So I’ve been working on a portrait of a human being and his noble canine (whose identities I cannot reveal because it’s Christmas related), and I’ve had so many Hagrid moments (“Oop. Shouldna [done] that”) that I thought I would write this post to help others on their painting journeys. I feel like I’ve had time to reflect on the process now that I’ve done so many in the Bella Bright style, so I will share these insights for any other poor soul who is trying to paint something realistically and may not have a lot of experience with it. Here goes:
Whatever you’re painting will look horrible for about 80% of the time you’re working on it because you’re building up all those layers, and it’s best to think of that 80% as adding muscles to the basic structures of your subject. And everyone knows how ghastly naked muscles look without skin over them. Ghastly!
To make something look three dimensional, you’ll need lots of layers that include a range of light, medium, and dark tones. Also, highlights don’t always have to be white. Sometimes they can be pale blue or pink or yellow. This brings me to my next point.
Purple is great for shading skin because it doesn’t make it look dirty like pure black or mixing brown and blue does. Sometimes I’ll use Payne’s Gray to shade, but it’s very rare. (Thank you, Sarah Mattingly Benson, for sharing this secret with me back in college:)
If you’re painting something complex like a human face, which I think is challenging no matter what your skill level, you’ll need to paint for shorter durations than if you were painting a simplified background, say. First of all, you need to give your brain and your emotions a break. Secondly, it helps to step back from your painting and really study it to make note of how you want to fix things or just proceed in general.
Go ahead and seriously think about giving up. Entertain the idea. Almost do it. Then get back to painting. I have discovered that as soon as I start thinking, “Screw this!” and then rally, I make a breakthrough and the painting begins to enter the skin/last 20% stage. Then I have a Dr. Frankenstein moment as the lightning strikes and yell, “It’s working! It’s alive! IT’S ALIVE!” Which motivates me to finish.
That is it, folks! Hopefully these five tips will save you some heartache with your painting projects. There is one caveat, though. If you start to feel like you are about to throw the painting out of the window in frustration, then a break is definitely called for! So take frequent breaks to prevent frustration burnout and muscle stress. The think-about-giving-up-then-rally tip is a save for last resort thing. Happy painting, and have a wonderful week!