it will make the difference for you too.

If you’d like to learn more, sign up for my free email tips and videos today.

And of course, let me know if you have any questions or comments. I’ll be happy to help!

Yours for Better Portraits,