How to Paint Pensive Young Woman: 30-Minute Acrylic Portrait

Master the alla prima technique to capture expression, lighting, and form in a half-hour acrylic portrait.

Welcome to another 30-minute acrylic portrait session! In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of painting a pensive young woman with red hair. While acrylic painting can take several hours or even days using layered techniques, today we’ll focus on alla prima—a method where you paint wet-on-wet in one sitting. This exercise helps artists become more efficient by focusing on capturing the subject’s gesture and overall expression in a short period. With practice, you can improve your speed, brushstroke accuracy, and confidence.

Follow this step-by-step guide to complete a beautiful, expressive portrait in just 30 minutes.

Materials and Color Palette

Before diving into the actual painting process, it’s essential to know the materials you’ll be using. For this quick portrait, the following supplies are necessary:

• Colors:
  • Ivory Black
  • Raw Umber Dark
  • Burnt Sienna
  • Raw Sienna
  • Ultramarine Blue
  • Alizarine Crimson
  • Pyrrole Red Orange (or Cadmium Red Medium)
  • Indian Yellow
  • Titanium White
• Brushes:
  A mix of flat and round brushes, including filberts for blending skin tones and hair.
• Canvas Preparation:
  The canvas is pre-toned with a light wash of burnt sienna mixed with titanium white, giving the flesh tones a warm underlayer. This helps speed up the process since the mid-tones are already in place, leaving you to focus on shadows and highlights.

Step 1: Sketching the Composition and Features

Blocking in the Shapes:

Start by mixing raw umber dark with ivory black and a little matte medium to thin the paint. Use a flat brush to sketch the basic composition of the portrait. Focus on capturing the shapes of the young woman’s hair, face, and neck. This quick block-in will define the main forms and ensure your proportions are correct.

• Tip: Focus on the overall gesture and avoid getting bogged down with small details at this stage. Pay attention to the negative spaces between the subject’s contours and the background.

Step 2: Identifying Shadows and Highlights

With the basic form sketched out, move on to blocking in shadows. Using the same mixture of raw umber black, deepen the darker areas, such as her neck, jawline, and the left side of her face.

For the highlights, mix titanium white with burnt sienna and pyrrole red orange to create a warm skin tone. Apply this mixture to the areas where light naturally hits her face, including the forehead, cheeks, and chin. This initial contrast between light and dark will help shape the face’s three-dimensional look.

• Tip: Use a filbert brush to blend these highlights smoothly into the surrounding skin tones for a softer transition. Quick, choppy strokes can help with texture, while longer, smoother strokes are ideal for refining the skin’s appearance.

Step 3: Refining the Facial Features

Now that the major shadows and highlights are established, begin working on the facial features. Thin the paint with matte medium to give yourself flexibility in making corrections. Use a smaller round brush to block in her eyes, nose, and mouth.

• Eyes: Place the eyes about two-thirds of the way up from the chin to the top of the head. Make small marks to indicate their placement, followed by the eyebrows, nose, and mouth.
• Nose: The bottom of the nose should align with the lower third of the face. Use shadows to accentuate its form and add dimension.
• Mouth: Capture the subtle expression by carefully observing the shape of her lips and how they relate to the other facial features. There’s a slight smile, so a careful balance of shading around the mouth will be essential.

Step 4: Painting the Hair

For the red hair, create a mixture of burnt sienna, pyrrole red orange, and a hint of alizarine crimson. This combination will yield a vibrant, natural red that complements the subject’s expression.

Work in layers, starting with the darker shadows to indicate the depth of the hair. Then, add mid-tones and finish with highlights using a lighter mixture of titanium white and pyrrole red orange.

• Tip: The texture of the hair can be suggested using short, directional strokes to mimic the flow and volume. Pay attention to where light hits the hair, adding highlights in those areas.

Step 5: Final Touches and Enhancing Contrast

To bring everything together, add the final highlights and enhance the contrast in key areas, such as the bridge of the nose, the cheekbones, and the lips. For the background, use a mixture of raw sienna and burnt umber to create a neutral tone that contrasts with the warm colors of her face and hair.

As the painting progresses, keep in mind the subtle shadows that give depth to her expression. Soft transitions between light and shadow will make the portrait feel more lifelike.

• Tip: Step back from your painting regularly to check the overall balance of the portrait. This will allow you to see the piece with fresh eyes and make any necessary adjustments before the timer runs out.

Technique and Tips for Success

• Alla Prima Technique: This wet-on-wet approach forces you to make decisive brushstrokes and prevents overworking the paint. Embrace the loose and expressive nature of this method.
• Color Harmony: Use a limited palette to ensure harmony in the skin tones, shadows, and highlights. The pre-toned canvas will help unify the colors.
• Efficient Brushwork: Each brushstroke counts in a 30-minute portrait. Focus on broad strokes for the initial block-in, then refine with smaller brushes for detail work as time allows.

Conclusion: Practice Makes Perfect

Completing your artwork in a 30-minute acrylic portrait painting is challenging but highly rewarding. Because with practice, this exercise will sharpen your skills, improve your brush control, and help you capture the essence of your subject quickly and confidently. By then focusing on the most important aspects of light, shadow, and expression, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve in a short time.

Start with this tutorial and see how your speed and efficiency improve over time!

For further resources and guides, visit realisticacrylic.com and check out my free courses to enhance your acrylic painting journey.

LEARN MORE

• Adding highlights to your acrylic painting
• 5 Excellent Reasons to Use Aluminum Foil
• Paint Realistic Wrinkles in Acrylic
• Painting Clothing in an Acrylic Portrait
• Paint a Cloudy Sky Acrylic  
•  How to add Semi-Opaque Highlights
• How to Enhance the Contrast in Your Acrylic
• How to Add Glaze to Your Acrylic Painting
• Paint Realistic Reflections on Eyeglasses in an Acrylic Portrait
• Build Up Depth on Your Acrylic Portrait Backgrounds
• How Do You Do Layers With the Glazing Technique?
• Learn How to Paint Wrinkles in 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.  

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!