Thursday, July 14, 2011

Last week's Lobenberg acrylic portrait workshop

< I painted this in acrylic on an 11 inch by 14 inch non-white canvas. I was showing my workshop students how you start with a BIG flat brush and paint in the mid value flesh color. After that is dry (about 12 minutes),the darks and lights are painted in. You need not even come close to painting in the final hues that you see on the face, because at this stage you are only interested in establishing the basic features and darks and lights. Once you are satisfied that you have established a likeness, you can then start refining the facial hues and features. This final portrait is about 75% complete. The only thing left to do is to refine the facial hues and features just a wee bit more. The entire painting was done with flat brushes.

8 comments:

Carol Blackburn said...

Nicely done, David...thanks for sharing your process. I am having a difficult time using the acrylics after concentrating on my watercolors for the last year. It feels like I'm starting all over again. This is wonderful!

David Lobenberg said...

Howdy, Carol. I only started learning acrylic painting after many years of "mastering" watercolor painting. If you are in a learning mode, trying to tackle such different mediums as watercolor and acrylic painting may lead you into a state of schizophrenic confusion!

Barbara Muir said...

This is so beautiful David. I like
your method.

Cool.

Your fan in Toronto,

Barbara

Autumn Leaves said...

Fabulous stages and I enjoy seeing the process, David. She is a beauty!

Fay Akers said...

I wish I could have seen your demo. It turned out lovely.

David Lobenberg said...

Thank you Barbara, Autumn, and Fay. Painting a portrait is a challenge, and fun hard work. My dream is to do it faster some day!

Cynthia Schelzig said...

sdizapfranick kunvuzhun....try adding bookbinding and design on top of watercolor and acylic...you just aren´t versitile enuf
David...you need to branch out more and challenge yourself:)
your bigger fan in Germany,
Cynthia

David Lobenberg said...

Cynthia, how about I try sky diving and painting a quiky watercolor on the way down?