You Want Another?

  Here's another face on hand. I really could do these a long time and not get bored. The complexity of a face with the hand thrown in for an extra challenge. As long as the subject speaks to me I'm in for the long haul. Here's the next picture that called my name:

  I love the expression, although I'm told her students see this look A LOT, so they may not appreciate it as much as I do. I know I want to get up close on the face. I have no need for the background, so as far as I'm concerned it's dead to me. I chose another prepared canvas:

   I figured that the upper right portion, which doesn't have as much pigment as other places, matches well with the reference photo. The greenish blob at the bottom will do well to represent the body and the pale spot just above the middle will be a good spot for the face to rest.
   So, I start laying out the composition. Did I start with black, or white? Well, in all this excitement I kinda lost track myself. Here's step one:

   White. I started with white. I painted all the highlights and tried to capture a likeness from the start. Sometimes that works better than others. Sometimes a painting can be done at this stage ( Which frustrates me. I just get started painting and all of a sudden it's over. I listen to my paintings and they tell me where to go. When they say "it's over" then it's over.) This one is just getting started though. If you've been reading my blogs and paying attention you know what comes next. Black:

   At this point I let it dry and compare it to the reference. What needs adjusting? What needs more black? Less black? How are the proportions.  The hand and the mouth/nose need to be tweaked. i can see that right away. So, when the black dries, it's time for the tweaking white layer:

  Which, I can now see, was actually a tweaking black layer. It's all a part of my fluid process. It's starting to look better now. It just needs a few more things. Like what? Like this:

  She now has some life in the eyes. The mouth and hand are much better. I look a while and then this comes:

   I'm looking at it now and thinking, "it needs to be tied together". The best way to do that is with a thin layer of color. Just enough to tint the whole thing and tie every part of it together:

  The lucky color was green. A little green from the tube and a wet rag to spread it around. I helps take the edges off. I'm really liking where this is going, and we're almost there. I pull out my small brush and touch up a little black and a bit of white:

   It's looking pretty good. I'm (almost) tickled to death. My desire to be the Hendrix of acrylic painting spurs me on to do a couple more minor tweaks and lo and behold:

   A few minor adjustments. A few small white highlights on the eyes. I'm very proud of this one. Many thanks to my friend Stephanie for sending me the picture. She's been a fan of my art for a long time and I really appreciate her support.
  This one was pretty similar to the other two. I did use my secret "Color Tint Layer" to help it tie itself together. I don't really tell people about that, so if you could kinda keep it to yourself I'd appreciate it. I suppose the number of views on this one will help dictate if I do another one on here or move on to another topic. Tell your friends. Or, send me some questions or ideas. I'm game for pretty much anything.
    AKO ANG HARI

Another Face, Another Hand

  Okay, here's the step by step on painting two in this series. I got this reference photo from a friend:

  I liked this one immediately. It's not a glamor shot hand pose and there's some great emotion in the face. I converted this to black and white, played up the shadows a bit and decided where I was gonna crop it for the canvas. I picked out this canvas:

 I liked this one for this project because the purplish colors on the right swoop back in a way that defines the area of the face and hands. To me anyway. Maybe I'm not explaining this the best way. There's a whitish triangle from the lower right hand corner, lower left hand corner, and just to the left of the top. that's where I picture the person being. So, I get my reference, get the canvas, and I get my trusty brush and some white paint. Here's the first step:

 It's a much closer view that I thought it would be. What can I say? I go where the paintings lead me. I think it looks pretty cool here. Definitely not finished, but cool. I've laid out all the highlights and I give the white a few minutes to dry.
  Next is the first black layer. I go with either white or black first, depending on whether the background is light or dark. It wouldn't make much sense to paint white on a white canvas. Although, you could do that, call it Modern, and get rich way quicker than I am. If you do, all I ask is that you buy some art from me. Anyway, here it is after the black:

  I was glad to see that I had a pretty good grasp of the emotion at this point. Sometimes it goes better than others. I'm also gonna point out that I'm also doing another painting at the same time (In this series, simultaneously. I actually have upwards of a dozen paintings going on at the same time).
  So, the next step? White. Definitely white. I start to firm up the face and hand, take in the proportions, make sure everything lines up like it's supposed to:

  I tweak the hand and  parts of the face. I'm really liking where this is going and it takes a lot of patience to wait for the paint to dry, so I can do
    Another. Layer.....In Black:

  And here it is, the finished product. I show my wife. She loves it. I show my friend. He loves it. I look at it and think " I can do better", which can be a dangerous thing to think. I could do something horrible. Something I can't fix. I can walk away here and have a really good painting. I suppose by now you've realized that isn't what I did. I don't like to settle for good when I can get close to, if not right on top of, great. The rarefied air.
  So, I get my smaller brush, some black, some white, and some groovin' tunes. i take about fifteen minutes of staring and tweaking, and here's the result:

 A little work around the mouth. A little work around the eyes. Just like a movie star. And there it is. Another painting I'm really proud of. Hopefully I've explained my process to you in a way that you can understand. If not, ask me anything. I'll tell you all I know.

         AKO ANG HARI