Oil Painting Portrait on Panel, The Woman with Dreads

A couple weeks ago our figure drawing group was working with one of our fabulous models, who has multiple tattoos and a head full of dreadlocks, ribbons and beads.  She posed for a couple portrait shots for me.

I worked on a panel that had already seen a couple of failed paintings, and got a fresh coat of oil primer.  When I primed it, I didn't worry about going all the way to the edges - I let a little bit of the previous layers hang around.

This is the "alien" stage...just a quick indication of the size of the head and starting to mass in shadows.

Blocked in some large areas of color.  I wanted the first few layers to be a bit more bold - I know I can always tone down the color, so I intentionally chose a more saturated orange

Considered the background, started playing around with blues and greens.  Very little detail in the eyes. Mostly shadows.

A few indications of the dreads on the rights

I like this stage, where there are transparent and opaque layers of paint.  Also, working on an oil primed panel, I can still wipe away a lot of paint

Getting a little closer to the skin tone, deeper shadows in the hair.  The shadows and light across her forehead were difficult.  I had to rework the area several times.

Deciding on a background color, and blocking in the rest of her shoulders.  I am using just oil paint and a touch of thinner, no other medium.  Rosemarie brushes all the way.

More interest added to the dreads, including some of the blue ribbon she has woven through her hair. I also toned down the highlights above her eyebrows, focusing more on the highlight on top of her forehead.  Three highlights was too distracting

(20" x 16")

Portrait Painting Step by Step

I know!  Two posts in two days?!?! Crazy!

This is a recent oil portrait on acrylic primed canvas (I only mention the acrylic primed because I am trying to pay a lot more attention to my surfaces...trying new types of canvas and seeing what works best for me).  I think the size is 16" x 20".  The young man in the photo was walking into a restaurant near my studio just as I was leaving.  Much to my husband's delight I walked up to the young man and asked if he'd be interesting in modeling for a portrait sometime.  Well, he was incredibly nice, and turns out he is a very talented musician as well.  (I also took several shots of him playing his guitar - I loved his relaxed stance as he started to sing)

Anyway...this shot was great - taken against the antique stone wall in my studio, just out of the light from the window.

I started by blocking in the large shapes - no under painting really - just right in with a close approximation of value and color.

A little more pushing and pulling on the edges - does the hair have to move to the left? does the chin tilt down more?  Big shapes and relationships...no detail.

Starting to define the end of the nose, the eye (keeping all of the details in the shadows - the eye should not pop out of the socket) and the mouth

Considered the background more at this stage - deepened the shadows, added more color to the shirt.  I wanted to be sure the value of my skin tone was correct in the context.

Finished blocking in the background, re-evaluated the highlights on the face, started to define the dreadlocks

To be continued...final product coming soon :)