Acrylic Painting Lessons
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"Stanley"
By Leslie Pease
www.lesliepease.com
I would like to share my technique for painting a pet portrait, from a poor photograph, In this article, I will be painting brown fur, in acrylic paints. The method is painting in layers; many many layers. I am not fortunate enough to have large groups of time, to paint, so the painting really had time to dry, in between layers and took approximately 3 weeks to paint.
This is a commission portrait. The client borrowed the photograph, without her boyfriend knowing, long enough for scanning. She chose this photo, because it is of a dog, her boyfriend had, whom has "passed on". He carries it in his wallet, and pulls it out, often, to look for himself or to show others. The photo and Stanley meant a great deal to my client's boyfriend. The reference photo is a portion of a larger photograph, which was cropped in, to just feature Stanley. It's an old photograph, and in rough shape.
You can get a good sense of what steps were taken, with the painting by reading the descriptions and looking at the photos. Some steps are the same process repeated, building on the previous layer of paint, so at times, the photos may seem the same. If you look carefully, you notice the differences. I am sorry about a couple of the images, but despite their quality, you can still see what is occurring.
The brushes were just three:
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An old, ratty, round brush
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A fairly new, round brush
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A fairly new, small round brush
All the brushes are used, during all layers. I feel most compfortable with a brush that has been well used and moves easily in my hand. I grab which ever one achieves the look I am trying to achieve. Such as; a wispy looking fur, I'd use the worn out bruch. For a more of a clean line, I'd select the liners.
Your brushes don't need to be the same as mine; use the brushes with which you are most comfortable. It's not the brushes that paint the painting, it's the artist.
My palette for this painting is limited:
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The surface is a hand-stretched canvas, primed; 16x20. I like stretching my own canvas. Not only can the canvas be a custom size, I know that it is well done and will shrink and stretch, straight.
I thin my acrylics and paint in thin watered down, layers. Keeping things simple, I use only water to do the thinning. Others may find a product like a glazing medium or a matt medium, to thin the paint. I never really have tried them, myself.
When mixing my colors, I try not to over-mix on my palette. That tends to flatten and deaden the colors. When the color is allowed to mix on the canvas, the colors are much richer and really come alive.
I chose to leave black out of my palette because I feel it's a very flat and lifeless color. Remember the simple rule that black isn't absent color, but instead, all colors, That's the black I use. And, when not over-mixed and viewed under certain light, the black can reveal such depth.
Visit Leslie's Site: http://www.lesliepease.com