Painting Faces in Acrylic (+2 Hours of process videos)

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Painting the Face (Portrait Technique)

Artwork: Andrea Mancini: "Tender Hero" 2020, acrylic on canvas, 40x30 cm

Painting faces and figures

The technique of blending and blending colours with acrylics has to come to terms with the extreme speed of drying typical of this medium. This doesn't mean that you can't create soft, delicate blends with acrylics as well, but you must become familiar with the medium. To facilitate shading, one can resort to the "wet-on-wet" technique, which consists of adding colour to the still wet surface of the medium (paper or canvas) or to layers of colour that are still fresh. Or by wetting the surface to be painted, e.g. the face, with a brush and pure water, you will be able to shape and smooth the flesh and add light and shadow in a very natural, soft way. To work more quickly while retaining moisture, work piece by piece, rather than wetting the whole face.

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Painting flesh tones

For flesh tones use Titanium White, a little Lemon Yellow and Carmine or Vermilion Red. Add very little Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna to give the midtones or half-tones of the face.

Required material

1 rough sheet 300 gr. or 1 canvas on cardboard for acrylic paint, dimensions 30x40 cm;
1 flat paintbrush of 4-6 cm;
various hair or synthetic brushes;
1 wet palette;
acrylic paints and water.