After Sargent WIP

[dedgcumbe]

Further experimentation with glazing in acrylics. I was reasonably happy with the grisaille and glazed over the top with a mixture of yellow ochre, titanium white and cad red. It came out looking very jaundiced - so I've added a further glazed layer of cad red + titanum white. I'm still not getting the skin tones I'm looking for. Any suggestions?

[Charlie's Mum]

Glazing over the grisaille will normally need quite a few layers/glazes.

Keep warming it with transparent glazes (no titanium white at this stage) of the very pale orange mix - use a glazing medium so water doesn't alter the adhesion qualities.
More red where pinks are needed, more towards the yellow where appropriate.
Shadows may well have greens or purple tones - and comsider the reflected shadows from surrounding colours.

It looks really good so far, so the grisaille was obviously right

[dedgcumbe]

It's so much fun painting using the grisaille+glazing technique and gives a really polished look. I'm hooked! Thank you for advice re further glazes - will post an update in due course.

[AllisonR]

I find that skin looks "dead" when only using the obvious skin tones - earth colors, yellow, red, whites. Skin is richer than that. Try adding just a drop of blue or green to your flesh color - does not sound normal, I know, but it adds a richness. Then glaze with that. Let me know how it turns out.

Also, skin is not the same shade everywhere. Start with your skin color, then add more yellows to the forehead (less blood there), more reds to cheeks and nose (more blood there), more blue/purple to the nose and chin shadows (cooler shadows on warmer skin.)

And what do you mean glazing right over the grisaille? Did you literally put a transparent glaze over the gray, or did you first make an opaque flesh-color layer on the grisaille, and then glaze over that? If you put a glaze direct on the grisaille, how did you get it to go on smoothly without it looking streaky or bad? Please explain if you can.

[dedgcumbe]

I glazed with transparent glazes directly over the grisaille

[ribeyedsmile]

nice start dedgcumbe!
I like the eyes, I like like the challenge of the close up composition.

so, you are relying on the grisail to give you the rendering and the modeling of your forms. You will be dependant on the hue of the underpainting for many layers. You may have dificulty developing some tones without opaque touches.

Maybe a more focused photo can show off the brushwork better.

[dedgcumbe]

Some more glazing...

Dan

[ribeyedsmile]

I suggest that the shadows are not simply darkened by black, maybe an earthtone or alizarin crimson or dioxine purple gently glazed into the shade?

[dedgcumbe]

More glazing including some purple into the shadows - thank you for the suggestion!

Dan