First try at portrait

T

Tljakes

Guest
Apart from the airbrush tutor template of carmen diaz I tried my hand at a portrait using a picture of my daughter.

I'm still struggling to use white. My nemesis at this stage... Pehaps scratching is better than using white? Any ideas?

Comart paint on Paper, 0.5mm airbrush.20121028_131331.jpg
 
the problem with using white with black is the dreaded blue shift which I see is occuring in all your B&W work......by adding a few drops of orange to the white will help over come this.....some paints shift more than others so it's a little trial & error work.......also try building your layers slowly, and keep it subtle, your shading is way too dark at the moment.....it does not happen overnight it takes practice practice practice....:)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It looks good, especially for a first try at it. If you have seen my videos on mono work, I'm a fan of scratching and erasers and utilizing the natural white of the surface to stay way from the blue shift. I started mine with an over reduced grey and added a little black to my grey as I build my shadows up to its darkest points.


Josh
 
Thanks slipery, Awesome that there is people that can help. No airbrushers close to me to help so all advice is appreciated. :D
 
Saw the video, it was awesome. So that I'll try next instead of using white.
 
It looks good, especially for a first try at it. If you have seen my videos on mono work, I'm a fan of scratching and erasers and utilizing the natural white of the surface to stay way from the blue shift. I started mine with an over reduced grey and added a little black to my grey as I build my shadows up to its darkest points.


Josh

I saw that Josh.......you scratching and erasing.......too much work for me...lol...:)
 
there are a lot of techniques out there that you can use with portraits. on a b/w monochrome painting, I found that erasing and scratching works best. you will have to cinsider the substrate that you use, though. it has to be tough enough to survive scratching. if your substrate is too absorbent, it might not work as well. I find that using harder surfaces (like gessoed board, metal...) works best.

this is an awesome try, though. for your first time, it has the makings of a great portrait.

i hope this helps.
 
Ok So with all the advice I went and mixed up some grey and redid the portrait. Looks better to me but now I'm too affraid to go and do the highlights in fear that I might ruin what I've done.
Try #2.jpg
 
the hair is a lot better but your shading is still a tad to harsh, a little bit lighter and blend it out, it is too defined......but great job in such a short time.....I'm pretty fast myself but not that fast...:) the proportioning is a little off but that only comes with practice....:)...with the highlights just take it slow step back and look, you can always repair things.....no problem...:)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
thats wat i do and dont use white at all anymore, just very very over reduced black or grey and scratchin and erasin, the results are amazin as seen in the vid :)
 
Thanks slipery. Will try the protrait on a little bigger scale tomorrow. was done on about A5 scale maybe A4 or A3 size will give me little bit more area to blend. I'm home alone so time for airbrush is plenty... :)
 
Andre I have the opaques and on the paper it absorbs a lot so it looks like it's "bleeding" back into the white when I paint over the black. Will order a set of transparents as well or maybe try the Dala Inks heavily reduced.
But yes thinking of getting an electric eraser and to begin scraping as well.
 
Andre I have the opaques and on the paper it absorbs a lot so it looks like it's "bleeding" back into the white when I paint over the black. Will order a set of transparents as well or maybe try the Dala Inks heavily reduced.
But yes thinking of getting an electric eraser and to begin scraping as well.

Scraping and erasing does not work on all papers and not with all paints. It works better on pressed paper/board and opaques.

Ask you local art shop to put pressure on Xpress Grafx to bring in Schoelerhammer 4G paper and board. That is what Marissa, Dru and Eddy is using. If they get the order in now, it can still make it for delivery in January.
 
Back
Top