2/3 of a portrait

[Indiana Kate]

I've started messing in acrylic. This past summer I took a workshop in using acrylics to paint abstracts. That was very fun. Now I'm trying to use acrylic to paint non-abstract. That is much harder.

The painting below will eventually have and essay to go with it, so there is a reason that I painted only 2/3 of the head. But I could do with some C&C.


http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/09-Oct-2011/154568-cognitive_authority_wc.jpg

The way I layered colors seemed to get other artists excited. So, here is a close-up of some of the layers:

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/09-Oct-2011/154568-cognitive_closeup.jpg

I'm new to acrylics and fairly new to portaits, so I need some instruction.

Thanks much,

Kate

[Indiana Kate]

I forgot to say that this is on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper, so it is 11 x 15 inches. It was an old piece of green tinted watercolor paper and I have no idea why in the world I bought that stuff. I covered it with a thin layer of phthalo turquois acrylic before I started with the portrait.

Kate

[kirants]

Kind of unfair, Kate. I think some pieces deserved to be seen in real life and I feel this would be one. I think a computer monitor doesn't do real justice to all those strokes and layers. I can see why those who saw were excited.

Am not sure how to critique a conceptual work such as this. But from a figurative perspective, I would think a less sharp highlight to tone on the nose would work better. The lit side to shadow side is hard edged right now, and it makes the nose appear like the face of a triangular pyramid rather than a conical pyramid. Sorry, am really bad at explaining :grrr::

[Indiana Kate]

Hi Kiran. Thanks for taking time to comment. Let me see if I understand. The highlight on the nose is a stripe fairly even in value left to right. What would help the illusion of shape would be to make the line between green and orange/red on the left (his right) less sharp. Have I got it?

Kate

[Journeyman]

The shadow the nose is casting on to the cheek and the light on the cheek bone is very exciting Kate, certainly an interesting departure from your previous work, your workshop on abstraction seems to have liberated you in a good and stimulating direction :thumbsup: Dave

[kevinwueste]

Kate this is nice and has mood - especially as a bridge between abstract works and more figurative/realist works. I would not know where I might critique or comment on this other than to say I enjoy seeing it!

For one method to creating a portrait/study in Acrylics, you might ponder ( at your extreme leisure of course) this demo I posted in the Acrylics section. I have enjoyed doing small studies on paper in Acrylics and the challenge of knitting form together as it is MUCH more difficult than in oil paints!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=950291

Prosenjit is much more a veteran of Acrylic painting and might have some ideas when He sees your thread!

Kevin

[Indiana Kate]

Hi Dave! Thanks for commenting. It was a fun workshop and it did push me to be more adventurous. After years of watercolor, acrylics is kind of weird. What I like about it, however, is the freedom to try anything because you can paint over it if you don't like it.

Thanks for the link, Kevin. It's helpful. My job for the next several weeks is to search for threads by you and Proenjit on portraits. Then I need to read and practice, practice, practice.

Kate

[lovin art]

Ill just say Nice your trying to step out of your comfort zone , I would also say you cant go wrong with both Sir Ks and Sir Ps Advice -Kate , they have both helped me grow on here and will always inspire me endlessly ....

[Descartes]

Kate, I like the mixture of abstract and realism and your limited palette. I'm not sure what instruction you feel you need: it is difficult to know how to offer advice without knowing what results you are looking for. I can see you using more transparent colours here similar to your watercolours which can work well with water or medium. I personally work the other end of the spectrum with opaque colours including titanium white and working dark to light. For blending I use drying brushing with filberts (one of the few techniques where the drying time of acrylics is an advantage). Even when working opaquely it is useful to have the transparent colours as they tend to provide the deepest colours and shadows.

[Indiana Kate]

Sandra, Thanks much!

I'm not sure what I need either, Nathan. This past summer I was working with tube acrylics and I worked much as you do. This semester, I'm working with art students that start from raw pigment, both dry and liquid, which they mix with different mediums. It is all very interesting, but I feel like I don't know what I am doing. Maybe it is just that the number of options has increased exponentially and I just have to try them all to see what they do. Thanks for the conversation.

Kate

[Descartes]

Kate, it's funny but I feel that way with watercolour. As well as dealing with shapes, tones and colours you also have to deal with transparency, granulating colours and tinting colours.

[roy-p]

Thank you for the vote of confidence, kind folks :) . Of course, I'll yield to Kevin's advice any time. Kate, since you're skillful with watercolors acrylics should come naturally to you, as it does for someone adept in oils - that is the miraculous versatility of this medium! You can mix the best of both worlds (and who said oil and water don't mix!). I'm mostly a winter painter with acrylics, since in summer months its unbearable to turn off the fan while painting (circulating air quickly dries the paint on the palette), so I'm looking forward to winter! But that's not the case with people who live in colder climes, so go and treat your acrylics as watercolor, and apply as many layers as you want.

But be careful not to make it too thin, as this will break the polymer structure (pigment particles remain suspended in a hardened polymer network once the paint layer dries) and parts might fall off. Of course, if you care not to expose any of those thinned parts on the surface, and coat the painting with a layer of acrylic medium (which dries transparent), that problem can be dealt with.

Still, its a better habit to use a mix of water + medium (acrylic gloss medium - the milky, liquid thing you've purchased along with your paints) at a ratio not thinner than 50:50, while painting such 'washy' passages. Take care not to pass over a semi-dried area as this will upset the polymerization and you may have to paint over. The wonderful thing about acrylics is how forgiving and clean a medium it is - but do take care to store the brushes (which you're not using at that very instant, but have used just previously) in a shallow tray filled with water. If you let them dry, the polymerized acrylic on the bristles will quickly make it literally unusable.

And why use a tray instead of a pot, well... sometimes we use softer nylon brushes, or watercolor brushes as well, and storing vertically will affect their point/edge.

So once you've gained experience with acrylics using it as watercolor, you'll quickly discover how wonderfully it can be applied in opaque layers as well. Here you use it to paint as you would with oils (of course, oils can be used in very transparent washes as well, but that's a different story altogether - just making broad categorizations). When you sense a 'drag' on your brush, and can't seem to mix anymore, don't fight it and just use some acrylic medium to lubricate your brush. Acrylic can be mixed 'oil-like' with care, but the fun is to leave those brushy strokes, letting colors from different layers show through each other and create an optical mix.

Fortunately, I have a demo from a recent portrait which I can show you, its a largish download (http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr327/roy-p/new/sadhu-combo-big.jpg)but displays the progression of opaque to transparent layers. Hope this will be of some help.

Also, as you can see, I've started with a brush drawing in umber, delineating the features, exploring/marking out the value shapes with lighter passages, then going for the darkest areas. At about stage three, I've started to lay down the opaque layers. Sometimes you glaze (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaze_(painting_technique)) on top of lighter opaque layers, or scumble (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/scumble) on darker opaques (e.g. while painting a mist in an evening scene, or clouds against deep blue sky). Going from transparent to opaque is one approach, of course you'll develop your own as you continue to paint in acrylics

Best of luck with your acrylics adventure! :thumbsup:

[carolkay]

It looks like fun to be experimenting Kate, and I aplaud you for that.

[kirants]

Hi Kiran. Thanks for taking time to comment. Let me see if I understand. The highlight on the nose is a stripe fairly even in value left to right. What would help the illusion of shape would be to make the line between green and orange/red on the left (his right) less sharp. Have I got it?

Kate
Yes!

Interesting about the watercolor paper. I didn't know they make tinted watercolor papers too..

[iclosemyeyestosee]

I think that, in this case, every technical consideration about figure is out of place because here, we are in front of testing techniques and materials, and from this point of view I find very interesting the result.
Here we are in front of an abstraction, an invention, an inusual shot, an hermetic face seems to want to communicate something ....
It is an open-end and everyone is free to see what he wants and to be excited from the beauty of color and mystery.

[Indiana Kate]

I hear you, Nathan!

Ooo, Prosenjit, thanks for the technical stuff. I like knowing about the chemistry of the materials. I'm going to go read about polymerization. That is a new concept for me. Thanks for the links too. I will study them.

Thanks, Carol!

Kiran, I bought that watercolor paper a long time ago, so I don't know if it is available. It might be good for ink drawings and washes, or if you wanted to add a little white in gouache. Now I rely on the white of the paper so much that the colored paper just sits in my drawer.

Ufel, thank you for your philosophic comments. I was hoping the painting would produce such a response.

Kate

[Indiana Kate]

Prosenjit, the Sadhu images are fascinating (the painting with wip at the "largish download" in Prosenjit's post above). I can zoom in quite a bit to see your brush strokes. I see now that you layer in a way that I have not tried. I wish I could stand by your elbow and watch you go from that gray face to the full color head.

Kate