Portrait
Painting in Acrylics
Painting
the Hair
The
painting of the hair is usually the last part of the
head to be completed. It follows the natural order
of the painting, finally covering the rough edges
of both the background and the skin. The colours used
for the dark areas of the hair were ivory black and
prussian blue, while the highlights were mostly titanium
white.
The
Technique
You
can see the technique used for painting the hair in
our actual size detail above. The
underpainting was applied with freely brushed
glazes of ivory black and prussian blue. The overpainted
details of the hair were built up with fine strokes
of black and white whose direction follows the contours
of the haircut. The opacity of these brush strokes
was varied to suggest the depth, texture and highlights
of the hair. The density of the brushstrokes decreases
around the edges of the hair to convey softness of
its outline.
Painting
the Eyebrows and Eye Lashes
The
eyebrows and eye lashes are usually the same colour
as the hair, but they are painted more delicately
with the smallest brushes. The underpainting in these
areas is simply the darker skin tone. The soft texture
of the hair in the eyebrows and eye lashes is slowly
built up with delicate strokes of a thinly mixed ivory
black. It is very easy to overdo these features, so
you should start by applying a few strokes, then stopping
to check the effect. Apply a few more, then stop and
check again. Continue this process until you achieve
the satisfactory density of hair for the eyebrows
and eye lashes.
Our
lesson on pencil
portraits
should help you with drawing the hair.
