Recent portraits :
This tutorial comes from JohnLovett.com
This tutorial comes from JohnLovett.com
Back to tutorials home page | Shop | Submit a tutorial
| ||
| ||
 The first step is to loosely draw the basic shapes. The
idea is not to carefully draw every detail then fill it in, but to get a rough
guideline for the major shapes. Don't worry about accurate details, but
concentrate on accurate proportions.
(HB lead pencil) | ||
 Once you are satisfied with your drawing, a very pale wash
of Burnt Sienna mixed with a tiny amount of Indigo can be splashed over the
body. Into this damp wash place a little Burnt Sienna and a grey mixture to
slightly model the form. A darker grey forms the beak - a little lighter on
top.
(1" Flat brush) Finer detailed areas such as the beak may at first seem awkward to paint with the 1" brush but with practice you can do amazing things with the corner of one of these ( greys in this painting are mixed from the two colours) | ||
 Some more detail can be added with a warm grey - shadows
under, and at the back of the head and the suggestion of feathers on the wing.
Add the eye with the liner brush and a dark mixture of the two colours. Dont
forget to leave a couple of small white patches for reflections.
(1" Flat brush and liner brush) | ||
 Further modelling with Burnt Sienna and a warm grey give
the bird a nice solid form. Feather textures add interest to the wing. The liner
brush can be used to suggest feathers around the beak eye and head. Splashing
some warm grey below the chest area makes a nice random transition from white
paper to the body of the bird.
(1" Flat brush and liner brush) | ||
 The final step is to add the background. Because the bird
is very warm a cool Indigo background will give more impact. Although the
background looks simple and accidental, a fair amount of thought must go into
arranging tonal contrast in the right places. In order to draw attention to the area around the eye and beak, the darkest part of the background is placed behind the lightest part of the head. Below the dark beak and behind the shadow on the back of the neck the background is much lighter. Putting a slight diagonal thrust / through the background also helps draw attention to the head and balance the opposing diagonal of the bird \. | ||
| (1" Flat brush) softening
the edges on this background wash is made much easier when you place an old
towel under your work. It allows you to quickly and simply adjust the amount of
water in your brush.
Good luck and have fun with this little exercise © john lovett 1999 | ||
Back to tutorials home page | Shop | Submit a tutorial