PROCESS VIDEO // self portrait (Patreon)

Here’s the process video for the self portrait I just posted! The painting took me around 3 hours to make, and it’s sped up about 4 times (slower than most of my videos so you can get a good sense of how I approach paintings like these!)

Things to keep in mind while watching:

LAYERING LIGHTER COLORS ON TOP OF DARKER / MID TONES

This is a technique I use when I want my drawing to have a creamy, painterly feel. Basically I start with slightly darker colors, and then layer the brighter details on top. This is why, when I’ve put down the base colors by 3:30 minutes, the colors are darker than they were in real life. I can gradually add the lighter tones on top of this darker color as I get further in the painting process. I feel like this keeps a more classic painterly look. 

SCULPTING WITH COLOR

With all my paintings, I like to get the colors down as quickly as possible so that I can ‘sculpt with color’ at a later point. The basic idea is to just pick colors off the canvas and use them to gradually add more definition and detail to the shapes. This is why my first sketch is really simple and fast - it’s just a starting point so I can quickly put the colors down and then start ‘sculpting’. This is also why I use liquify a lot: it’s another useful tool with which I can ‘sculpt’!

Hope you like it!