Step by step-Painting-Cat-Head-With-Acrylic

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Step by step-Painting-Cat-Head-With-Acrylic

Step 1 

For this bobcat head, start with a tan base color and then add three other colors: a light gray, a darker bluish color and a dark value of burnt Umber and Ultramarine blue with some Cadmium-barium red Deep. The tan and grays represent the middle values; the darkest value here is one step away, on my imaginary value scale, from my final darkest value. defer to a paint swatch to make sure that there is a clear distinction in values, so they will play off each other in contrast. It will take several more coats of the dark mixture to build it up to a solid value where necessary. Use this dark value with varying amounts of water to make thin washes. You can "draw" with these to lay in the dark areas and start painting hair details. 

Step 2

Add more details with the dark paint mixture to make some areas, such as the eyes, ears, nose and mouth, more opaque using several coats of paint. Add Cadmium-Barium Red Deep and Yellow Ochre Light to the dark. mixture and thin with water to paint hair and suggest more details, starting around the eyes. For this area of short fur on the head, use a lot of short strokes, even to paint the shapes that appear to be long, dark lines on the forehead. These may be formed by the fur pattern or by head structure, but keep the strokes short and broken, like the short hairs will be. At this point, establish a base color value on the nose and in the eye. 

The-Oil-Alternative

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The-Oil-Alternative 

My approach for creating oil portraits shares several similarities with my watercolor work; for example, I use a similar palette for both-yellow ochre, cerulean blue and alizarin crimson (substituted for rose madder), to which I may add cadmium red and ivory black; However, there are four important differences: In oil, I deal more with shapes than lines,I Work dark's to light, my color applications are opaque rather than transparent and I don't use the progression of three key techniques that I use for Watercolor.

I work on toned canvas-usually raw umber thinned with turpentine which provides a solid neutral tone and I start each portrait by doing a drawing with ivory black. 

As with my Watercolors, I start adding Color in the face, which I block with four values. I start by mixing my shadow color, then take a portion of this mixture and lighten it with white to create my halftone. Next I lighten a portion of the halftone mixture to produce my lights. Finally, I adjust a portion of in light mixture to produce my highlights. My brushes are all bristle filberts and I usually start the head using a different No. 6 for each tone. This keep the color clean and allows me to work the tones together.

Master-Realism-1

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Master-Realism-1

Whether you work in watercolor or oil, here bow to give your portraits rich, lifelike fleshtones.

By Paul W. McCormack

I’ve always taken my artistic inspirations from the expressions of the human form-the ever changing countenance of a friend’s face in conversation, the blank stare of a stranger on a subway, or the poetic gesture of a stance. Although I work in both watercolor and oil (see “The Oil Alternative”),

I began my career nearly 35 years ago by painting the figure in watercolor, a medium that lends itself beautifully to recreating the translucent quality of flesh. By working transparently and using three basic techniques-wet-into wet, glazing and drybrush-I’ve developed a method that gives my portraits a look unlike conventional watercolors. This approach can be very time-consuming: I often spend 80 hours or more painting a simple head and shoulders. But the effort is worth it. The results of this process can prove” quite sublime. Here’s how it works.

Outside-The-Box-Learn-From-The Master

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Outside-The-Box-Learn-From-The Master

By Joe Garcia

  I’m a dedicated wildlife artist, painting mostly North American birds and mammals, because I’m fascinated with these creatures. Great subjects can be found almost anywhere, and they’re just waiting to be painted a sparrow sitting on a window ledge, a turtle sunning on a log or a quail running in the brush. But despite the recurrence of my subjects, I make my paintings stand out from the others in my genre (and I never get bored with them) because I allow myself to go beyond the usual painting formats and explore new areas of the picture.

  Giving my wildlife paintings an odd size brings an added vitality to the subjects, and it makes them not only more exciting to paint but more interesting to view as well. It challenges me as an artist to be more creative in relating the background to the center of interest. After all, a painting size of 61/2 x 291/2 would challenge almost anyone’s creativity! I’ll show you how I go through the process of searching for the right format, and then how I paint within these new parameters, and with this I hope you’ll begin to expand your painting horizons, too. 

A Different View

From the window of my studio I often see nuthatches (small, tree-climbing birds) moving from limb to limb and clinging to tree trunks-even hanging upside down. The acrobatic subject of A Different View (watercolor 32x11) was perfect for painting in a tall format, and I emphasized this with the strong vertical shapes of the tree trunk and branch. I used the negative space of the background and the delicate texture of the lichen to further accentuate these shapes.

Exploring the Possibilities 

  Before placing any paint on the paper, I like to take the time to explore some of the different formats that can be used with each subject. Does the center of interest lend itself to a tall vertical painting, a long horizontal one or a traditional square one? For wildlife, the clues to answering this question are usually in the creature’s habitat. A bird may be perched at the end of a long and complex branch, or atop a curiously twisting tree trunk. 

  A mountain lion may be resting beside a variety of bushes or a stream full of beautiful reflections. Often there are natural lines in the environment that I can use to guide the viewer’s eye toward the painting’s center of interest. Unless the right format comes to me immediately, I’ll make pencil sketches that try out a variety of shapes before I settle on the one I’m going to stick with.

Pastels-And-Fixative-Debating

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Pastels-And-Fixative-Debating

By Carmi Weingrod

Pastelists have been debating about fixatives since the eighteenth century. Now, after more than two hundred years of dialogue, the questions are still unresolved. Ask any group of pastelists about the topic and you’re likely to hear a volley of responses.

Some use fixative sparingly in the painting process to obtain certain color effects, some use it as a protective finish on completed paintings and others never use it at all. At least there’s agreement on one thing Pastel is a structurally fragile medium susceptible to mechanical injury and that makes paintings created with it difficult to store, frame and transport. Although a final coat of fixative appears to keep some pastel particles intact, it also obliterates the unique color and textural qualities that distinguish pastel from other painting mediums.

Unfortunately, the fixative dialogue delivers no clear cut answers, leaving the ultimate decision up to each pastel artist. Although I can’t you when to use fixative or how much to use or whether to use it at all, I can provide information to help you make the most educated decision possible about using fixatives in your own work, either in the painting process or as a protective coating for the completed work.