Thursday, May 22, 2008

Portrait in Progress






When I do a portrait there are quite a few stages it goes through. I thought I'd go ahead and write about it, to help those who are not artists visualize the process.


Stages:

1. Preliminary drawing- I draw out the portrait on tracing paper first. It is much easier to erase on tracing paper than on canvas. Plus, any pencil will mix with your paint and grey it out.


2. Transfer to canvas. Notice how clean it looks.


3. Laying in basic colors, aka the "ugly stage". That painting will stay in this phase for a while before evolving into a recognizable piece of art.


4. Adding detail and form, background first.


5. Adding detail and form to the subject.


6. Adding the final touches to the subject.


7. After it's fully dry-- varnish it!

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