Skill Builders
Step 8: Complete the Background
Since there’s little background showing
in this portrait, I’ll keep it a single color.
This is a good choice because there’s a
lot of detail in the face, hair and blouse.
I use ultramarine for the remainder of
the background. I leave the section on
the right unfilled so that it doesn’t get
too smudged. I don’t worry about indi-
vidual hairs right now; I’ll develop them
once the background is finished. I add
more value to the face using Havana
brown and raw umber. I continue to
compare the darks and lights of the face
to the darks and lights of the hair. Each
will relate on the value scale.Step 9: Bring Out the Darks
and Make Adjustments
Using neutral black, I begin bringing
out darks. I darken sections of the
hair, add black in the dress and add
more background using ultramarine.
Using confident but tapering strokes,
I begin applying flyaway hairs. This is
an important stage because it ties the
foreground to the background and
helps soften the sharp edges. I add
just enough wisps for visual interest.
As the drawing progresses, it’s quite
common that some features change
slightly or get a little muddled. I care-
fully study the reference to determine
if any features need to be corrected.
Often, it’s something very subtle—in
this case, the cheekbones needed more
defining (raising) and the lips/mouth
needed slight adjustment. This is the
most difficult part of rendering a por-
trait—especially in color—because the
slightest nuance usually will indicate
that something isn’t quite right.Step 10: Add Clothing
I apply a layer of neutral black and
Payne’s gray to create the shoulders of
her dress. Because the actual pattern
is quite complex, I choose to simplify it.
I include just enough detail to give the
sense of the original dress, but not too
much to detract from the main focal
points in the portrait. Using titanium
white, orange yellow and carmine,
I render the flowers on the dress;
I create the farthest flowers using
cold gray 4 to indicate depth in Erin
(pastel pencils, 16x12). PJJustin Maas (justinmaas.com; instagram.
com/maas.art) is a professional illustrator,
artist and designer.8
10
9
14 Pastel Journal OCTOBER 2019