I just finished a great 5-day portrait class with Chris Stubbs, who is from Oregon. I wanted
to share just a few things she emphasized. I have another blog on eyes (see 2017 May 5). So look at
that for drawing tips.
In painting, Chris Stubbs does a few things differently than I did. First of all, she paints the skin tone right over the eye instead of leaving it white. That is because the eye is recessed quite a bit in the face, so is seldom ever seen as pure white. Also, she does quite dark glazing over the face, so in comparison, the eye looks natural without the pure white of the paper.
In doing the first glaze for the skin tone, Chris uses a combination of a red, a yellow, plus Janets Violet Rose, Permanant Green Lights (or Hookers) and some verditer blue as accents. She mixes her base skin tone (such as permanent rose plus raw sienna- Winsor Newton brand bc it is more yellow), brushes it on with a large wet brush, and adds one of the other colors in areas that will either be in shadow or will reflect another color.
In class I showed the difference between painting on Arches cold press (300) and hot press papers. The hot press seems smoother, but doesn't absorb paint in the same way as cold press: can leave hard edges and blossoms. So if using hot press, you can use a LIFTING PREPARATION before painting.
In this one, I used cold press Arches 300 lb on the top; Arches hot press 140 lb on the bottom
You can see that this first layer paints directly over the eyes. You can also see the addition of some blues, greens, and violets in some areas.
Here I've painted a blue and brown eye for demo purposes. The procedure is very much the same as in my May 2017 blog:
1. Paint and arc of blue under the top eyelid. Pink the inner eye around the tear duct. Allow to dry.
2. For a blue eye, paint a base of pale cobalt blue teal (I think Chris uses Arctic Blue); for brown, use quin gold as the base; and for green use cobalt blue teal and drop some quin gold in areas. Let that dry.
3. Darken the top of the iris again: verditer blue or cobalt for a blue eye; quin burnt orange mixed with French ultramarine for the brown eye. Pull that color down into the iris. Dry.
4. For all eyes: mix quin burnt orange and French ultramarine to make a dark color for the iris. (You can also use French and burnt umber or another dark combination). Paint the pupil. Then paint the ring around the iris. While it is still damp, use a small brush to soften the inner rim..pull into the iris just a bit. Then Soften the pupil just a bit. Dry.
5. Use a very small lifting brush to lift a highlight on the side of the light source, and a reflection opposite it. In this, my light source is to my left, so my hilight is on the left, reflection on the right.
So here is an unfinished painting I began in the workshop. Yes, I know the hair needs to be finished.
And the paper I used was not as good as I thought it was (an Arches cold press BOARD, which does not lift.) This is one of my grandsons, Noah.
So here are some of the tips I learned:
Use a large brush that carries a lot of water at the beginning.
Use paint combinations that are not staining.
Don't be afraid to experiment with color. (Who knew that if you use Quin Coral with green gold, you can get a decent skin tone?)
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