Nude Madonna painting in auction class="post-320 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-cool-ideas tag-abstract-art tag-abstract-painting tag-acrylic-painting tag-acrylic-portrait-painting tag-portrait-painting tag-portrait-paintings"> Acrylic Portrait Painting Learning to Paint Portrait painting is as popular as abstract art. When a person wants to paint a person, it takes practice to create a perfect painting. If you would be painting people or portraits by means of acrylics, you would be painting in layers. Despite the fact that you are building these layers, there is a tendency that you may be tempted to give up too soon. Nonetheless, provided that the features are properly placed, when you do paint portraits in acrylic, it just takes layers and patience. You should get the person features accurately as this is most important first step when you create this contemporary painting. My suggestion is that you make use of the grid methods in doing this. For instance, let us assume that you are painting from a photo or picture. What you should do is to make use of a pencil and lightly draw a grid with equal squares on the painting surface. Next, make use of another grid and place over the photo. Most likely, the grid you make use over the photo is a much smaller one. Then on your canvas, draw the lines within each square that you see. You can also choose to draw smaller squares within squares if you want even more accuracy. Once you are able to create an accurate portrait painting, you can now erase the grid lines. The second step is the foundation. What this foundation involves is the use of a thinned layer of paint for the person skin tone. The consistency of your painting should be similar to a water color. This is what they call as the under painting. What you should first do is to water down the flesh colored paint and then establish the whole skin area. Thereafter, add layer upon layer up to the point that you are able to build your shadows or highlights. You can do this by reducing the amount of water that you add or you can choose to make use of the paint full strength. You are on the right path if you see the pencil lines of the facial features. The next thing that you should do is to make use of a darker flesh color and paint for the lines of the facial feature. Imagine that you are painting in the lines similar to a coloring book. Once you finish the features of the eyes, eyebrows, nose, nostrils including the mouth, you can now work on the final layers of the finished painting. This is the final layers of the painting that actually brings it to life. Carefully scrutinize your reference photo. Take note of where the shadows are. Add the shadows layer by layer. For the reason that you are painting a portrait, adding red as well as blue shouldn't be something that you should be afraid of in order to mimic flesh color. In order to make features appear stick out, you should add some highlights. For instance, very bright highlights are usually placed on the nose. Also, if you want to emphasize the roundness of cheeks, chins as well as the center of the forehead, you can add a few layers of whitened flesh color. A touch of pure white may be your last bit. Finally, your final pure white highlights are the last thing for your portrait. A person lips are usually moist, thus, a touch of pure white might be necessary. Also in a person's eye, almost always, a touch of pure white is necessary where the light is reflecting. Bear in mind that painting people takes practice. As previously mentioned, when you paint people or portraits in acrylics, you do painting in layers. If your first few portraits don't turn out as good as what you expected, don get frustrated. All you need to do is to practice and practice. Just have fun and enjoy every moment while you are learning to paint. Sooner or later, your work will be among those gallery paintings exhibited.