Portrait Painting in black&white oil - PART II

This is part II of my attempt to paint a black&white portrait as shown in the book "Creative Illustration" by Andrew Loomis.

In part I I finished the charcoal underdrawing.  In this post I'll show some photo's of the beginning of the painting stage.

The black paint I used is a mixture of Ivory black (a blue and cool black) and Burnt Umber. I pre-mixed four values: An almost white gray, a light grey, a dark gray, and an almost black gray.

1. I started blocking in the darkest parts and the background.

2. Adding the whites and a light gray for the skin.

3. Adding more details on the hair and face.

I felt this was a critical moment in the painting, how to continue?
You can see how the painting turned out in the upcoming part III.

Illustration Friday: Glow

Amidst all the christmas preparations, I made a quick illustration for this week's theme "Glow". This one is a bit of an experiment. I had fun painting it with ArtRage, a free digital painting program.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Portrait painting in black&white oil - PART I

I'm a big fan of the art books by Andrew Loomis. Every time I read "Creative Illustration" I find something new and I often think: "Why didn't anyone show me this before?"

On page 116 he writes about a painting technique he calls the soft approach. Large tones are painted in directly and edges are softened immediately. After that details are added while the paint is wet.

I have drawn quite a few portraits in pencil and charcoal that turned out well, but I find portraits in color still difficult to do. Taking one step back to black and white paint is a good exercise.

This is the first of three blog posts of the painting in progress.

Painting sold!

Acrylic on canvas 30x30cm - SOLD 

Oil Painting: Pair of dutch clogs

Pair of Dutch Clogs, oil on panel

Portrait in Oilpaint

This is one of my first attempts in portrait painting in oil. I've been drawing many portraits lately in charcoal and pencil, but painting in oils is something completely different.

For this painting I didn't start with a drawing, just blocked in the general shape of the head and painted from memory. It seems to work better this way for me; drawing masses with the brush as opposed to starting a a painting with a detailed drawing in pencil.

Oil on gessoed masonite board, 7.5"x10.5"