Portraits: Acrylic Painting Process

Draw a loose outline contour of your portrait.

Begin Flesh tones Under-painting with a light wash of paint

Step 1: The Beginning

Step 2: Under-Painting

Continue the Under-painting:

Light wash of color for the background, hair, and shirt

Flesh Tone Paint: white, burnt sienna, cadmium red medium

Step 3: Middle Values • Begin painting in middle values of the flesh tones.

• Start creating dimension around the nose, eyes, neck, and hands

• Work wet into wet with multiple tints and shades of the flesh tone

Step 4: More Middle Value Layers • Continue middle values for the background and shirt

• Add another layer of burnt sienna for the foundation of the hair

• Add darker shades for the flesh tones

• Add the Iris and pupils for the eyes

Step 5: Facial Features/ Details • Added fine lines for eyelashes

• Painted lips with tints and shades of pink and flesh tones for highlights

• Darker shading on all facial features and neck (shades of flesh tones with burnt umber)

Step 6: Shadows, Highlights, and color

• Added more contrast and dimension with darker layers of flesh tones (added burnt umber to burnt sienna)

• Begin adding highlights with tints of flesh tone

• Begin adding transparent layers of pink and yellow (raw sienna) to highlight cheeks, eyelids, nose and neck

Step 7: Background

Added wet into wet blends of ultramarine blue, pthalo blue, white, and green

Step 8: Background Cont. • Completed Background before the hair.

• It’s best to overlap background on the hair.

• Will add the hair next and there will be no hard white spaces around it

Step 9: Clothing Completed the shirt:

• Layered on value blends of green and tints of green

• Worked wet into wet to blend into the background. (The background was still wet when I layered in the wet into wet shirt)

Step 10: Hair

Layer on a darker layer of Burnt Sienna with burnt umber wet into wet.

(This makes 3 layers!)

Step 11: Texture and Hair • Using pure values and tints of burnt sienna, raw sienna, and white and using an Edge brush, I paint on “strands” of hair.

• Depending on the light source, add lighter shades of raw sienna for areas of light and “shine”

Step 11: Study of the Hair • The shades of burnt sienna and burnt umber by the ear and neck create depth

• The tints of raw sienna and burnt sienna bring the top hair strands forward adding more contrast and depth

• The long, thin overlapping paint strokes create movement and texture

Step 12: Finishing Touches • Added final highlights on the face, neck, and hands

• Painted in light shade of burnt sienna for the eyebrows