Acrylics

More Portrait Practice in Acrylics.. After Hashim Akib

| cathmary1030

As with the work done in this earlier post, I did another follow-along/demo portrait from Hashim Akib’s book Painting Portraits in Acrylic. I bought some student-grade acrylics (Amsterdam brand) since this is merely practice. The background was toned in a Quinacridone Rose (PV 19) as directed, but I drew out the figure using willow charcoal. As for the skin colors, again I followed along mostly: the primary skin colors are burnt sienna, orange (PO 73) and yellow ochre (PY 42).

I painted the folds on the scarf using a palette knife; I did not go back and add touches of a pinkish yellow white representing sparkles reflecting the light on the scarf. Maybe later.

Her lips should be pinker and darker; the top of the scarf away from her head should be darker and bluer.

Portrait Practice — Painting the Asaro (Variant) Head

| cathmary1030

My last few works — a portrait and a “portrait” of the Asaro head — have been in the cartoon realm, so I’m skipping posting those for now!

Instead, I found a video on YouTube that walks you through drawing the “Loomis Head” and converting it (for lack of a better term) to a planar head (what the artist calls the “memorized Asaro head”). After watching that, I drew the planar head on my 8×10 canvas with willow charcoal.

What I discovered in my failed attempt at painting the Asaro head is that the color Ivory Black is fairly transparent, and doesn’t cover well. I ended up going to Michael’s and bought some Mars Black from Liquitex Basics. It’s student grade compared to the artist grade Ivory Black, but wow, what a difference!

Anyway, here’s the Asaro head done; sage green for the background.

Below is a copy of the reference photo I used to paint, as well as a close-up of my value changes. In some cases like the upper lip, the value change is too abrupt, while in other cases there’s not enough of a value change. I’ll have to keep practicing.

Woman in Head Scarf… my first portrait

| cathmary1030

Yep, she looks cartoon-like. LOL. But now I’ve gotten my first portrait under my belt. It’s difficult to make soft edges and do blending with acrylics since they dry so fast — I will have to try oils sometime soon.

Again, as with so much that I’m painting these days, this was from an online tutorial by PaintCoach. I tried using Golden Open Acrylics thinking they would work more like oils — that’s how they seem to be advertised — uh, no, didn’t work at all. The light on her face looks more like a crazy mask than seamlessly blended in.

Christmas Ornaments.. an Online Tutorial from Paintcoach

| cathmary1030

I did this work in acrylic on a 6×6 canvas board that I added a layer of acrylic gesso to before I started.

In doing this “still life” (for lack of a better term) today, I scored a victory of sorts. I only used the 3 primaries (lemon yellow, alizarin crimson, and ultramarine blue) plus titanium white. And I got all those different colors! I’m finally moving forward on the journey of intuitively mixing colors! Cheers!

Paint Week Nov 2023 — Landscape

| cathmary1030

Paint Week 2023 is going on this week, and the subject to paint is a kayaker on a river lined by mangroves. Although I’m working on a portrait tutorial by the same teacher, I took some time out to paint the landscape on a 9×12 canvas.

The subject didn’t particularly excite me; that’s probably apparent in my results. I find the value map helpful as a concept, but painting-wise, the burnt sienna underpainting shows through too much, which I don’t like. Maybe if I were using oils it would work better?