Lately I start all of my paintings the same way: a light sketch/line drawing in pencil, then a wash to tint the canvas. In this case, I’m covering only the figure loosely since I don’t have my mind made up as to how I want the background. This [at left] is a mix of cad red and burnt umber I believe, cut with lots of Gamsol . I’ve experimented with a bunch of warm/dark color combinations for this initial wash, but it hasn’t made much difference. anything darkish reddish brownish seems to work fine for me. I find tinting the canvas rarely affects the way the final painting looks (or if it does, it’s really subtle), but painting onto an already warm tone is much easier for me than onto stark white. the reason being; that anything rendered next to unpainted canvas tends to look a little cartoony, a little too illustrative, which makes attempts at finding the right values much harder.
So that’s the tint. once I’ve picked the cat hair out of it and let it dry, I’m ready to start in on the figure.
Probably one of the most important things I’ve learned painting faces, is that things are going to look horrible until the face is almost done. the hard part is having the confidence that I’m on the right track, and not messing things up before I can actually tell what’s what. I have a much easier time with it these days, but I thought I’d bring it up anyway (plus it serves as a nice caveat for these first few process shots).
here [above] I’m starting with mids, trying to keep loose and using a big daVinci #16 flat brush i’ve become quite fond of*. (the colors are off a little in these images, but they’ll make sense once there’s more paint on the canvas – my camera tends to compensate for the lack of light and reflection by over-saturating)
*a word on brushes: I know next to nothing about them, and I’m constantly overwhelmed by the variety available. I know I prefer stiffer synthetics for laying down a lot of paint, mongoose for tighter work, and sable for glazing — aside from that it’s just a lot of trial and error…and money. any advice on awesome brushes I may need to try is welcomed.
once I establish a mid-tone, I start moving towards darks from that mid-tone. then the other way towards lights. at this point, and for the majority of the first sitting, I’m not really concerned with getting the darkest and lightest values down on the canvas. I’m also trying to avoid any detail until the foundation of the face is down and looking right.
Lately, I’ve been trying to lay in the all the features of the face as early into the process as possible. I used to get caught up with rendering the skin before everything was down, but no matter how good skin looks, if the subject is missing an eyeball, it’s going to look wrong.
Now that all the features are in place [above right], I’ll add the lighter values, which will fill in the blank spots in the face, and give me an idea of how things as a whole are looking.
this is maybe 5 or 6 hours in, and now I can get into highlights, detail, and bringing the values to where I need them. I am going to do quite a bit of glazing when I’m further along with this piece, so I’m not worried about getting everything exact at this point. I’ve also got into the habit of adding a bit of background tone around the face [at right] to give me a better idea of where my values are with the right background contrast. it seems to help with this final stage of adjusting things and just generally getting this initial foundation nice and solid. it’s also nice to render the edges when both the figure and background are wet, giving me a little more flexibility to play around with sharp vs. loose edges. i’m going to work back into the face a bunch later down the line, but this first sitting is by far the most important.
now the funny part, I added the dark background and softened the edges at the end of this sitting, and totally forgot that I was thinking of maybe making the background light. oops. I’ll fix that later.
also, I forgot to take a picture of my pallet, so If anybody wants to know exact colors/brands of paint I’m using here, leave a comment and I’ll be happy to list them all. any comments and/or questions (including “why does that look like the Bride of Frankenstein?”) are also welcome.
day 2 coming soon!
12 Responses to Step by Step 2010 – day 1
Really fascinating process. Thanks for posting this!
Agree with CK. Love this idea of posting your process. It’s inspirational and helpful. Thanks! Are you just using linseed oil at this stage? I tone my canvas also, and I was always told it helps to make your darks darker and lights lighter. Cheers!
I don’t think she looks like the Bride of Frankenstein at all! I’m sure there are a whole lot more people following this series along than are commenting, so I’ll pipe up and say thankyou!!
And I’d love to hear about the palette you are using. I’m only just getting into painting after using pencils for far too long, so any little snippet of info is always helpful!!
thanks Phil. I’m actually not using any medium at all at this stage. i’ve been using Walnut Alkyd in place of Linseed Oil lately but I try and keep it out of my first layer.
thank you lexy, I appreciate it! here’s what I’ve been using lately:
titanium zinc white (windsor newton), naples yellow (williamsburg), naples yellow italian (williamsburg), raw sienna (m.graham), cadmium red (windsor newton), burnt sienna (m.graham), alizarin crimson (m.graham), burnt umber (m.graham), permanent orange (holbein), van dyke brown (m.graham), raw umber (m.graham), prussian blue (m.graham), olive green (holbein), unbleached titanium pale (williamsburg)
This step by step is awesome! And super helpful. Thank you so much for taking the time to post it! I had a question though- from the photos I can get a sense of how you go about rending the eyes, but there aren’t as many in between shots of the lips. I was just wondering what mixture of colors you use for lips, and do you start with the teeth? Top lip? Bottom? Both?
thanks Monique, very glad it’s helpful. for lips, I don’t have much of a regimen. I start with the teeth if they’re showing, then just work darks to lights with the lips. I stick with cad red and naples yellow just like the flesh tone, but add a little vermilion and a pinkish tone (quinacridone rose in this case) if needed.
I love when you do step by step! Each thing only happens once.
Hello there, o oracle of portraiture! I read your step-by-steps with enthusiastic fervor – albeit silent enthusiastic furvor – until now! I have for you two very important questions which I would adore very much for you to answer, please. Firstly, would you be using the same paint colours for African skin tones, just in different proportions? If not, which colours do you think you might use? Merci, Aaron!
hey emilee! I would use similar colors but in very different proportions. I’d probably use an ultramarine blue to mix with alizarin crimson, to get some nice purples (instead of prussian blue which is probably too dark). I actually have a hard time adding cool colors to lighter skin, but with darker skin tones, greens and blues are much more visible and easier for me to put together. definitely much less white and naples yellow — more naples yellow italian mixed with a lot of burnt and raw sienna, and burnt umber. you could also use ochers depending on the subject. hope that helps, a
Hi Aaron:
I did not see mention of what kind of camera and enlarging process you use. Can you please share that information.
Thank you,
b.lorentz
I use a Canon 30d to shoot my models. then I do a digital comp where I can color correct, play with backgrounds, etc. I don’t need to enlarge anything since the files are pretty huge as is. I used to print the photos out on plain or photo paper and use that for reference, lately though, I’ve been working directly from a computer monitor. hope that answers your question!