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?
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!
To create a realistic portrait you need a lot of different elements all working together.
The main three elements are accurate form, value, and color.
All of these elements are tied together, and even overlap a bit. Today, I want to show how form and value work together, and how you need to represent value accurately to portray correct form.
One of my students recently asked to have his portrait critiqued, while in the sketch stage. As I was recording his critique, the idea of capturing value to portray a realistic likeness came up.
In other words, if you want the person you’re painting to look like them, you have to pay close attention to the shadows. It’s just as important to capture these shadows as it is to draw the features such as the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. with correct placement, proportions, and shape. The ability to see the shadows on a face is vitally important to create the illusion of three-dimensionality on the canvas. You need to be able to see the inherent shape of a shadow from your reference photo–its hard edge and soft edge.
On a photograph that can be hard to discern.
You have an almost unlimited array of values with micro-nuances that can make it very challenging to see the “big picture” of the main shapes of the shadows. But if you can train yourself to see those main, abstract shapes you will go a long way to being able to draw and paint realistically.
By the way, the edges are defined not only by shadows, but differences in value due to the actual value (light and dark) of the objects themselves. (For example, the contrast between the man’s flesh tone and white suit. Or, on a smaller level, the difference between his black beard on his dark brown skin.
There are borders to all the shadows and values Your job is to see the most obvious edge, pick a line, and define it.
Watch the video below and I’ll show you what I’m discussing here, using this student’s portrait sketch (supplied with his permission) as an example.
Mastering the ability to see shapes within the shadows takes practice. But it all starts with being aware of the need to do so. As you hone in this skill, you’ll see these shapes all over the place, learn how to paint what you see, and your portraits will come alive with realism!. Visit other free tutorial here.
Yours for realistic acrylic 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!
Painting the mouth, especially the teeth, in an acrylic portrait can be tricky.
It’s one of the hardest parts of the face to get right, but it is so important. Teeth are not easy to paint, because of the very subtle shapes, shades of color, and nuances you have to capture correctly to convey a convincing reality of a beautiful smile.
Today, I’m going to show you how to paint realistic teeth using my Old Master’s glazing technique.
1. Using a small round brush grab a little bit of napthol red off your palette…
2. Then a little bit of titanium white…
3. Mix into a warmer color like raw sienna, and dilute with a small amount of matte medium…
4. And then add the shadows just above the teeth, in the crevices between them, on top of the previously painted gums (that have just a light pink glaze on them)…
There’s a lot more! Watch it all here…
The 12-Minute Video Tutorial
(Instruction on painting teeth starts at 3:30 in the video)
And here is the completed portrait of my wife…
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! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Final Painting
With some more nuances here and there, I can call the painting done!
I 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!
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!
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?
I included brown (raw umber dark), yellow (raw sienna and indian yellow), and blue (ultramarine blue) on my palette and mixed it back into the colors to correct anything that was off. If the shade was too cool, I warmed it up with brown and yellow. If it was too warm, I cooled it down with blue.
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!
I’ll show you the 6 steps on how I painted a 11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas portrait of someone who, for a short time, was a special part of my life.
His name was Verlyn. He used to come by my house and he’d have his station wagon full of bread, bakery items and other things that he gave to people in the neighborhood as a ministry.
We developed a nice friendship along the way. His wife was ailing at the time and then sadly passed away. I did this portrait for him last year to help encourage him in his time of loss. He is still going strong, even in his 80’s and after everything, he’s taking care of a disabled man!
Here is the reference photo. I took the liberty to lighten up the background and change it to a more neutral color. Also, I brought the two of them a bit closer together, so I could give the portrait an aesthetically pleasing vertical orientation.
And now for the step-by-step process…
Step1: Starting with the Sketch
This was done freehand. In this stage, I try to get it as accurate as possible, so I have a good foundation to build my painting upon. But there are inevitably a few things that may be off, that have to be addressed in the painting stage. And that’s OK, because with paint it is easy to make corrections. Usually, I sketch in colored pencil, but I think, looking back, I might have run out of them and so used a graphite pencil, even though it is harder to work with.
Step 2: Blocking in Value and Color Simply
In this stage, I start by adding some light layers of color: ultramarine blue mixed with raw umber dark, and a alizarine crimson. I like to start my paintings with just one or two different colors and then build from that. So, even though he has pink hair for now, I’m not going to worry about it! The goal is to quickly separate cool hues from warm, and get the values blocked in quickly to build up depth.
Step 3: Strengthening Value, Color & Tonal Relationships
Meanwhile, I keep darkening the background with a mixture of raw umber dark and ultramarine blue to make grey. All of these layers, by the way, are thinned down with matte medium and applied with the glazing technique to give the painting richness and depth.
Step 4: Intensifying Colors and Smoothing Out Shading on Skin Tones
At this level, the colors are getting very intense, but there’s still a lot of nuances to add yet, to smooth out the major shaded areas of the face. It’s important to remember that your sketch can’t capture a likeness as precisely as a full-shaded in portrait. The subtleties of values sculpt the dimensions of the face.
So when you’re sketching, cut yourself a little slack if you haven’t captured the likeness perfectly. Just get it close.
Step 5: Adding Nuances to Facial Features and Deepening Shadows
It’s starting to look closer, but there’s more details work to be done. As you can tell, the pin on the woman’s lapel can be seen, faintly under the glazes. It’s time to paint it in. And there’s more work to do on the man’s tie–shadows on the edges that will give it depth and make it look like it’s really there, resting on his shirt.
Step 6: Smoothing out and Adding Detail
I feel like I’m in the home stretch at this stage, where I could call this finished, but there’s just a few final details yet: The details on the woman’s necklace, the tie-in values (where you take sharply defined shadows and merge them into smooth gradations) on the man’s tie. Highlights on the faces. And even just a few spots on his forehead to give him some character.
The Finished Painting
Done! All in all, this painting has dozens of layers of translucent paint and over 25 hours of work put into it. It was worth every minute. My friend really appreciated it, and it brought a lot of encouragement as it helped to keep this memory alive.
Let me know what you think of this mini-tutorial, and how I can improve these for you in the future. Share your paintings with me anytime and let me know how I can help you become a better artist.
Be blessed in your 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!
Here is the final painting of my children walking through the woods, “Come as Children,” 16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas, with a step-by-step breakdown of how I did it.
It will be used for a book cover illustration of Charles Spurgeon’s Devotionals for children. Below I want to do a recap of my previous posts from Facebook and Steemit, showing you the process of how I did this painting.
Reference Photo
In Progress Painting
Step 1: Blocking In the Forms
I start off very faint, just blocking in the colors with glazes. I mix about 90% clear acrylic medium to about 10% paint and just block in the composition, suggesting where the future colors will go. Here is my palette…
Normally, I use burnt sienna, but to challenge myself and also to enhance the color harmony within the painting, I omitted it.
The first layers consisted of raw sienna, yellow ochre, phthalo blue and indian yellow for the background, and then for the posts: raw umber dark, ultramarine blue and napthol crimson. I blocked in the blue jeans with phthalo blue, and my daughter’s pants with napthol crimson.
Step 2: Establishing Contrast
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.
Step 3: Creating Nuances
In this step, I added in more layers of green to the background, and filled in the colors for both kids’ pants. I also added in some shadows as well below the fence posts and filled in the shadows a little deeper and more dramatically.
Step 4: Adding Detail to Background and Figures
I added some more detail to the background and shading to the children, especially my daughter’s hair. Overall, since I use the glazing technique, I incrementally darken the entire surface, bringing out more details and nuances by “pushing and pulling” the paint: darkening certain areas and lightening others.
With the winter weather we’ve been having in Wisconsin, a walk on a warm day like this picture looks pretty good.
Step 5: Refining With Highlights and Additional Detail
I’m almost done with this painting: I added some contrast to the posts, more nuances within the clothing, some fallen leaves, and some darker areas within the trees in the background to tie the values in with the posts. Still not quite there yet.
I’ll need to substantially darken the overall value of the background to match the much darker and more vivid foreground. Sometimes creating art can be a balancing act. But it’s much safer than being on the high beam!
Final Painting
In the final rendition, I darkened the values in the background, to tie them in with the very dark posts of the fence, and even the shadows on the children. I also added a few details to the children’s hair, and highlights to edges of the clothing to make them stand out more. Lastly, I put a few more glazes of raw umber dark, ultramarine blue, and titanium white for the trees.
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!
A Video Demonstration Showing Part of the Process
Be blessed in your 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!
My pastor served for a very long time at my church, over 40 years, and almost 70 years in ministry. He asked me to do a portrait of he and his wife. I’m going to show you how I did it.
This was a 25″ x 31,” acrylic on linen. I stretched this canvas and primed it myself with about three coats of gesso to make sure it was an extra smooth surface.
Step 1: Creating the Sketch
For the sketch, I used a dark pastel pencil and drew in almost every contour of the faces. Even the detail in the dress of my pastor’s wife wife was meticulously reproduced from the reference photo.
Having a detailed, accurate sketch is an excellent foundation to apply the layers of paint to, just like a construction company needs to lay down solid cement to build a home on.
I didn’t want to leave anything out.
During the consultation with the clients, my pastor’s wife said, “Don’t paint any wrinkles on me. But you can paint them on Pastor, though.”
I laughed.
I guess that’s the beauty of hiring an artist to paint your picture instead of relying on the harsh, unforgiving camera lens.
She didn’t have too many wrinkles to edit out, anyway. 🙂
Once the sketch was finished, I sealed it in with matte medium. You never should use a spray fixative to seal in a fine art painting sketch. You could end up having problems with the paint adhering to the surface. Instead, do it the old fashioned way, with clear acrylic medium and a brush.
Step 2: Blocking in the Values
This is probably the second-most fun stage of painting. (The absolute most fun stage is finishing and signing!) I love to set the stage for the entire look of the picture by quickly blocking in the values–that is, the light and dark areas that create contrast, visual interest and realism.
To do that, I used raw umber dark mixed at a ratio of 90% medium to 10% paint. I filled in the hair and the suit right away, and also the background. To differentiate between the foreground and background, I used more layers on the people. Alternating between the raw umber dark, I also used phthalo blue, alizarine crimson, and dioxazine purple.
Did you know that dioxazine purple is darker than black?
I wanted to make sure the black areas were very dark. That makes the lighter values pop even more, giving the whole painting a greater visual impact.
Step 3: Smoothing Out and Adding Details
In this step, I build up three dimensional form by utilizing 5 different blending techniques:
1. Segmented Glazing. Creating gradations by using several layers and intentionally placing more layers upon areas that are darker in value, and less upon those that should be lighter. Generally, I use this method in the first stages of the painting, when very smooth gradations are not necessary, and I’m just building up the values.
2. Dilution Glazing. Creating gradations by applying a glaze over a section, and then dipping your brush into pure matte medium (which is clear) and blending it into the edge of the section of glaze, thus thinning it out gradually and creating a smooth transition in the process.
3. Dry Brushing. You apply the paint normally at first, but then when the supply of paint on your brush is almost exhausted, you “feather” out the remainder, and get a transition from dark to light.
4. Dabbing. This is unorthodox, but it works for me. I also blend with my finger. If my glaze was a bit too strong in an area, I smooth and lift up some of the pigment with my fingers, and wipe the excess on a towel. No worries, because acrylic is non-toxic!
5. Wet-on-Wet. This would typically be done with a more opaque layer, but the layer could still be 50% translucent. Think of a sky: You start with a dark blue and paint it halfway down, and then switch to a lighter, aqua blue, fill that area in , and quickly blend the two together while they are still wet. We will assume that you have some layers of color underneath, and not just a white canvas as you apply this wet-on-wet layer.
In addition, I start filling in the color in certain detailed areas such as the eyes, using a series of glazes. To make hazel eyes that look realistic, you use blue on the perimeter and yellowish brown (raw sienna) in the center. This gives it a jewel-like effect, just like a real eye!
Step 4: Refining and Finalizing Details
I love this part of the painting. This is where you feel like the painting is mostly done and some onlookers would even say it’s done. But you want to give it “that special something” so that when you look at it up close, you see amazing little nuances and subtleties of color that rewards the viewer for taking a closer look.
Although the glazing technique is fantastic at achieving depth and shading, it leaves a grainy texture behind. To counteract that effect, I use semi-opaque layers on the top to smooth that out and blend everything in. I heighten the contrast on the subject’s faces, darkening the background enough so they stand out.
On the man’s hand, I glaze with blue to capture the veins. But it’s also the shading that helps describe that too. I add shadows under the veins and highlights on the top, and that really helps make it look real.
In the eyes and teeth, I add highlights to give the impression of moisture and glossiness. Every detail counts.
And finally, I call the painting done!
Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be in touch,
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!
At the end of last year, (which was not long ago as I write this) I sent out a survey to my students and email subscribers asking this question–in many different ways.
Specifically, I asked 12 questions to nearly 800 subscribers.
From those who participated, the responses to the survey surprised me a bit. They may surprise you as well!
Question #1
Interesting. I knew most of my subscribers were hobbyists but I didn’t know the percentage was that high.
Question #2
This is good for me to know. Because if you want to learn how to paint abstract portraits, for example, you’re probably in the wrong place!
Question #3
I knew skin tones would be the highest scoring, based on the conversations I’ve had on Facebook and in direct emails. Shading comes in at second place. So I guess it’s good that I already did a course on shading.
But apparently I should do one on skin tones! 🙂 And there’s plenty of other topics I can teach on too.
Question #4
Now, I probably should have phrased my question better. Facial features really are eyes, nose and mouth all put together. But I think my subscribers were trying to say they’d like to learn how to do accurate portraits. How to capture the likeness correctly…yes?
I find it interesting that learning how to paint hair score higher than eyes. And the nose came in right after that.
Well, noses are tricky.
Maybe a course on painting noses would sound a little odd, but I’ll do it if that helps my students paint better portraits!
Question #5
This totally amazed me. I know people like videos, but that is conclusive. I need to do more videos. I’ll still do some written tutorials here, but I am going to imbed some videos into the articles as much as possible.
Question #6
It’s pretty amazing that a majority of my readers have purchased an online course. Amazing what technology can do and how it can bring us together from all parts of the globe!
Question #7
This is a good stat right here. Nearly half of my subscribers would buy a course if they KNEW they would learn everything they needed to be able to paint that amazing portrait. And another fourth would be pretty likely to, again if they were confident they’d get the outcome they’re seeking.
My goal then, will be to show you that I can teach you exactly what you need to do just that, and to make the transaction risk-free as possible for you.
Question #8
Okay, so it looks like I’m right on the money with what I charge for my course. Good to know. Obviously, I need to make a living as an artist and teacher and don’t want to under-price my labors, but I don’t want the price so high, that you can’t afford it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to purchase a course on blogging or marketing, and then the price is $2,000 or more.
Really?
I could buy a nice used mini-van for that to haul more of my paintings around!
Question #9
I’m glad that everyone could see the value of a course with critiques included. I love doing critiques and seeing the results my students get with them, but they take time, and so I need to charge a little more for that. And of course, less for a course without critiques. I think my subscriber’s responses here are intelligent and reasonable.
I should have added the question, “How important is a personal critique in a course? Or, put another way, do you prefer “self-study?”
(You can answer that in the comments below if you’d like 🙂 )
Question #10
It seems that a majority of my subscribers would like a monthly membership program. I do have one right now: Realistic Acrylic All-Access Membership. With it, you get access to all the courses, plus personal critiques every month.
Question #11
Nearly half have found my emails very helpful, and another quarter have found them pretty helpful. The remainder have found them decent, but not great. I’m glad I’m doing a good job overall, sharing lessons and tips that are useful, but it looks like I can still use some improvement.
I should have done a follow-up question or two: What can I improve on? What would you like to see more of?
Well, I’m asking you right now. 🙂 Let me know!
Question #12
This wasn’t surprising. After all, I normally send an email about once a week, so that is what my subscribers are used to. I recently opted in on an email list for marketing tips, and at a certain point, they sent me 2-3 emails a day!
My inbox could only take so much. Unsubscribed.
Occasionally, I send out an email twice a week, when I have an announcement on a new course or something that’s time sensitive, but I promise my subscribers to never inundate their inboxes!
Additional Comments
Finally, this last question was a freebie. It was wonderful to hear so many honest comments. Since the survey was anonymous, I was unable to respond back personally via email to the people who left the comments, but I will take the opportunity to do that now…
Here are my answers…
1. Would you consider stand alone critiques for a fee?
I would do standalone critiques for a fee, if that works best for you. Although I include a month worth of free critiques within my painting course, I would offer standalone critiques for $15 each.
These are personalized video critiques, like this one here, (approximately 15 minutes long) where I compare your painting next to the original image, discuss what’s working well, and show you exactly how to correct what may be off.
So, if you’re interested, just email me and let me know. I’ll set it up with you.
2 . I unfortunately am unable to purchase your courses…. even though I think they are brilliant but I am now retired and on a very low income. I hope you understand
Of course I understand. I am still very glad that you’re a subscriber and you can still benefit from my free lessons and videos.
3 . I like your video’s but I cannot understand everything because of the language.
I am sorry about the language issue. Not sure if I can correct that, since I only speak English! Maybe there’s translation services out there for videos?
4 . I operate off an iPad. I subscribed to a painting course from you this year. Had a lot of trouble reaching the site as well as completely missing the last sessions. Very disappointing. Like your paintings.
Thanks for the compliments on my paintings. I’m sorry if you were disappointed in not being able to access the later videos in the course. Email me. I think I can upload them to a private YouTube channel so you can see them.
5 . Hope to enroll and learn acrylic painting in the future, thanks Matt.
Ok, great, I look forward to teaching you. Maybe you already enrolled! 🙂
6 . So far I learn a lot. But I want to learn a lot about portrait painting.
Good. That’s what I’m here for!
7 . You rock!
Hey, thanks. God has been good to me…just want to pass the blessings along!
8 . I do only realistic wildlife and find it difficult to switch to a transparent style. I use it when I feel it suits the purpose. Always willing to learn new techniques and appreciate your videos and the time you put in to them. Thank you, Les.
Hi Les, and glad you like the videos and appreciate the time I put into them. I plan on doing a lot more this year!
9 . I am concerned with the purchase of online content access; I nearly lost purchased access to content on another site.
Yikes! That would make me upset too. My courses are hosted by Teachable, and although they are not perfect, they are one of the most dependable learning management systems out there. Most of my students have had a great experience there. However, my course is satisfaction guaranteed, and you can always reach me by email or phone if you’re having problems with anything.
10 . As a former portrait photographer, I found that most adults like their portraits “retouched” to remove blemishes and soften ag lines. Do you get similar reactions on your realistic paintings?
Yes. One client said, “You can take my wrinkles out,” but to leave them on her husband. 🙂
11 . I love that you share your talent. I have taken a Craftsy class on painting animals. Her course was good for getting the fur and the end result was very life like but not the “realistic ‘ artistry that you do.
Thank you. I am looking to fill a void here on the internet. There’s many teachers, but I haven’t found any that specialize in teaching realistic acrylic portrait painting. So, voila!
12 . Your course is wonderful.
Thank you so much!
13 . I just barely signed up & haven’t received any tutorials yet.
I’m sorry you didn’t get any tutorials yet. It might have been a glitch in my email service provider. Email me if you can and let me know if you still haven’t gotten anything yet!
14 . You are the best instructor. Thanks for your hard work.
Wow, thank you for the kind words!
15 . My answers re: cost were based on my limited funds, not their worth.
Sure, that helps to know that. Thanks!
16 . I appreciate the assistance you have sending to me. As a novice portrait painter, I admire your abilities.
My pleasure. Be blessed in your painting and may God take the skills He’s blessed you with and multiply them ten-fold this year!
17 . Have no idea what a course should cost but am interested…
