Friday, February 2, 2018

Day 2 - Portrait #1

Untitled, Acrylic on Canvas, 10"x8", NFS

Thirty Paintings in Thirty Days - Day Two

This is the first portrait I've done since last January's 30 Day Challenge. I made a point of staying loose and unfinished in this painting. I want to really push the expressiveness of the paint to capture the essence of the person. Because of that I will likely lose some amount of likeness until I get more practice but I think it will be worth it. I really like the feel of this portrait, so I decided to stop before I lost that.

I really like the technique I used last year so I am using it again. I started by painting an abstract background. Next, I painted in the lightest and darkest areas with white and black, starting with the eyes. Then I went in with color to build the features. I don't do any drawing at all - I depend on a system of shapes and values to create the features and bring the face to life.

This is the first step after the background has been painted. I marked in the lights and darks with black and white.

In the next step, I start adding color. As you can see, some of the features need to be shifted a bit and re-sized. That gets done as I add more paint, refining the features and correcting any problems. This is an iterative process - I keep messing with it until I am happy with the results or I've messed it up beyond repair.



2 comments:

Chris Lally said...

Love the method, Anna, and especially love the result!! Great portrait.

laurelle said...

Thank you, Anna, for sharing your process. Love your use of color and the expressive brushwork!