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!
Category Archives for Written Tutorial
4 Questions About Acrylic Portrait Painting, Answered
Recently, I was asked some questions about acrylic portrait painting. I hope the answers I shared with this artist can be of help to you as well.
1. How do you prepare your canvas panel for painting with Acrylics?
If I am using a hardboard panel, I will gesso it with 4-5 layers. It takes that many to really get a good surface. I lightly sand in between coats with a 150 or finer grit sandpaper.
Sanding a canvas panel in preparation for painting an acrylic portrait
On the last couple of layers, I mix the gesso with matte medium to make it go on smoother. If I am using a store bought canvas covered panel, I will add 1 or 2 layers of gesso and matte medium to smooth out the grooves in the canvas, sanding in between. This allows me to get a smooth surface for portrait painting.
2. You spoke of layering your paint when composing a portrait. Please briefly explain.
I use the glazing technique to slowly bring the portrait from a white canvas to completion. The glazing technique is achieved by mixing your paint with clear acrylic medium (usually matte medium) to disperse the pigment, thus allowing light to pass through.
Although you could use water, it’s not recommended, because it breaks down the acrylic resin binder, causing a rough visual texture and possible poor adhesion. For a smoother look, you want to use clear acrylic medium.
Custom commissioned realistic acrylic portrait from a photo painted by Eau Claire area artist Matt Philleo, ©2019 Fine Art by Matt Philleo
Why do I paint with layers with the glazing technique?
Here’s why: by creating semi-transparent or translucent layers, the light passes through them, reflecting off the white primer beneath, and then back to your eye. It gives the painting a radiance, a glow. It also causes the deeper colors to be more saturated, more vivid.
Finally, it allows me to create smooth gradients. We all know that acrylic, because it dries so quickly, is difficult to blend. The glazing technique overcomes that limitation by using the strategic placement of layers and dilution of pigment with medium to create the transition from one value or color to another, rather than by relying on blending only while the paint is wet.
3. You mentioned using a Prismacolor pencil for making your diagram. What color do you recommend?
I recommend using burnt ochre or sienna brown for most portraits because it matches easily with the skin tone. For people with a very pink skin tone, terra cotta could also be used. Those with a dark complexion might require using dark brown. If you prepare the canvas as I demonstrate in my teaching videos, you will find colored pencil very easy to erase, and it doesn’t smear much either. That, coupled with being able to match the skin tones right away, makes it the perfect pencil to sketch with.
Using colored pencil for your acrylic portrait sketch makes things a lot easier. Technique discovered and developed by Matt Philleo.
4. Do you do the painting from start to finish in one setting?
Acrylic portrait artist Matt Philleo posing in front of a 48″ x 72″ commission painting for a client in Brunei
Rarely. Only if I’m doing a study (like my 30-minute acrylic portrait.) Usually it takes me 5-10 hours for a 8″ x 10″, 15-30 for a 16″ x 20, and 40+ for a 24″ x 30″ or larger.
I hope these questions and answers were helpful to you as well. I know some of this stuff seems pretty basic, but it’s good for all of us to pause and think about why we do what we do. It then makes the doing that much more significant.
Let me know if you have any questions of your own about acrylic portrait painting and I’ll do my best to help!
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 Charge Your Finished Portrait Painting?
One question I’m asked again and again is, “How much should I charge for a portrait?”
I was asked this question twice in the last two days, so I figure it would be good to answer this in an article.
As a professional portrait painter, I know that what I charge for my portraits affects my bottom line. If I don’t charge enough, I don’t make enough money to keep painting. If I charge too much, I might price myself out of the market.
You may be asking the same thing? What should you do?
There are many factors in pricing.
It depends how long you have been in business, the level of quality of your work, and how much detail will be in your portrait. I charge by the square inch. I have a pricing formula that I came up with where the price increases exponentially as you increase the size of the painting and add more detail (subjects)
Here is what I charge (as of 2019). I can’t say that it will work for you. (Please, DO NOT copy my prices. I am showing it just as an example. )
A 16 x 20 with one person—I charge $850 for that. If there are 5 or more subjects (people, objects, detailed backgrounds, etc. ) in the portrait I charge $2,100. The reason I charge more is that it will take longer to paint all the extra detail.
But I have been painting for many years and my prices were less than half this amount when I started out painting portraits full-time, in 2014. Here is my price chart for that year.
You can see my prices have almost doubled since 2014. And amazingly, at that time, I was struggling to get even one commission! I remember praying every day for a month for a commission, after doing all I knew to do to bring in some work. God did provide one eventually, but I need to learn to trust in Him and be patient. That’s a story for another day. 🙂
The point I’m trying to make is that charging less for your work does not equate to more sales. When I first started I thought I was going well to make minimum wage. That was foolish, because we aren’t painting 100% of the time and we have materials and marketing costs. My wife encouraged me to raise my prices. I was scared to, but it didn’t hurt my business at all. I have been raising them slowly, about 10-20% every year.
So, then, should you charge more at the onset and just watch the sales roll in?
No. It doesn’t work that way either. Charge a fair price for your work, be patient, keep doing portraits, don’t give up when it’s tough, and you will see the results. Raise your prices over time as you build up your clientele.
I try to get paid $50 an hour on my portraits. ( I don’t charge by the hour. This is what I average on my projects.)
Figure out what you’d like to get paid per hour. Then charge approximately 50% more because, as I mentioned earlier, you won’t be painting all the time (you’ve got other business-y things to do) and you have paint and brushes to buy.
Here are some more helpful tips in pricing your art.
1. First of all, create a price chart as I did. This is HUGE. Going to a client meeting to discuss a portrait without a price chart in hand is like going to a smorgasbord buffet line without a plate in hand. It’s going to be messy.
With a price chart all you need to do is ask your client what size they would like–roughly–and then show them a couple of options. You should know how many people will be in the portrait. You simply show them the chart and say, “an 16 x 20 with two subjects will be this much, and a 24 x 30 will be this.” You point to the prices and let the chart do the work.
Let them decide what they want.
There are no negotiations on the price. Because the client sees you have a precise criterion for what you charge—it makes sense—they will not quibble with your price. I can’t recall a time that’s ever happened to me.
Interestingly, I do remember a time when I negotiated my own price down. I offered my client a price that was lower than what I originally quoted. She took the lower price but looked at me strangely and the whole situation was awkward. And I needlessly lost money on the job. Ouch.
Don’t do what I did in that situation.
Quote your price and hold to it. Let them respond.
2. Then, once you have the client locked in on a price, encourage them to pay a down deposit on the spot. If you just give them a business card and let them walk away, chances are, you’ll lose the commission. Of course, if they need to discuss it with another decision maker, that’s fine. But get their phone number or email address so you can follow up with them.
Most of the time, however, they’ll be ready to make a decision if they indeed want a portrait, and not just merely curious.
You can tell them you need the deposit so that you’ll have them booked. That way you can get to their portrait faster.
A deposit is also very important because, with it, the client has “skin in the game.” They’re not as likely to back out of the project.
How much should you ask for a deposit? I ask for 25% up front. Some do 50. But I like 25, because it’s a little less risk for the client to take on, and it also gives me more incentive to finish the project. I get paid a larger amount at the end.
3. Never charge people more because you think they are rich, or less because you think they are poor. Just charge what you charge. Have a size for any budget. The price chart is your best friend. Then you can always point people to your price list and let it do the selling for you.
4. Don’t compete on price. It may be helpful to see what other artists are charging to gauge what you might be able to charge, but don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to beat other artists’ prices. You’re not Walmart. You’re an artist. People will purchase art from you, because they know, like and trust you. They appreciate your unique style, your experience, personality, your connection to them, and that’s a big part of why they will buy from you. So as long as they can technically afford your prices, they will pay them, even if Joe Artist down the street has prices 50% less than you.
5. Never deliver your painting without payment in hand. If you meet with the client personally to deliver the painting, let them know beforehand that you would like to exchange payment for the finished product on the spot. If you are shipping the painting, show them a proof image of the portrait. Once they approve it, ask for the balance to paid in full (along with shipping charges.) When they make payment, then promptly ship the artwork.
That’s it! Of course, there’s more nuances than this to pricing your work, but this article should give you some good information on how to do it, if you’re just starting out in acrylic portrait painting.
Let me know how this helps.
If you are an artist who does commissioned portraits, do you have any tips to share on how YOU price your work? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. 🙂
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 Your Painting
Protect and enhance your artwork: A step-by-step guide to varnishing your painting for a lasting finish.
It was a large portrait on hardboard, about 48″ tall. Having just done some mural work with a well known muralist, I attempted to copy his method of using a household paint roller and a clear coat.
It was a disaster.
The medium looked so milky white while it was drying, that I started to panic like Rowan Atkinson did in the movie “Bean” when he sneezed on Whistler’s Mother. I tried to clean off the half dried medium with a damp towel. To my dismay, the medium started globbing up and totally distorted the fine detail work on the surface. Some areas had no varnish. Other areas were covered with a streaky, bumpy film. My painting was a hideous mess.
I said I would never varnish a painting again.
Except that I did.
I knew I needed to learn how to do it correctly in order to protect my paintings from dust and debris, saturate the colors and dark values more, and give it a uniform finish.
What I’m going to teach you is the process I learned basically from trial and error over the years.
I’m not scared to varnish any more. But I like to say a quick prayer before I put brush to canvas, because if you don’t varnish correctly, you can mess up a good painting very quickly!
Here’s a video that will show you the correct way to do it…
Here are the steps, simplified.
- Use acrylic matte varnish. Not matte medium. (unless you want a flat finish) Matte varnish dries to a satin sheen and looks fantastic. If you want a little more saturation on your dark values and colors, you can add some gloss medium to your matte varnish and mix them together very thoroughly.
- Put your painting on a flat table, or slightly angled. Don’t varnish the painting on a vertical easel or you could get drips and it will look terrible.
- Use a 1″ or larger flat brush that’s in good condition. Put your varnish in a cup or container than is wide enough to accommodate the brush.
- Dip the brush into the varnish and apply from top down, left to right, overlapping slightly. Do not overbrush!
- Continue the process all the way down and when you’re done, leave it alone for a couple hours. It should dry completely clear.
That’s all there is to it!
What do you think? What are YOUR experiences with varnishing? Do you have any stories–or tips–to share? Do you avoid varnishing completely?
Let me know how this tutorial helps.
All the best,
- How to Paint Foliage Using the Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Trace for an Accurate Portrait Sketch
- How to Paint Realistic Eyes in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Add Raw Umber Dark & Ultramarine Blue to Your Portrait
- How to Make Your Own Raw Umber Dark
- How to Paint Realistic Trees & Grass in Your Acrylic
- How to Block In Skin Tone Values Using Glazing Technique
- How to Paint Vibrant Reds in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Glaze Background Colors & More Acrylic Portrait
- How to Paint White Clothing in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Easily Transition from a Sketch to a Painting
- How to Block In Shading & Skin Tones in Your Acrylic
- How to Build Up Color on Acrylic Pet Portrait
- How to Build Up Form on Clothing with Acrylic
- How to Paint Dark Clothing Using Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Paint a 24 x 30 Acrylic With 30 People
- How to Do Smooth Shading with Acrylic
- How to Sketch an Acrylic Portrait with a Grid
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
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!
What if You Lose the Likeness From Your Sketch?
You have some time to paint over the weekend. You set up your reference photo, knock out a nice looking sketch, and then excitedly start to paint…
But something happens.
After a few layers, things start to unravel. Suddenly, it just doesn’t look like the person you’re trying to do a portrait of anymore. You paint some more in an attempt to restore what you lost in the sketch, and now you’ve only made it worse!
Frustration sets in.
Can I fix this painting? Or do I have to start over? How much time did I spend on this already?
I had exactly this question asked of me by a student…
I can get a good likeness with the sketch but I seem to lose lots of the likeness after a few layers of paint. What do you think happens? –Ron
My answer back to him will be the basis for this article today. I think it will benefit you as well, if you have lost your likeness after sketching. I know I have!
Here’s some tips to prevent the likeness in your sketch from being lost in your painting and also, how to get it back on track if you do.
1. Seal in Your Sketch
I know this sounds simple, but if you just start painting over pencil the thick paint on your brush will lift off some of the pigment on your canvas and it will smear. The end result is a muddy mix of paint and pigment and lost detail.
First of all, use colored pencil instead of graphite pencil to do your sketch. Burnt ochre or a similar color works best. Then carefully seal in the sketch with a wide synthetic bristle brush and matte medium.
Once it’s dry you will have a barrier between your sketch and your paint.
2. Paint Lightly at First
When you start your actual painting process, I recommend to use thin glazes of paint (tiny bits of paint mixed with generous portions of matte medium) and gently block in the color and value. You want to just barely see the change between the white canvas and the color you’re putting down at first.
Then, as you add more layers and depth, you can get aggressive with your paint. (At least compared to how you start out!) In the beginning, you’ll use a ratio of 90% medium to 10% paint and then later, closer to 50-50.
By going light, you will preserve the detail of your sketch beneath. Only toward the middle to the end of the painting process will the sketch get completely covered up.
3. Convert Pencil Lines to Paint
Paint over the details of your sketch intermittently with round brushes as you paint the large areas with your flat brush. It will be a constant push-and pull between blocking in large areas of value and color, and fussy detail work. Toward the end of the painting you will be favoring more of the detail aspect of your painting.
As you darken in some of these pencil lines, you’ll ensure you don’t lose that valuable detail that you laid out in the sketching stage while applying large layers.
If you’d like to learn more, sign up to receive my portrait painting tips via email. I’ll send you video lessons to show you how to paint a realistic portrait in acrylic step-by-step!
Get My Latest Acrylic Portrait Painting Tips!
4. Emphasize Value Over Line
Remember that it is shading and value–those differences between light and dark with all the subtle variations–that describe a three dimensional illusion on a two-dimensional surface.
Lines can’t do that.
Only shading can.
The lines in our sketch are there to tell us where to put the shading in during the painting process. And if you do some shading during the sketching process, even better. Then you’ll be able to just enhance those areas with paint.
It is the shading (the use of value) that tells us how large someone’s chin is, or the roundness of their nose, or fullness of their cheek, or boniness of their forehead.
So, my point is this: do some shading on your sketch, and that will help your painting process along.
5. You Will Lose the Likeness to Some Degree
That’s normal. Happens to me all the time when I paint. Knowing this ahead of time will clear your mind of unrealistic expectations so that your frustration level can go down…and you can paint to the best of your ability.
The reason that the likeness inevitably does get lost is that as you’re adding these various values in different places, there will be some spots on your painting that are just less finished than others. You may have painted the eyes about as dark as they are in the reference photo, but the eyebrows haven’t “caught up” yet.
Or maybe you added some deep shadows under the chin, but you haven’t quite dialed in the shading for the cheeks. If the person’s chubby cheeks are a main part of their features, then missing this aspect can really throw off the likeness.
And this can go for parts all over the face.
I am working on a painting right now of three children as I write this blog post, and the likenesses aren’t quite there yet. In fact, they look “off” to me. But I know that if I stick with it, it will work out. I prayed that God would help me to do it well, and I believe He will.
However, as in all of life, there’s a struggle we have to go through to get to the other side. You can’t have the mountains without the valleys. So, I’ll stick with this, keep looking at my reference photo, keep praying and putting paint on the canvas.
And the end result, by God’s grace, will be a fantastic painting that the client will love.
So for you, this means that as you bring all the unfinished areas of your portrait to completion, eventually, the likeness will not only get restored to how it was during your sketch, but it will be even better.
6. Get Critiques of Your Work
When you’ve tried the other tips and you feel like your painting is way off track you may want to consider getting a critique. If you have an artist group where you meet in person, that may be a good way to go. I have a Facebook group as well if you need some quick feedback. If you haven’t already, I invite you to join the group. The folks there are very helpful.
Also, I do personal, one-to-one video critiques that you will show you precisely what you need to do to fix problem areas of your painting. Learn more here.
7. Start Over…If You Must
I don’t recommend starting over a painting, except as a last resort. I think it’s much better to stick with a painting and resolve problem areas to build confidence in your skills as an artist and to save time and money.
But if you find yourself sinking way too much time into the painting, reworking the same area over and over, and the texture is built up so much that you want to sand it off, it may be time to start over.
If the painting is in the beginning stages, and the composition or likeness was wrong from the start, then re-doing it may be the best choice. It may take less time to just start over than try to rectify your mistakes. You’ll have to look at your painting and ask yourself “how far off is it?” Sometimes we get hard on ourselves as artists (we’re perfectionists by nature) and it might be just a tiny thing that can make all the difference.
I had a painting like that. It just didn’t look like the guy. Then I added a reflection on his eye that took all of one minute to paint–and that did it. It was him!
So, get a second opinion with a good critique, and then you’ll know if it’s worth it to start over. The person critiquing your may be able to give you an idea of how far off the rails you are. You may be closer that you think!
And there you have it: 7 tips to help you how to not lose your likeness, or if you do, how to get it back. Let me know how this helps!
Blessings to you and 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! Also, do you have a question on acrylic portrait painting you’d like answered? Let me know, and I’d be happy to help!
5 Steps How to Sketch an Acrylic Portrait Freehand
Using a grid or tracing can be a great way for artists just starting out in portrait painting to create a lifelike, accurate sketch. It also can help experienced painters either save time or get their proportions a bit more accurate so they can concentrate more on their painting process.
But sometimes, it’s fun to just “throw off the training wheels” and do your sketch freehand. In fact, drawing freehand will enhance your ability to see intricate spacial relationships, shapes and contours that are vital at any stage in your painting.
You’ll learn to capture those small nuances that will make a person look like them.
What is the best way to draw freehand?
I’m not going to say I have the best method, but it has served me well in over 20 years of doing portrait art. I’d like to share that with you today, using this 8″ x 10″ commissioned portrait as an example…
Tools needed:
Canvas
Burnt Ochre Prismacolor colored pencil
Electric pencil sharpener
White smooth eraser
Here is the 15-minute video tutorial. The drawing took almost an hour.
The rest of this tutorial–showing the entire process, from sketch to finished acrylic portrait painting (about 7 hours of video instruction)–will soon be available as an online class. You can get access to it, and several other pre-recorded painting courses by becoming a member of Realistic Acrylic Portrait School.
And now, here are the steps, based on my video, broken down…
Step 1: Locking in the Composition
In this step, you want to plot out where your drawing is going. Here’s a few rules of thumb for a good composition and accurate initial proportions…
-Fill the image area as much as possible
-If you were to draw an imaginary line 1/3 of the way down from the top of the canvas edge, that line should go right through the middle of the face.
-Don’t let any major lines touch the edge of the “picture plane” (edges of the canvas)
-Look for the overall shape of the head: Is it oval? Long? Short and wide?
-Use light, short, choppy strokes to capture everything at first. It will be much easier to adjust and erase.
Step 2: Suggesting the Facial Features
After plotting out your composition, you want to start filling in the facial features. It’s good to draw lightly at first. We just want to get the basic location on the face and the overall impression of what they look like.
Start with the eyes. The eyes (and eyebrows) are THE most important feature to capture correctly on a face.
Ask yourself…
-Where are they located in relationship to the top and bottom of the head? Usually eyes are right in the middle, but that can vary from person to person.
-Are they large or small?
-Are they close together or far apart? Usually eyes are about one-eye-width apart from each other.
-Are the eyebrows straight or curved? Angled up or down? Thin or thick?
-How much of a distance is there between the eyebrows and eyes?
-What’s the shape of the eyes? Narrow? Rounded? Angled?
-How much of the top eyelid is showing? Some people have prominent upper eyelids. With others you can hardly see it.
-Are the eyelashes thick or thin?
Now, these questions will come more into play later on as you refine the sketch, but for now at this stage, just get the general idea captured.
Next, you’ll move down to the nose. It’s important to see the distance between the eyes and the nose and draw that. The shape between the nose and eyes forms a triangle. If you can get a sense for that shape, it will really help you out. Is the triangle wide or long?
I am not saying to draw a triangle on your sketch. Just use the concept to see that spacial relationship between the eyes and the nose and draw it accurately.
Notice the particular shape of the nose and nostrils and draw it in. Are the nostrils prominent or obscured? Is the nose wide or skinny?
Then, move down to the mouth. You’ll want to just get the overall shape. Here’s some rules of thumb for drawing the mouth…
-The top lip is usually thinner than the bottom lip
-When smiling, the edges of the mouth usually line up with the middle of the eyes
-Don’t draw the teeth in too prominently. Just suggest them. Remember that the two front teeth are larger than the rest. -The bottom teeth, if showing, are slightly more than 1/2 the width of the top.
Step 3: Redefining the Facial Features
In this step, you will want to go over everything–the eyes, nose, and mouth: making sure your shapes are accurate. The overall size and proportions should be mostly locked in by this point. So what you’ll want to do is make sure the shapes on all the features match what you see in your reference photo.
Continue to ask yourself some of the questions in the previous step as you refine. And look at your reference photo 50% of the time to make sure you’re drawing what you see, instead of what you think you see!
Step 4: Shading in
Maybe it seems redundant to shade in during a sketch, but I find it very helpful. We don’t see any resting objects in this three dimensional world as separated by line.
No.
It’s the contrast between value and color that tells us where an object begins or ends.
So, line is great for plotting composition and initial shape of features, but it is not useful for actually conveying a three-dimensional form on a two dimensional surface.
Which is why I like to shade in my sketches.
Shading will tell you how puffy a cheek is for example. Or how much a nose protrudes outward. Or how small a chin may be. And if you can capture that in the sketch stage (without too much fuss) it will really help you in the painting stage.
The heavy lifting will be done for you. All you’ll have to do in the painting stage is darken those shadows and add more nuances to tie them together. And of course, add color information!
I use the side of my pencil to block in the shadows in large areas. For smaller areas, I’ll use the tip of the pencil.
Step 5: Final Touches
The portrait sketch should be looking almost done at this point. Basically, you just want to go over everything, and make sure all minute proportions and shapes are accurate. The BIG proportions should be dialed in by now.
This step should take just a few minutes.
Keep in mind, you won’t get the sketch perfect. There may be a few areas that are getting hard to erase because you’ve drawn over the area so many times.
That’s OK.
Many small mistakes can be corrected in the painting stage. As long as you have everything close, you’ll be fine.
Once the drawing is done, you can step back and look at it from a distance just to make sure you have the likeness captured close enough. If so, you will have a good foundation to begin your portrait.
LEARN MORE
- How to Paint Foliage Using the Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Trace for an Accurate Portrait Sketch
- How to Paint Realistic Eyes in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Add Raw Umber Dark & Ultramarine Blue to Your Portrait
- How to Make Your Own Raw Umber Dark
- How to Paint Realistic Trees & Grass in Your Acrylic
- How to Block In Skin Tone Values Using Glazing Technique
- How to Paint Vibrant Reds in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Glaze Background Colors & More Acrylic Portrait
- How to Paint White Clothing in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Easily Transition from a Sketch to a Painting
- How to Block In Shading & Skin Tones in Your Acrylic
- How to Build Up Color on Acrylic Pet Portrait
- How to Build Up Form on Clothing with Acrylic
- How to Paint Dark Clothing Using Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Paint a 24 x 30 Acrylic With 30 People
- How to Do Smooth Shading with Acrylic
- How to Sketch an Acrylic Portrait with a Grid
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
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!
5 Steps on How to Paint Wrinkles in Acrylic
There’s nothing quite as difficult as painting wrinkles. There’s so many details and shapes to get right, and how do you shade them in? That’s what I want to answer in today’s post.
Learning how to paint wrinkles is a crucial skill for adding realism and depth to your acrylic portraits. Capturing the fine lines and textures of wrinkles can make a painting truly lifelike, conveying the story and character of your subject. With techniques like layering, shading, and glazing. This topic of wrinkles has come up a few times since I started teaching portrait painting two years ago, and most recently when a student asked me how to do it. I shared briefly the steps how in my previous article, “7 Questions About Portrait Painting, Answered.”
Now I want to dive a little deeper.
For an example, I’m going to use one of my favorite paintings–a portrait I did for my pastor, Philip Palser, of Bethel Church in Eau Claire, Wis., to commemorate his 80th birthday. As I write, he is turning 93 this month!
Portrait of Pastor & Mrs. Philip Palser of Bethel Church, Eau Claire, Wis., 16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas, by artist Matt Philleo to commemorate Pastor’s 80th birthday.
He actually doesn’t have to many more wrinkles than what he had 13 years ago. But they may have deepened a bit with age, signifying his experience. 🙂 Both he and his wife are in amazing health for their age.
Now back to the topic of painting wrinkles…
I’m going to show you just the portion of when they are older–mostly concentrating just on my pastor’s face, because his wrinkles are more apparent.
Step 1: the Sketch
I started with a sketch outlining the major details–such as the the creases around the mouth and the major wrinkles in the forehead.
Step 2: Blocking in the Values
Next, I filled in the major values, without a lot of fuss. It is important to accurately define the shapes of the predominant shadows, and put them in their place. They need to stay within their pre-defined boundaries, which ideally would be outlined in the sketch. Now, of course strong lighting–in this case, from the sun–makes this a lot easier.
You may not always have control over this in your portraits, especially if you’re doing a commissioned portrait painting from a photo. But if you can, choose a photo that has strong lighting with a lot of contrast. It really helps model the face, emphasizing its three dimensional form.
Step 3: Strengthening the Shadows
In this step, I am taking what I did in the previous step and darkening everything. I use burnt sienna and raw umber dark to strengthen the contrast. The vertical wrinkles especially in the man’s forehead and the horizontal crows-feet wrinkles by his eyes are more apparent now. But they are still pretty basic. I did paint in just a slight gradation on the wrinkles that run from the nose to the mouth. But it’s still pretty simple.
To explain, I broke down the shadows into three categories: the main shadow value, the secondary shadow value, and then the transitional value. These are terms I’ve made up just to differentiate between everything. If you keep things simple to begin with and build on a firm foundation, you will find it a lot easier to achieve the realism you’re shooting for.
It makes me think of a verse where Jesus says, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.” (Matthew 7:24)
If you can teach yourself to see these abstract shapes within your reference photo, and then replicate them on your canvas, you will experience amazing growth in your skills as a portrait painter.
After getting these values locked in, the trick is to bridge them together with some shading and gradation. Notice the highlighted part of his face is flat.
That is OK.
Later, I’ll paint more depth in that area, but for now, it’s not necessary.
Would you like to learn more about how to paint wrinkles? If so, let me know by clicking the button below, and I’ll create a video tutorial/ course for you!
Step 4: Bridging the Gaps
Although I try to give these stages precise beginnings and endings, I don’t want you to think that I am only “bridging the gaps”–transitioning between values only in this stage. But it is at this time, that I’m concentrating on that the most. You can see I added more detail to the transitional value on his forehead.
And then, in the image below, you can see how I added more of the secondary value (the same value that’s within the wrinkles on the shadow side) to the vertical wrinkles between his eyebrow ridge and the crease alongside his mouth. Now what that does is add another layer of depth to the wrinkles.
And now also, the underside of the wrinkles look like they’re catching some light from the highlighted part of the face. And that increases the realism.
Step 5: Smoothing out and Finishing With Detail
In this step, I take what I built in the previous foundation, and embellish it. When you have a good foundation and you bring it far enough along, the structure of the wrinkles can just about stand up on their own. But by adding some more shading, we can really make it look nice–like putting on the trim. 🙂
What I did here was add highlights on top of the main highlighted area. This give us one more layer of depth to the face. I put the detail in for the horizontal wrinkles in the forehead as well as some highlights that heightened the creases running alongside the mouth. Some of the thin areas of the forehead wrinkles that you would think would be painted with small round brush were actually created by painting the lighter value and “closing them in.”
However, I would use a small brush to refine them if necessary.
Here is a detail image of the final painting…
How to Paint Wrinkles in an Acrylic Portrait, with step-by-step tutorial, based off 16″ x 20″ acrylic on canvas portrait by Matt Philleo, final
That’s it for now. Hope you found this tutorial helpful. Let me know if you’re interested in learning more on how to paint realistic wrinkles in acrylic. As I write this, I’m considering doing an online course on the topic. But I need to hear from you first, to see if it’s something you would find interesting and benefit from. Let me know!
Have a blessed day, enjoy painting, enjoy life,
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!
7 Steps on How to Paint a Montage Acrylic Portrait
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!
Here are a couple detail shots…
LEARN MORE
- How to Paint Foliage Using the Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Trace for an Accurate Portrait Sketch
- How to Paint Realistic Eyes in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Add Raw Umber Dark & Ultramarine Blue to Your Portrait
- How to Make Your Own Raw Umber Dark
- How to Paint Realistic Trees & Grass in Your Acrylic
- How to Block In Skin Tone Values Using Glazing Technique
- How to Paint Vibrant Reds in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Glaze Background Colors & More Acrylic Portrait
- How to Paint White Clothing in Your Acrylic Portrait
- How to Easily Transition from a Sketch to a Painting
- How to Block In Shading & Skin Tones in Your Acrylic
- How to Build Up Color on Acrylic Pet Portrait
- How to Build Up Form on Clothing with Acrylic
- How to Paint Dark Clothing Using Acrylic Glazing Technique
- How to Paint a 24 x 30 Acrylic With 30 People
- How to Do Smooth Shading with Acrylic
- How to Sketch an Acrylic Portrait with a Grid
Read more about how to paint a portrait that you can surely be proud of!
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!
How to Get a Smooth Look in Your Acrylic Glazes
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!
Monochromatic Acrylic Portrait of a Family in the Cities
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!
How to Paint Realistic Couple From Sketch to Finish
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.
Would you like to learn how to do this technique? Get my free video lessons below…
Learn How to Paint Acrylic Portraits With My Free Mini-Video Course!
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,