These next two - three blog entries will take you through the painting of the skin on the portrait. When you paint it is important that you do all of the skin in one sitting. For the skin to be blended properly it must be done while the shadows, skin color and highlights are still wet so don't even think of doing this in acrylic and be sure to find plenty of time to work on the skin in a two day session or less (making sure that the paint is still wet as you work). I have never used extenders for this project and don't recommend them because they change the "tooth" of the paint making it too slick to work with but I strongly recommend that you find what works for you. Jane's Perspective says that if it ain't broke don't fix it so if you follow my skin painting directions and see that you can work that way, then don't go out and buy anything unnecessary. But if find that you would like the paint to dry faster or slower, then feel free to head to the art supply store and start reading labels on mediums for your paint.
That said, to begin, the biggest "mistake" or hardest thing for an artist to do in their first portrait is to get enough shadows into the painting. Many of the first portraits a beginning portrait painter does are relatively "flat" looking. And once an artist has gone to such pains to get the features just right it's really scary to add shadows. Sometimes they look like heavy beards or dirt on the face SO to cure that problem the Jane's Perspective way, we'll put the shadows in FIRST.
This is really easy to do but kind of strange looking at first. Try not to let the commissioner of the painting see it at this stage cause it may make their adorable child look like a racoon or worse but trust me, it's gonna make your painting fabulous.
Here's what we do. You already have the photograph in a plastic bag so you won't mess it up as you choose between burnt umber, raw sienna, or a dark brown of your choosing that comes closest to matching the really dark parts of the photo. You can actually paint a dab on the plastic right over the shadow to see how close the color comes to the shadow color. NEVER use black at this point. If you've ever taken one of my classes you know that the first thing I make you do is throw out the black (figuratively speaking) and start mixing colors or using darker browns for shadows. Black is just such a negative color in that it negates every other color, screws the values all up, and/or makes your painting look like it was painted on black velvet. So pick one of your browns, squint your eyes at the photograph and paint all the dark shadow areas that you see.
Even if the shadow is more gradual, if you squint your eyes and see it, paint it. You are blocking in the shadows and giving yourself some paint to work with later. Take another look at the original photo from previous blogs and see where I chose to paint the shadows. Looks wierd, huh?
This is all in preparation for the next step which will be to mix the skin color and apply it to the face everywhere except where the shadows or highlights occur. Many times this is right next to the shadows to create that gradual transition from the shadow to the highlight. Here's a sneak preview of that step in the photo below. More on the Jane's Perspective way of painting skin in the next blog. Remember, don't start anything on the skin til you read all about the painting of the skin. I promise I'll get back with you ASAP. Isn't the suspence just killing you? OK, so maybe I don't have much of a life outside my artwork - I, at least, hope you're looking forward to the next step.
