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.