By the way if you are up to date on reading this blog, August 20, 2011 I'll be at the Wolf Chase Galleria in Memphis, Tennessee demonstrating this technique on a larger than life painting of Marilyn Monroe. I'll not only be using this process but some larger than usual paint brushes. There will be a whole lotta paint mess in the process. You'll undoubtedly see my hands work faster than you might as you first experience this process but I think you'll enjoy watching. If you can't get by to watch, here's more on the process.
You have already painted the background in opposite colors or some strange color that you selected. Now you are going to begin to paint the painting "for real". That means you will paint the real colors of each object ONLY don't get all caught up in the realistic aspect of this painting. It's all about the excitement of the colors. So as you create a brush stroke and an opposite color peaks through, take a moment to look at it and think about leaving it exposed.
For example, in this picture I have painted the guitar in yellow ochres and browns. My underpainted color was a dark blue and I was able to let it peak through on the shadow parts of the guitar. Step by step, you can see that I've painted the shadow on the pants in a dark brown.
Then I paint the dark blue/purple paints with their highlights. Notice how some of the yellow peaks through on the leg on the left. Not much is peaking through here however so you see that you can make a choice to leave lots of "peak thrus" or just a little "peak thrus" or no "peak thrus" at all. I have students who start this process and completely cover the strange colored underpaintings. Jane's Perpsective is if you like it, leave it. If you don't like it paint over it.
Things get really strange on the face. If you followed my blog about realistic portraits you'll see that I follow the same steps/process here only I just don't go in for all that detail. Just like in the realistic portrait, I start with the shadows. Here I've painted the shadows in dark brown over the blue face.
Next, just like in the realistic portrait, I paint the highlights that I see on the face.
Then I fill in the middle areas with the flesh tone of the face. If I work really fast some of the colors blend together right on the canvas. If they don't I get a block of color. If I like it I leave it. If I don't I continue to paint over it until I get a resemblance - not a perfect likeness - but a resemblance. After all this is an "impression" of the person.
You can see I also worked on the hands so that I wouldn't have to worry about mixing the exact skin color again. This can really be a problem in acrylics unless you have a stay wet palette or are good at matching colors. This type of painting takes a different mindset and you have to throw a lot of caution to the wind. I'll show you what I mean with a lesson in negative space in my next blog.
