Face paintings III

A few more paintings...

I had a few pages in my sketchbook with already-painted backgrounds (remnants of paint at the end of previous sessions) and it was interesting to work on these... seeing how the underlying color enhanced or contrasted the paint I was laying down. A nice change from starting with white.

I'm starting to get a few parts of my images that I like - an eye that has some depth to it, a nose that's nicely described using just a few efficient strokes, it's a good feeling to see some progress and things starting to come together.

Face paintings II

Been doing some more face painting practices in my sketchbook... gradually getting a better feel for the paint and learning heaps more about color, as usual. I think the next thing to concentrate on will be values again, because as always I don't push the darks dark enough. I think mixing paint and maintaining the correct colors is a pretty tricky skill, but i'll get it :)

I said in my last post that I might start focusing on structural/facial accuracy and depiction as well, but that didn't happen. I get bogged down in that a bit, so I feel alright leaving that aside for now.

Face paintings

As part of my acrylic painting forays, I've started painting a few faces to practice skin tones, paint handling and particularly getting used to the unique aspects of portraiture compared to other kinds of art. I don't worry too much about accuracy and realism apart from doing a quick pencil sketch to start, but I am thinking maybe I should incorporate it, cause I need to work on that as well.

They're quick studies, probably less than half an hour each, so I haven't developed any of them very far, but just try out new things. The plan, I guess, is to gradually start doing more 'serious' work as I improve - portraiture is something that appeals to me and I'd like to find a unique, interesting way to present them (rather than just a very realistic, documentary approach).

But for now, here's the first few...