Saturday, June 5, 2010

Experiments & Faces

This is what happens when I experiment with no expectations...
I've been reading a book, DYNAMIC ACRYLICS by Soraya French. The author likes to use acrylic ink, often as the underpainting. I picked up a bottle of Liquitex Burnt Sienna Acrylic Ink. There's a dropper built into the cap. Wonderful. I applied the ink with the dropper on watercolor paper - dry, wet into wet, sprayed with water, alcohol, etc. Then I added Liquitex Soft Body paint - Ultramarine. More ink. Then I decided I needed a little black. That's when I saw a face. So I dipped a brush into the jar of black soft body paint & laid calligraphic strokes on the paper to bring out the face I "saw". I came back to the page later & decided it needed a bit of highlight, so I added a few strokes of yellow ochre. Then I bordered the page with strokes of black.

Another day, another experiment. I've been learning to paint faces. In Sharon Tomlinson's on-line class, we used Folk Art craft paints which has a nice generic skintone color. But Sharon also showed us an easy mix to create flesh tones.
This week I got out my set of Golden OPEN Acrylic paint to experiment with creating flesh tones. I was very happy with the results that came from mixing titatium white, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson and cobalt blue. Ultramarine blue also works, but has a higher tinting strength than cobalt blue, so be careful to not add too much!
Well, I had the paint mixtures on my palette and dabs of the color recorded in my paint reference journal... so how about making a face. I had about 20 minutes available, so I grabbed a miniature watercolor tablet (3.5 x 4.75 inches), quickly sketched an outline & features, then applied paint with a 3/8 inch angular flat brush.
Have you ever used Golden OPEN Paints? They are luscious & creamy & so blendable!

This little study was painted very loosely. ALL of it was painted with that relatively large brush. The angle makes it possible to paint the smallest details when using a superb paint like Golden OPEN. (No, I am not getting any reimbursement for all this gushing.)
I definitely will be using this paint for more faces.

One last thing. If you want to take a fun on-line class, sign up with Sharon Tomlinson. She gives great feedback and is really fun. Sharon is offering a new class that will start this month using non-traditional colors for faces. Check it out!

4 comments:

Sharon Tomlinson said...

Oh Regina, Your found face is wonderful and I love your experamental spirit. The second face is just fab. I don't have any of the open acrylics and need to try because I am such a blender I know I would love them. The face has a beautiful expression.

Thanks for shouting for me.

Gifts of Creation said...

Hi Regina,
I found your blog and read your profile, yes, we do have a lot in common....if you havent already, you might really enjoy this post on my blog...http://giftsofcreation.blogspot.com/2010/05/poppies-and-birds-finished-some.html
I love your faces!

Sara said...

Regina...your artwork is amazing. It's awesome how you share in details your experiments with the paint and colors! You inspire me!

xoxoxx,

Sara in Tulsa

Emelie said...

Hi Regina, your found face is wonderful artistic, one of those works that make a person look a long time and appreciate. Interesting to read about your process in different areas. I enjoyed the visit.