Thanks to PF member
Canoehead ( Brian Wildfong ) for agreeing to put this flesh SBS here
Painting begins - aka the “Ugly Stages”.
Ugly Stage #1: Over the acrylic undercoat, I first apply Burnt Sienna oils into the major areas of shadow:
UglyStage #2: I add Titanium White (approx. 70%) to the Burnt Sienna (approx. 30%) and apply this mix to the major highlight areas:
Ugly Stage #3: Highlight and shadow blocks are blended, generally along their edges, although sometimes two adjacent blocks will get blended together entirely
Painting continueth- the Less Ugly Stages (hopefully!):
Less Ugly Stage #1: With the basic flesh laid in, I went back and added contrast back in by blending some Mars Brown into selected shadow areas (ex. under the eyebrows, outlining the eyelids, around the nostrils, in the ears)
and added more Titanium White to my highlight mix and applied it to some of the high points (ex. eyelids, cheekbones, protruding parts of the ears, nose & nostrils):
Less Ugly Stage #2: Began working my way around the face with small amounts of colour. Some deep shadows got small amounts of Raw Umber, selected highlights got almost pure White (90% + 10% Burnt Sienna). The lower lip got a base of Burnt Sienna + Cadmium Red with small “cracks” added with alternating thin lines of Pink and Raw Umber. The eyeballs got filled in with Raw Umber ( more on this later)
LessUgly Stage #3: The lower cheeks got darkened a bit more and I blended very tiny amounts of Cadmium Red on the lower tip of the nose, along the sides of the nose, the temples, the earlobes and under the cheekbones, wherever there might be a concentration of blood vessels just under the skin:
Eyes are up next.
Started by mixing up a light grey acrylic and filling in the eyeballs, leaving a very thin line of the raw umber around the perimeter of the eye, representing the shadow cast by the eyelids:
Added the iris using black acrylic to make a circle in each eyeball. It’s actually about 80% of a circle since the top part is hidden by the upper eyelid. Hardest part is trying to get them both the same size and oriented correctly relative to one another so it doesn’t look walleyed or cross eyed:
Mixed up a dull bluish- grey and filled in the irises, leaving a thin ring of the black around the outside of the iris. I usually use blue for the iris since it gives a nice contrast with that black outer border but other colours work, too:
I add a bit of white to the bluish-grey from the last step and use it to go over the bottom half of each iris to give the eyeball a bit of dimension:
The final step is to add the pupil. I use a tiny dot of black oil paint so if I screw up, I can remove it without affecting the acrylics underneath. Since the eyeball is partly covered by the eyelid, the pupil is also not completely round but slightly covered by the eyelid shadow as well:
I finished up the eyes and got going on the beard.....
Mixed up a pinkish flesh tone and applied it to the lower eyelid and eye bag. Also put a tiny spot of Cadmium Red in the corners of each eye:
Added the catchlight with a tiny spot of Titanium White. I mixed a lighter blue and put a tiny speck of it on the lower iris on the opposite side from the catchlight as well. The eyebrows were done with closely spaced tiny lines of Burnt Umber oil colour applied with a finely-pointed brush:
Pretty happy with the final result: tired and with that “thousand yard stare” vibe
THANK YOU BRIAN
Nap
