Uncategorized – Page 2 – Realistic Acrylic Portrait School

How to Create Contrast in a Chiaroscuro Acrylic Painting

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

Contrast is so important in a painting.

In this video, I will show you how you can add contrast, that is the dramatic difference between light and dark in your portrait.

I’m using the 16 x 20 painting of Paul the Apostle praying as an example. Using the Caravaggio chiaroscuro technique of layering earth tone or monochromatic glazes on top of each other, I’m building up depth to bring out the drama of the subject.

LEARN MORE

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!

Is it possible to fix a portrait you’re not happy with in 30 minutes?

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

What can you do for a portrait painting in 30 minutes?

In this video, I’d like to show you a 30-minute acrylic portrait that I decided to add more time to. (Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the original video for the first half hour!! )

I wasn’t entirely happy with the likeness and realism that I achieved, so I figured I would record another video to show you what is possible during that time.

By giving yourself a 30-minute deadline, you can accomplish more. Watch this video to see how you can do that in your own portrait!

LEARN MORE

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!

30-Minute Acrylic Portrait: Thoughtful Man in White

/ Real Time Tutorial Uncategorized Video Tutorial
/ By Matt Philleo

Back to doing another 30-minute acrylic portrait, where I paint an Alla Prima portrait in about half an hour.

This can be a quick portrait study, or become an underpainting for a more refined portrait. I encourage you to try one! You can use this an example if you’d like.

In this video tutorial, I’ll be painting a middle-aged man wearing a white T-shirt. I love the strong contrast on his face, illuminated by the sunlight, the cast shadows on his clothing, and the thoughtful expression. Get your paint and brushes, and paint along with me!

LEARN MORE

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 Sketch Realistic Clothing Wrinkles

With the right techniques, you can create realistic clothing wrinkles.

In this free video tutorial, I’ll show you how to sketch realistic clothing wrinkles, continue reading to learn more.

LEARN MORE

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!

AMAZING Way to SHIP a Painting

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

I’ll show you my amazing way to ship a painting that will definitely save time and money.

Ditch the cardboard and bubble wrap! Let me show you how to ship your painting in a way that will not only save you time and money, but will actually protect it better than the usual packaging.

DISCLAIMER: This method works only for unframed paintings 24″ x 30″ and smaller. Use at your own risk. I cannot be held responsible for damage to your artwork while shipping. I have personally used this method for over five years, and it works great.

LEARN MORE

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!

Painting Dark Shadows on Acrylic Grisaille

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

Let me show you how I do it in this real-time video tutorial. You can do this in your acrylic paintings too!

In Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro tenebrism technique, it’s vital to paint the dark values over your grisaille to build up the drama in the image. I finished painting titanium white over the raw umber dark ground and now it’s time to block in the darker values using ultramarine blue, raw umber dark, alizarine crimson, and burnt sienna.

Watch my free video tutorial to learn more on painting dark shadows on acrylic grisaille.

LEARN MORE

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 Paint Hands in Your Acrylic Portrait

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

Hands are challenging to paint in any medium. In acrylic, because it is difficult to blend, that can be even more so!

In this brief video tutorial (taken from my in-progress footage of a commissioned portrait) let me show you how to do it. We’ll use the acrylic glazing technique, adding layer upon layer, to make it as easy as possible.

Watch my free tutorial to learn more about how to paint hands in your acrylic portrait.

LEARN MORE

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!

Painting a Grisaille in Acrylic—Using Titanium White Highlights over Dark Brown

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

I finished up the dark brown glazes over my portrait of Paul the Apostle praying using raw umber dark, trying to emulate a Caravaggio (tenebrism chiaroscuro) approach to the painting.

Now it’s time to add the titanium white highlights to build up something like a grisaille.

I don’t think I’ve ever done anything quite like this before, so it will be fun to see what happens! Watch the video, enjoy the journey, and I hope that this will spark some ideas for you in your acrylic painting. And also to try new things!

We’re continuing on painting a grisaille with titanium white highlights on top of my portrait of Paul the Apostle praying. My goal is to use a similar (though not identical) approach to what Caravaggio does in his tenebrism chiaroscuro works.

In the last video, I did a raw umber dark glaze over the entire painting to give it a ground or a tone to work out of. In this video. I’ll show you how to add white highlights to the clothing—we’ll do a lot of work on folds and creases—and then the hands. Naturally, the hands are important, because they convey the emotion, the intensity of his prayer. So we want to make sure we give them the proper attention.

Watch my tutorial to learn more about painting a grisaille highlights in acrylic.

LEARN MORE

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!

Painting a Caravaggio-Style Tenebrism Glaze in Acrylic

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

Add a lighter values on top of the dark instead of carving around them.

Did I ruin it? Painting a Caravaggio-Style Tenebrism Glaze in Acrylic.

I was working on my acrylic portrait of Paul the Apostle praying in my usual way and then… I decided to add a Caravaggio-style tenebrism glaze on top. Why? Well, I already had blocked in the major distinctions in value, but I wanted it to have more depth, and thought maybe a different approach than what I usually do would be fun. Since the image overall is quite dark, I think this approach will work best.

Rather than carving around the lighter values, I can build them up on top of the dark. And this is the way Caravaggio did his dramatic chiaroscuro masterpieces. Why not follow in his footsteps? But who knows how it will turn out? (God does, but I sure don’t.) So, let me know…do you think I ruined it? 🙂

Painting a Caravaggio-Style Tenebrism Glaze in Acrylic

LEARN MORE

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 Paint Dark Wavy Hair in Your Acrylic Portrait

/ Uncategorized
/ By Matt Philleo

I will show you the secrets of making dark hair look realistic, especially when it’s curled or wavy.

Mixing the right tint and the right value is key. Then, observing the shape of the distinction in value from your reference photo and rendering that form onto the canvas is the next step.

Let me show you how to do it in this video tutorial!

LEARN MORE

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!

Category Archives for Uncategorized

Contrast is so important in a painting.

What can you do for a portrait painting in 30 minutes?

Back to doing another 30-minute acrylic portrait, where I paint an Alla Prima portrait in about half an hour.

This can be a quick portrait study, or become an underpainting for a more refined portrait. I encourage you to try one! You can use this an example if you’d like.

With the right techniques, you can create realistic clothing wrinkles.

I’ll show you my amazing way to ship a painting that will definitely save time and money.

Let me show you how I do it in this real-time video tutorial. You can do this in your acrylic paintings too!

Hands are challenging to paint in any medium. In acrylic, because it is difficult to blend, that can be even more so!

I finished up the dark brown glazes over my portrait of Paul the Apostle praying using raw umber dark, trying to emulate a Caravaggio (tenebrism chiaroscuro) approach to the painting.

Add a lighter values on top of the dark instead of carving around them.

Painting a Caravaggio-Style Tenebrism Glaze in Acrylic

I will show you the secrets of making dark hair look realistic, especially when it’s curled or wavy.