phil_h
A Fixture
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2016
- Messages
- 2,654
Hello everybody...
Today I was able to paint the face, so let's get to it!
Here are the paints we'll use for our main skin tone:
From left to right we have: Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, and Cadmium Red. As stated in a prior post, all paints from this bust will be from Michael Harding's range of artist oils, and I'll be commenting on them throughout. Starting with a larger portion of Raw Sienna, small portions of Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, and Cadmium Red were added till I found the tone I was looking for. This will be seen a little further below in a picture of the palette.
In addition to the colors for the base skin tone mix, the further paints were also used:
Again, from left to right we have: Titanium White, Red Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Alizarin Crimson. These paints will serve to create the shadows, highlights and other nuances for the skin tones. Red Umber is the same pigment as Burnt Umber, except it's a little warmer in value. I thought for this bust it would be a little more interesting to swap out my usual Burnt Umber for this, and maybe add a little bit of subtle warmth to the nuances in the skin.
Here's the palette with all the mixes on it:
The bottom middle of the palette is the base skin tone; you can also see a highlight tone right next to it too. Above that, you can see various shadow tones and nuances. (The violet that was made from the Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue was gorgeous, by the way.) At the very top, you can see the grayish colors used for the beard and hair.
And our brushed that were used are:
One thing that I would like to point out is that with a lot of oil painting, when working wet-in-wet, it consists of a first pass of applying paint to the surface, and then a second pass of blending it in. It seems for some reason (at least from the questions that I get asked), many have problems finding a nice soft brush that is needed for the blending pass. So, with that in mind, if you're looking for a very soft brush to help blend your oils in, I can highly recommend these cheap brushes from Princeton Brush Co. from their "velvetouch" line. They're fantastic. The one in the pic above is a size 0 Flat Shader, but there are a ton of sizes and shapes in the line. Definitely check them out. The brush above was also the brush I did all my blending with for the 54mm Saracen Warrior I posted pics in the finished forum too.
Our first step will be to base coat the entire face with the base skin tone (the mid tone). This is a very exciting step that takes all of 2 seconds (although I am careful to not get any in the eyes):
The only important thing to keep in mind is that we want a nice, even, smooth coat covering the entire face. After the paint is applied, wipe the remaining paint off your brush, and then with the clean brush, go back over the face, and remove any excess paint. You want thin, smooth coverage.
Next I decided to paint in the main highlights. You could just as well start with the shadows - for me it's a little easier to start with the highlights first. The highlight color was simply the base skin tone with Titanium White added to it. Here they are applied to the face:
One important thing of note is that everything above the eyes will be completely covered with a helmet, so outside of the base coat from the step above I won't be paying any attention to that area.
Of course, after the highlights have been applied, we need to then blend them in:
Keep in mind, when doing the blending, after one or two passes with your blending brush, clean it off, and then continue on. The brush has a tendency to get dirty, and if you blend with the dirty paint on it, the results will definitely not be what you want.
Also despite the fact that the main highlights are now in, I'll be tweaking the shape, contrast, and color with them at almost every subsequent step.
With the main highlights in, we'll now add the main shadows. The shadow tone was a mix of Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Red Umber. This mix was then added into the base skin tone to create the tone that was ultimately used for the actual shadows. Here they are applied on the face:
And here they are blended in:
As with the highlights, we'll also be tweaking the shadows in further steps.
With the main highlights and shadows applied, I'll now be focusing on the smaller details - the nose, lips, area under the eyes and so on. Most of this work will consist of added different tones to enhance the face and help bring it to life. (In addition to the highlight/shadow tweaks). Here is what we have after all of the smaller details and tones are in:
In the above pic, the important additions are the purple tones under the eyes, and the reddish tones on the lips and nose. The color applied to underneath the eyes was a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue. The lips were the base skin tone with Alizarin Crimson mixed into it. The texture on the lips which was created by adding small lines of the highlight skin tone mixed into the color used for the lip. The tip and nostrils of the nose also had a small amount of Alizarin Crimson applied to them, and the sides of the bridge of the nose also had a little amount of Alizarin Crimson mixed into them as well. A little more difficult to see is the greyish tone used underneath the bottom lip - this was a mix of Red Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. Finally highlights were added to the top of the bottom eyelids using the skin highlight color.
With the small details in, the next is the beard and hair. The base grey tone used for the beard was a mix of Ultramarine Blue, Red Umber and Titanium White. Highlights were created by adding more Titanium White to the mix. Here is the beard (and eyebrows - but they won't be seen due to the helmet):
With the beard finished, we can stop and take stock of our work. As far as the wet-in-wet approach goes, we've done all we need to do. After everything drys in 3-4 days, we'll be able to finish up with the final steps:
Thanks for reading,
Phil
Today I was able to paint the face, so let's get to it!
Here are the paints we'll use for our main skin tone:
From left to right we have: Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, and Cadmium Red. As stated in a prior post, all paints from this bust will be from Michael Harding's range of artist oils, and I'll be commenting on them throughout. Starting with a larger portion of Raw Sienna, small portions of Naples Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, and Cadmium Red were added till I found the tone I was looking for. This will be seen a little further below in a picture of the palette.
In addition to the colors for the base skin tone mix, the further paints were also used:
Again, from left to right we have: Titanium White, Red Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Alizarin Crimson. These paints will serve to create the shadows, highlights and other nuances for the skin tones. Red Umber is the same pigment as Burnt Umber, except it's a little warmer in value. I thought for this bust it would be a little more interesting to swap out my usual Burnt Umber for this, and maybe add a little bit of subtle warmth to the nuances in the skin.
Here's the palette with all the mixes on it:
The bottom middle of the palette is the base skin tone; you can also see a highlight tone right next to it too. Above that, you can see various shadow tones and nuances. (The violet that was made from the Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue was gorgeous, by the way.) At the very top, you can see the grayish colors used for the beard and hair.
And our brushed that were used are:
One thing that I would like to point out is that with a lot of oil painting, when working wet-in-wet, it consists of a first pass of applying paint to the surface, and then a second pass of blending it in. It seems for some reason (at least from the questions that I get asked), many have problems finding a nice soft brush that is needed for the blending pass. So, with that in mind, if you're looking for a very soft brush to help blend your oils in, I can highly recommend these cheap brushes from Princeton Brush Co. from their "velvetouch" line. They're fantastic. The one in the pic above is a size 0 Flat Shader, but there are a ton of sizes and shapes in the line. Definitely check them out. The brush above was also the brush I did all my blending with for the 54mm Saracen Warrior I posted pics in the finished forum too.
Our first step will be to base coat the entire face with the base skin tone (the mid tone). This is a very exciting step that takes all of 2 seconds (although I am careful to not get any in the eyes):
The only important thing to keep in mind is that we want a nice, even, smooth coat covering the entire face. After the paint is applied, wipe the remaining paint off your brush, and then with the clean brush, go back over the face, and remove any excess paint. You want thin, smooth coverage.
Next I decided to paint in the main highlights. You could just as well start with the shadows - for me it's a little easier to start with the highlights first. The highlight color was simply the base skin tone with Titanium White added to it. Here they are applied to the face:
One important thing of note is that everything above the eyes will be completely covered with a helmet, so outside of the base coat from the step above I won't be paying any attention to that area.
Of course, after the highlights have been applied, we need to then blend them in:
Keep in mind, when doing the blending, after one or two passes with your blending brush, clean it off, and then continue on. The brush has a tendency to get dirty, and if you blend with the dirty paint on it, the results will definitely not be what you want.
Also despite the fact that the main highlights are now in, I'll be tweaking the shape, contrast, and color with them at almost every subsequent step.With the main highlights in, we'll now add the main shadows. The shadow tone was a mix of Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Red Umber. This mix was then added into the base skin tone to create the tone that was ultimately used for the actual shadows. Here they are applied on the face:
And here they are blended in:
As with the highlights, we'll also be tweaking the shadows in further steps.
With the main highlights and shadows applied, I'll now be focusing on the smaller details - the nose, lips, area under the eyes and so on. Most of this work will consist of added different tones to enhance the face and help bring it to life. (In addition to the highlight/shadow tweaks). Here is what we have after all of the smaller details and tones are in:
In the above pic, the important additions are the purple tones under the eyes, and the reddish tones on the lips and nose. The color applied to underneath the eyes was a mix of Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue. The lips were the base skin tone with Alizarin Crimson mixed into it. The texture on the lips which was created by adding small lines of the highlight skin tone mixed into the color used for the lip. The tip and nostrils of the nose also had a small amount of Alizarin Crimson applied to them, and the sides of the bridge of the nose also had a little amount of Alizarin Crimson mixed into them as well. A little more difficult to see is the greyish tone used underneath the bottom lip - this was a mix of Red Umber, Ultramarine Blue, and Titanium White. Finally highlights were added to the top of the bottom eyelids using the skin highlight color.
With the small details in, the next is the beard and hair. The base grey tone used for the beard was a mix of Ultramarine Blue, Red Umber and Titanium White. Highlights were created by adding more Titanium White to the mix. Here is the beard (and eyebrows - but they won't be seen due to the helmet):
With the beard finished, we can stop and take stock of our work. As far as the wet-in-wet approach goes, we've done all we need to do. After everything drys in 3-4 days, we'll be able to finish up with the final steps:
- Tweak and adjust any final contrast between highlights and shadows using glazes
- I will add a wash of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Umber to the beard to help contrast the shadows and highlights, and to also help pick out the details of the sculpted hair in the beard.
Thanks for reading,
Phil
