PORTRAIT EXERCISES
PROCESS
1
Choose a complicated scene to
paint. I used a photo of a busy
street with pedestrians in the
background. The model, Marie, is in
the mid-ground, slightly cropped at the
top and the foreground has a
cluttered still life of coffee cups,
flowers and cheesecake.
Begin your Notan with a broad
outline of the scene, including most of
the elements. I painted on a blue-grey
ground mixed from Process Cyan,
Burnt Sienna and Titanium White.2
Begin blocking in the absolute
darks, leaving the original base
colour as your initial light areas. If we
start with the premise that the portrait
is the “focal point”, then everything
around the scene should
accommodate or lead to the face.3
Apply a potent white to work out
which shapes contribute to the
passage of light, which are most
interesting, and which can be
removed. In my example, I used
highlights to direct the eye from the
base of the painting, around the plate
to the cup, up the arm and towards
the face. The direction of the creases
in Marie’s top also lead to the face,
as did the line of the street.4
Take the study a step further by
adding a mid-grey to provide
more variation in the tonal range.
From here you can add colour or
simply use as a compositional
template for a finished painting.Hashim’s new book, Painting Portraits in
Acrylics, is published by Search Press,
RRP £14.99. http://www.hashimakib.co.uk