PORTRAIT EXERCISES
AIM
Here is an exercise to explore a
richer palette of strong, warm colours.
Darker skin tones are a great place to
start if you want to use more
saturated colour. With less pastel
tints, colours will have a chance to
spark to life.MATERIALS
For both of the exercises in this
feature, I painted on a 61x76cm
canvas using Daler-Rowney System 3
flat brushes, ranging in size from
one- to two-inches.
My palette of Amsterdam acrylic
paints included Titanium White, Azo
Yellow Medium, Yellow Ochre, Burnt
Sienna, Azo Orange, Pyrrole Red,
Primary Magenta, Yellow Green, King’s
Blue, Cobalt Blue, Primary Cyan,
Prussian Blue, Ultramarine Violet
and Permanent Blue Violet.WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
By building with solid, flat-brush
strokes, using darker tones and
balancing complementary colours, you
will learn some quick, simple ways to
use vibrant hues without them
overpowering your portrait.PROCESS
1
Begin with a light-blue base colour,
allow to dry, and apply rich warm
blocks of colour over this, mainly reds
with no white. This creates a simple
structure on which to build a portrait
and allows pure colour to dominate.
Ultramarine Violet and Burnt Sienna
can be added for darker tones.EXERCISE 1
1
2
2
Use flat brushes to create
definitive strokes that allow
variations in colours and avoid a
generic mix. Introduce very small
dabs of blues to break up the
warmer areas.
Adding Titanium White to the warm
mix can soften colour as it slowly
melds into the highlighted areas.3
Add more information for the
features and apply cool tints to
the highlights on the forehead, cheeks
and eyelid – use a mix of white, blue
and violets for this. Avoid fussing or
over-blending as this will dull the
luminosity of the pigment.4
Apply more dark tones for
contrast and definition, which
will allow other colours to begin to sit
back. Shape the face further with a
background colour – I chose a green
to create a complementary against
the reds.3 4