Glazing Background Colors and More in Acrylic

How do you glaze your background colors in acrylic?

I’ll demonstrate how I painted with glazing background colors and more in acrylic. I am working on a 30 x 40 acrylic portrait painting of Moses and Hur in an Amalekite battle, using the glazing technique to create vibrant effects of luminosity and depth.

I am adding some shading to get some warmer tones, and I will work on the background color, warmer tones for the clouds, some of the cool blues of the sky, and more acrylic.   We will also work on Moses’ cloak as well.

Watch my tutorial below to learn more about the glazing background colors and more in acrylic.

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Darken Background and Clothing With the Acrylic Glazing Technique

 With the acrylic glazing technique, it’s easy to adjust your background and make it darker.

You can also add wonderful cloudy effects so that your subjects—the people in your portrait—are in focus and jump out at you! Let me show you how in this video tutorial.

 Watch my video tutorial to learn more how to darken background and clothing with the acrylic glazing technique.

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!

How to Varnish an Acrylic Painting in One Step

A question I get asked a lot is: how do you varnish an acrylic painting?

There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this topic, or at least, many different opinions on how to do it right.

Some say you need an isolation coat. Others say you should spray apply the varnish. And then there are some who pour it on or use a sponge!

I’m not here to dismiss any of those methods. If they work for that particular artist, more power to them.

Rather, I’d like to share with you the method I’ve been using for over 20 years as a portrait painter. It’s easy, and you can do it one step.

Let me break down this one-step acrylic varnishing method into how to actually do it…

1. Lay your canvas flat on a table, oriented horizontally, but at an angle.
2. Raise your canvas up, on four scraps of wood placed under each corner (make sure it’s level. 1″ x 2″s work well )
3.  Get your 4″ varnishing brush (Liquitex Freestyle works well)
4. Pour matte varnish (Novacolor or Liquitex) into a clean yogurt container or any plastic container large enough to accommodate the width of the brush. Be sure to stir the varnish if it’s been sitting for a while! Over time the polymer resin can separate from the water in the mixture. If you don’t mix it, you may have streaks.
5. “Sweep” any dust or debris off of the canvas surface with a large brush before you begin.
6. Dip your brush into the varnish container, so the bristles are coated with varnish 1/3-1/2 of the way up from the tip.
7. Begin brushing the varnish on the surface, starting with the end farthest from you. Brush in the longest direction of the canvas.
8. Let your brush hit 1/3″ of the way from the left edge of the canvas. Apply even pressure and bring the brush all the way to the left edge.
9. Bring the brush all the way to the right edge.
10. Wipe any excess varnish that remains on your brush inside the top lip of your container.
11. Flip the brush over and smooth out the entire first application, overlapping the edge slightly with 1-2 strokes. Do not overbrush!
12. Dip your brush into the varnish container and repeat the process. Let your stroke slightly overlap the first (about 1/4″)
13. You will be working your way toward your body. This will keep you from accidentally dripping onto the finished varnished surface.
14. If you have any extra varnish that drips onto the side of the canvas, use a 3/4 flat brush to wipe it off. If the canvas will be framed, the side-drips are usually not a problem and can be left alone.
15. Let your canvas dry flat on a table. It might look milky white in areas. Resist the temptation to brush it! If you followed my method, the varnish should dry crystal clear. It should dry completely within 3-5 hours, depending on humidity.

Disclaimer: I have used this method with great results in over 20 years of portrait painting. Your results are up to you, how you apply this method, and the humidity levels of your studio space. I cannot be held responsible for any painting that gets damaged during the varnishing process. It would be a good idea to varnish a test piece first. You can add another layer (after 3-5 hours of dry time) if you feel the first one didn’t cover as well as you’d like, but most of the time, you won’t need to.

Watch this video below to see the process in action…

 

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to teaching you more!

—Matt

Questions? Suggestions? Thoughts? Let me know, below in the comments. Please share this post with your friends!

 

3 Tips to Drawing Better Pencil Portraits

Better drawing=better painting. So today, I’m going to show you some tips on how to improve your drawing.

I’ll be basing today’s demo on an 8″ x 24″ commissioned pet portrait I’m working on. I’ll talk about and demonstrate shading, texture and how to smooth things out. 

Watch the video below and find out how to do it!

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to teaching you more!

—Matt

Questions? Suggestions? Thoughts? Let me know, below in the comments. Please share this post with your friends!

 

Adding Early Highlights to Your Acrylic Portrait

Sometimes an acrylic painting doesn’t always go the way you want it to go. Then you need to make adjustments. And that’s OK!

In this video, I take a slightly different approach and add highlights to my painting early on in the process. Because my toning layer got a bit dark, I wanted to go back and strengthen the highlights, using titanium white and Indian yellow, diluted with matte medium to make it the application fluid. This allows those areas ultimately to have more luminosity and vibrance.

 

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to teaching you more!

—Matt

Questions? Suggestions? Thoughts? Let me know, below in the comments. Please share this post with your friends!

 

Blocking-in on a 30″ x 40″ Acrylic Battle Scene Painting

The way we begin an acrylic painting is super important and determines, in many ways, how it will end up. In this lesson, I show you how to block in the value structure, using the classical glazing technique adapted for acrylics.

In this demonstration, I am using a 30″ x 40″ acrylic painting I was commissioned to create, a battle scene between ancient Israel and the Amalekites. I asked my friends to come over to my home early in the morning, at sunrise, and model for the painting.

Yes, that’s me in the middle!

In this battle, when the Israelite leader Moses held up his staff, the power of God would flow. It caused the Israelite army to defeat their battlefield enemies. But, as the battle lasted for hours, Moses grew tired and couldn’t hold up his staff. Then the Amalekites got the advantage over the Israelites!

His assistants, Aaron and Hur came up with an idea. They had Moses sit on a rock. Then they held up his arms on either side, so once again, the Israelites could prevail.

This painting is meant to depict the struggle in praying, and how when others come alongside of us, they can ease the burden. Their faith strengthens ours, and we can get the victory!

Here is my layout for the painting that I edited on Photoshop…

Now for the blocking-in video…

We start with an accurate sketch. Then, my goal is to quickly identify the major areas of contrast within the reference photo.

Then we apply a layer of raw umber dark, ultramarine blue and matte medium to the shadow areas designated on the sketch…

Watch the video here to see how to do it…

 

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to teaching you more!

—Matt

Questions? Suggestions? Thoughts? Let me know, below in the comments. Please share this post with your friends!

 

Step-by-Step Journey of Painting a Vibrant Acrylic Portrait

How do you paint an acrylic portrait that looks alive?

In this video, I share how I painted an 11″ x 14″ portrait of three beautiful children, using the classical glazing technique.

This is not a time-lapse video, but rather real-time snippets of my studio process, step-by-step, with explanations of what I’m doing. I share all the tips I can within about 20 minutes so that you can learn to paint an amazing acrylic portrait that you can give as a gift or even do for a living!

This tutorial shows the entire process of painting a portrait. Here are the steps I show in this tutorial:

1. Sketch the portrait.
2. Seal in the sketch.
3. Block in the initial values
4. Develop contrast, depth, and skin tones
5.  Add final nuances, details and finish.

Watch the video below and happy painting! 🙂

Of course, I always love to hear from you. Please let me know how this video helps.

Also, do you have a question about your portrait that I could answer for you? Let me know in the comments below!

 

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! 

 

How I Painted Two Bubble Frame Oval Acrylic Portraits, Step-by-Step

“How is my portrait project coming along?”

“Um, I haven’t even started it yet.”

“Oh. Could you do another one and get it done for me by Christmas?”

“Let me check. Sure.”

This is kind of how the conversation went when a client called me on a portrait project that I had scheduled out for a few months. I was backed up with commissions, and it was already well into December.

Do another portrait when I was already behind? Why not? I thrive on a little deadline pressure. I’ve got an extra reserve of midnight oil 🙂

So here are the portraits I created, two convex-oval 14″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas paintings. I decided to work on both at once. And I got them both done in time, too, by God’s grace!

 

 

And now I want to show you how I painted them. I’ll take you through the process from the colors I select for the palette, the first few layers, all the way to the completed painting.

 

How I Painted These Oval Vintage Acrylic Portraits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This tutorial is a work in progress, so I’ll be adding more videos in the future!

Keep in touch and I’ll let you know when I post the next one!

Let me know how this tutorial helps!

Have you ever painted on an oval canvas or unusual surface before? If so, leave a comment and tell me about it. Have a blessed day!

 

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!

 

 

Build Up Depth on Your Acrylic Portrait Backgrounds

Learn how to paint fantastic, cloudy-looking backgrounds for your acrylic portrait, using the glazing technique.

This kind of background will look great, match your colors, and yet allow the subjects to stand out. In this video, we’ll look at the beginning part of the process. This is based off a commissioned portrait painting I did of three children, a 16 x 20, acrylic on canvas…

 

 

---

The Video Lesson…

 

Let me know how this helps! If you have questions on your portrait painting, feel free to contact me ([email protected])

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!

 

---

Would you like to learn portrait painting from me in person?

I’d like to let you know that I’ll be teaching at the Chippewa Valley Cultural Association (Heyde Center for the Arts, Chippewa Falls, WI) on March 12-13, 10:30am-3:30pm, a two-day intensive acrylic portrait painting workshop. The class size is limited to 10 people to make sure I can give each student feedback and individual instruction. For more details, visit my events page here…https://realisticacrylic.com/paint-an-acrylic-portrait-with-me-in-2019/

---