10/24 Creating Texture in a Portrait
Animal Portraiture
Week 7 (10/24) Creating Texture in a Portrait
Warm-ups Blind Line | 2 Minutes
Contour Line | 3 Minutes
Week 7 (10/24) Creating Texture in a Portrait
Warm-ups Blind Line | 2 Minutes
Contour Line | 3 Minutes
Blending Techniques
Dry Brush - Use a stiff dry or semi-dry brush. Either a flat or round brush is used to drag wet paint over a dry and painted surface to create a thin skin of paint on top of the dry acrylic surface by using related brush motions and scrubbing.
Smooth Skin - working the surface of paint smooth by using both horizontal and vertical paint strokes and slightly thinned paint to obtain a flat area of color. This method involves the pulling and brushing of wet paint into wet or semi-wet paint to achieve a smooth or gradual color or value change.
Alla Prima - Blending paint into paint directly onto surface and often works well when a more think or impasto skin is desired. Glazing - This technique involves thinning the acrylics with either gloss or matte medium. The resulting transparent mixture is then applied to the painting surface.
Washes - Similar to glazing in its transparent appearance, washes are often used to create the initial drawing and compositional layout of a painting. To create a wash, simply mix or dilute your acrylics with water.
Smooth Skin - working the surface of paint smooth by using both horizontal and vertical paint strokes and slightly thinned paint to obtain a flat area of color. This method involves the pulling and brushing of wet paint into wet or semi-wet paint to achieve a smooth or gradual color or value change.
Alla Prima - Blending paint into paint directly onto surface and often works well when a more think or impasto skin is desired. Glazing - This technique involves thinning the acrylics with either gloss or matte medium. The resulting transparent mixture is then applied to the painting surface.
Washes - Similar to glazing in its transparent appearance, washes are often used to create the initial drawing and compositional layout of a painting. To create a wash, simply mix or dilute your acrylics with water.
Directional Brushwork
Directional brushwork
One of the most effective techniques for creating movement in your painting is to use bold and directional brushwork. By doing this, you can suggestively push your viewer around the painting as you please. Adjust the thickness, length and direction of strokes.
Contrasting smooth and impasto texture
By contrasting smooth and refined texture against impasto texture you can create an interesting depth in your painting. The illusion of movement is created as our eyes are drawn towards these areas of thicker or thinner paint. A common technique is to use impasto texture for the foreground to contrast against a smoother middle and background.
Using rhythmic, or repeating elements
Every painting has an underlying rhythm much the same as a song. Rhythm can be created by purposefully arranging the elements in your painting with regard to pattern, harmony and variance.
An example may be the intervals between negative and positive spaces. Long positive spaces (the space where subjects are placed) could be your heavy drums, short positive spaces could be the trumpets and flutes and the long negative spaces could be the silent pauses between notes. This lends itself to the illusion of movement as our eyes dance around to the rhythm of the painting.
Be careful not to direct your viewer’s attention right out of the canvas. You want to direct them all throughout the painting first.
Variance is your friend. Practice varying your strokes, colors and level of detail. The more variance, the more your viewer’s eyes will dance around the painting.
Before you start, plan where you want to take your viewer and what your focal point is. Use that plan as a guide while you paint.
Artist, Erin Hanson
Fur Techniques
Fur Techniques
Break fur into shape forms just like we have the first two weeks. Do this by drawing a contour map of the hair.
Next take a look at the direction of the fur. Its multi-directional. The borders between the directions is what gets ignored, but needs to be looked at more closely.
Overlapping occurs with one part of a coat overlays another. When two strands bend and reveal darker gaps between the hair is when you introduce darker values of hair. Start from the bottom and layer on top.
Gradation of tone is important in shadow areas. Let the white of paper form the highlights. Tone backgrounds on white animals. Combine fine, short strokes, gentle etching, hard, definite strokes and highlights. Start with a midtone.
Break fur into shape forms just like we have the first two weeks. Do this by drawing a contour map of the hair.
Next take a look at the direction of the fur. Its multi-directional. The borders between the directions is what gets ignored, but needs to be looked at more closely.
Overlapping occurs with one part of a coat overlays another. When two strands bend and reveal darker gaps between the hair is when you introduce darker values of hair. Start from the bottom and layer on top.
Gradation of tone is important in shadow areas. Let the white of paper form the highlights. Tone backgrounds on white animals. Combine fine, short strokes, gentle etching, hard, definite strokes and highlights. Start with a midtone.
