I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:

I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:

You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:

I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:




I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:





You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:





I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.
I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:

I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:

You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:

I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.Today I worked on my portrait of Genie, working in her art studio. As an animal artist, I'm quite new to people portraits so I was a bit nervous about how I would paint skin, especially since I was using a black and white photo to paint a color portrait. Here's my progress so far:



I took lots of photos of the progress up to this point, have a look:

I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:




I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:





You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:





I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.Today I worked on my portrait of Genie, working in her art studio. As an animal artist, I'm quite new to people portraits so I was a bit nervous about how I would paint skin, especially since I was using a black and white photo to paint a color portrait. Here's my progress so far:



I took lots of photos of the progress up to this point, have a look:

I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:




I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:





You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:





I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.Today I worked on my portrait of Genie, working in her art studio. As an animal artist, I'm quite new to people portraits so I was a bit nervous about how I would paint skin, especially since I was using a black and white photo to paint a color portrait. Here's my progress so far:



I took lots of photos of the progress up to this point, have a look:

I had a good look at the original photo, and printed out a closeup of Genie's face on my printer. I taped the photo right next to the sketch on the canvas, so I could refer to it easily. I knew I would want a lot of time to mix my paints, so I added some of Golden's Retarder Medium to slow the drying time and increase blendability.

I started by mixing some paint together to make the color of Genie's skin, in a range of shades. The off-white Titan Buff is a favorite of traditional portrait artists, and I use it quite a bit in animal portraits, but after trying it on a human portrait, I appreciate it more. I mixed it with just a trace of Burnt Umber and the very transparent Quinacridone Crimson to approximate the color of Genie's skin. I can't see her exact skin color in the black and white photo, but I could tell it was fairly light. For the shadows of her face, I used a little bit more Burnt Umber in my mix and a touch of Bone Black, a transparent black. Watch the progress as I adjust the lines of her face:




I'm told that Genie's dress was purple with highlights of orange. I put in the purple first, with Payne's Grey in the dark areas:





You can see in the second of the above two pictures that I added some more color to her face in a thin transparent layer, and it helps even out her skin tone. Genie's face and hair will be backlit by the window behind her, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

When painting her dress around the leg of the easel, I just roughed it in without paying much attention to the lines, then used masking tape and white paint to make it straight again:





I'll paint in the leg of the easel later. At this point, I'll still need to add detail to Genie's portrait to improve the likeness, but for now I'm going to start painting in the objects in the background, her easel, and her paintings on the wall. Her face needs some touchups, and I need to figure out how to make her eyes look more open. She is supposed to be looking down at her paints, but at this point it looks like I painted her with her eyes closed.

Tags: woman, background, face, skin, hair, clothing, underpainting