Are you looking forward to starting acrylic painting but is overwhelmed with information? Needless to say different contemporary portrait artists have their own methods, all are usable. In this article we are going to show less intimidating acrylic portrait painting tips to design portrait paintings. The key to successful portrait paintings is your knowledge of anatomy and drawing skills. Pay attention to the features that makes the person unique. What do you see? Don’t draw what you think. We hope you will be inspired to explore this medium a little more. You can find a good portrait art in Dubai online.

Step 1: Perform a basic sketch of your subject or trace from a photograph. Make sure you get the best reference photo. When you sketch using a pencil you can erase if you make a mistake. A good photo should have features such as the angle of the face, deep shadows, and significant highlights which helps in adding interesting personality to your portrait paintings. You don’t have to use any special paper just a $5-$10 sketchbook for your composition.

Step 2: Block the base colors. Define which areas are dark. So that each area becomes more blended. Define how these areas relate with each other. Start with the fore head on your way down. Rules of acrylic is that you have to keep painting until you are happy with it. Speed up the process by drying up each of the layers with a hair drier. So don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

Step 3: Mix your paints. Continue to mix throughout as you go along. But you can use those as the base painting tones. Blend the colors. For the details like eyes use a tiny brush. It is a time consuming process. Some people like to use spray bottles? But may typically don’t but we would say pre mix all of the paints your trying to blend into prior to painting. Some contemporary portrait artists prefer spray. Spray the drawing with workable fixative. It stops the pencil drawing from smudging. It’s very important for your drawings so they don’t get ruined over time

Step 4: Add a layer of clear gesso to achieve a matte. This helps in the stops the paper from absorbing the acrylic paint. To preserve the drawing.

Step 5: Painting process

The eyes

Eyes are the most important part of portrait paintings. The best contemporary portrait artists spend so much time and zero in on them until 100% happy. When the eyes are painted the whole artwork come to life.

The mouth

Put a little shadow in the corner of the mouth. Avoid putting too much detail on the teeth.

The hair

It depends on your model. You need to create depth in the hair. Use different brushes to give the hair some shape. Don’t use a tiny brush to try to build hair individually. Aha! You’ll go in sane. Is it realist?

The background

Adding the background changes the whole look of the painting. If you don’t like the background color, let it dry and repaint to match hair and skin color. With acrylic if you don’t like something let it dry off and repaint. You can pomp in the background to make it look interesting. Most contemporary portrait artists make them all the time.

Finishing touches

It is easy to do a second layer. Use glazing medium to do color changes. Create shadow glaze. Wash the brush and use the glazing liquid on its own to add eye lashes and deepen parts of the hair.

Outlines

This is optional. You can use quality brushes to do the outlines. It gives an elegant effect just a few tweaks to make your portrait paintings come alive. Don’t use too many outlines rather use a much smaller brush.

We hope you’re glad you stumbled on these acrylic portrait painting tips and going forward you will not struggle wrapping your head around the process of painting. And this tips will make you go back to acrylic painting if you had stopped or got discouraged. Yes, you can create incredible portrait paintings if you use the right approach.