YES I made it back alive... v___v
This time, I'm doing an acrylic painting. The last time I did one was a year ago so I'm really lacking practice... T___T
Even though I haven't mastered much at the pencils yet, I thought it's about time to color things up a bit because I really miss playing with colors. I'm always too lazy to paint because I have to clean up the mess at the end of it... :P
But here it is at last after hours of struggle, starting with:
A new set of brushes. My old ones were all damaged and I finally made it to the stationery shop to grab a bunch of these (more than I show here actually) and they cost me more than $50... T____T
A box of acrylic paints. These are from China and they cost less than the other brands. Suitable for practices (that kill more paint than use them skillfully....)
My palette for the paints.
Introducing my beloved easel. I was so glad to find it at the stationery shop instead of the art shop. It cost less, at only about $17. It's kind of light though, can't bring it out for landscape painting because the wind would take it away before any work could be done. But I don't paint outdoor anyway, not with my kind of super low concentration. I'd be chasing the monkeys instead of painting...
A canvas for painting (24 x 30 cm). Canvases at various sizes can also be bought at the stationery shop for a lower price than at the art shop.
Happiness...
I keep a roll of paper towels nearby to clean up as I work. Very useful.
Using a 2B pencil, I did a rough sketch. Sketching on canvas took lots of lead and got a bit messy too. I should try a 2H pencil next time...
Adjusting the proportion of the features. These steps are similar to pencil portraits.
Getting there soon...
Done. Took about 25 minutes.
Put it up on the easel and we're ready to go...
I like to paint in the medium dark tones first to outline the features...
This is a joke... I was whirling back to my kindergarten days when I was having so much fun splashing paint around without worrying about how it looked...
Also taking advantage of the fact that I could cover these mess up later to revise my shading...
Applying 'foundation' on the skin to cover up blemishes...
Just laying out the basic skin tone... n___n
All covered up.
Somehow this looks more artistic than the finished product... T___T
Time to get serious, working on the left eye...
Shading in a darker brown tone before getting even darker with black.
I like painting eyes, but I hope I got the color right...
Working on the left cheek a little, putting on some more pink to darken the blush that I already laid in at the beginning.
Had to blend it carefully with skin tone to make it look natural.
Habitually, I put on a layer of white to highlight certain parts.
This is not good and I shall try to change.
The scanner could pick up whites expertly and it makes the painting look bad, showing all the bad brush works...
Working on the other eye now...
Moving down to the nose...
Nose done and then the lips...
I didn't do a good job for the lips... T____T
Working on the neck line now...
Before doing the hair, paint in the grey background first...
Another one of my habits to paint a layer of dark brown as foundation for the hair.
No idea what I'm doing actually.
... but the black comes in and makes it look better...
Some highlights added to show the hair strands. The color was sienna... I think...
Working on the other side of the hair after I done up the white shirt.
... and here it is finally. I realize the scanned version has different colors from the photos... but none of them look like the original.
Not a well done job really, I tried to follow the reference as closely as possible but eventually when I looked at the painting, I asked "who on earth are you?"
Tons of improvement to make and I'm decades behind time.
*sigh*
This took me about 10 and a half hours to complete, could have done it faster but I was so clumsy and spent so much time correcting the painting.
I can't paint realistic enough so there's lots of catching up to do. This painting looks like some sort of badly done poster hanging outside a run down cinema back in the 60's or 70's... that's how they look like in TV dramas...
Painting is still faster than doing a pencil portrait, for me... at least the details stay put in their place and doesn't get lost all the time! I like that...
Need to do more color works. More practice, practice, practice!!! It's driving me nuts!!!
Thanks for looking!
