Painting a portrait is much like building a house.
It all has to be done in the right order, and first things first.
When you follow the plan, your portrait will be successful.
Let me show you how!
For a while now, I have used the metaphor of building a house. We have a new neighbor who bought some land next to us, and is building a house. First, they put down the concrete slab, then the studs for the structure. After that, sheathing, roofing, and soon they'll be putting in the electrical and the plumbing.
For example, would it make sense to stick some studs in the ground without the foundation in place? Or put in the electrical without a framework of studs to support the cables? Of course not!
Here is a different metaphor. Frosting is amazing, isn't it?
Who doesn't love frosting on a cake? (Do we have any bakers or cake decorators in the house? I do—my wife. She's got all those fancy cake decorating tips, too 🙂 )
If I asked you to put frosting on a cake, because we love how it tastes and it's fun to apply, but if I forgot to put the cake in the oven first, what good would that do?
As I've mentioned, as artists, we often want to get proficient at certain portions of painting without other parts being in place first.
Skin tones are one of those things. It's the #1 thing artists want to learn, and when I ask my students, "What do you most need help with?" the answer, 9 times out of 10, is skin tones. 🙂
Many, many artists struggle with skin tones and want to get better at them.
I get it.
Mixing colors is tricky, and we all admire portraits with beautiful, natural skin tones. But having good skin tones won't ultimately help much if you don't have a good foundation in place.
So, this is what I'd REALLY like to teach on, because I think it is vital to mastering portrait painting. I keep mentioning it all the time in my critiques. It's been brewing inside my mind for months!
There is a step-by-step path to creating a realistic portrait you can be proud of.
I call it the "7-Steps to Building an Incredible Acrylic Portrait"
It is a solid framework you can use to create a realistic painting of a person successfully, predictably. It's like a blueprint or plan that breaks down the seven individual parts of a successful painting, then puts them back together again, one piece at a time, in the right order. When you follow this plan, you'll experience less frustration while painting, and your portrait painting skills will drastically improve!
In this class, I'll teach on this framework at a 10,000 feet level at first.
Then, I want to dive in deep, all the way down to ground level, and we'll go over each individual step, thoroughly, to give you time to understand the concepts and incorporate it into your own work. We can do that here in this group and in the school. That will be covered in future lessons. But for now, let's get started!
Here's what to do next:
Register for the LIVE class for FREE by July 12th, 2021 1-2PM. It will be done on Zoom, and I'll be sharing this step-by-step plan with you. You don't need a canvas, brushes, etc, for this initial class. But later, you will. :)
https://realisticacrylic.com/7-steps-to-building-a...
Purchase the replay below for $47.00 and you will get lifetime access to it. (If you are a Realistic Acrylic All-Access Member, you will have access to the course replay already. :) )
Look forward to teaching this 7-Step Process to you and helping you to paint your best portraits yet!
Yours for Better Portraits,
Matt