Hello! My name is Effy Wild, and Kara has tasked me with creating a mixed media face with an emphasis on building a lot of value contrast through the use of lights and darks (and glazes) to create depth and interest in your paintings. This painting is an experience in multiple layers and mediums that, when combined, create a beautifully textured portrait that really sings. A few of the key terms you are going to hear me use as we work together on this portrait are: Value: meaning lights and darks. Value contrast: meaning the differentiation between the lights and darks that create a more interesting painting. Glaze: meaning a thin, transparent layer of paint that lets the previous layers shine through. One of the ways I love to get a lot of value contrast into my pieces is through the use of black and white paint pens. I use these in the background creation to make marks that really pop. Adding glazes of color over these marks subdues them somewhat, but still allows them to shine. I also like to use multiple hues and shades of reddish brown in the face to deepen the contrast between the lightest lights and the darkest darks. more interesting your painting becomes. The more differentiation between the lights and darks, the In order to check that I have enough value contrast, I will often stop while I m working, snap a photograph of the piece using the camera on my phone, add a tonal or black and white filter, and see how interesting (or uninteresting, as the case may be) the piece looks without color. The more interesting it looks in black and white, the more differentiation in value, the more interesting the final results will be. Focus, as you work, on getting many gradations of dark and light in your piece to guarantee something that is super interesting to the eyes. The supplies list for this painting is extensive because I love to work in multiple medias at once. Please note that substitutions are always possible. Feel free to ask me for help with this if required. You can email me at effythewild@gmail.com.
Supplies Camera phone or digital camera to check for value contrast as you go. This is explained in Part 3, at the 16:00 mark. Ephemera (papers, tissue paper, tape, etc) Matte Medium (Liquitex) Ink Sprays (Yellow & Turquoise) Water in a spray bottle Workable Fixative (Krylon is my favourite) Craft Mat and Craft knife (or scissors) Stazon Ink Pad Stencils in geometric or background patterns Prismacolor Pencils: Sienna Brown, Black Raspberry,Burnt Umber, Forest green Fluid Acrylics (I use Golden): Titanium White, Quincrodone Magenta, Hansa Yellow Light, Green Gold, Pthalo Turquois, Iridescent Fine Gold, Titan Buff, Yellow Ochre, Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Payne s Grey, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, and Carbon Black. UniPosca Paint Pens (Black & White) Stabilo All Pencil (Black) White gesso Pencil. I m just using a mechanical pencil in 0.7 mm lead. Blending stump or tortilion. Clear gesso Waterproof black pen. (I used Sakura Glaze for the text, and a Pilot Permaball for details in the face. Glue down papers to your chosen substrate. I m using a piece of 9 x 12 Canson XL Mixed media paper. Spray Ink into wet matte medium. Spray with a bit of water and let things run. Dry thoroughly, spray with water, and wipe down (baby wipes, paper towels) to pick up excess spray. Add a layer of workable fixative, and let that dry thoroughly. I use a heat gun to speed up drying time.
Trim your edges if desired. I just used a craft knife to cut the excess papers off of the edges of the piece. Ink the edges if desired. I used a Stazon ink pad in black. I love to run some of the ink onto the background as I m doing this to create a shabby, distressed look. Add some stenciled patterns using white paint. Dry thoroughly. Add a thin, transparent layer of paint in different colours over the white stencilling. Fluid acrylics are fantastic for this. If you don t have transparent paints try thinning your paints with water or Acrylic Glazing Liquid. Allow the glazing to dry for a half a minute, and then wipe some off to create depth and interest. I added a bit more white stenciling + glazing at this point as well.
To check for value contrast, use your camera phone, photograph the piece, and change the image to black and white using your camera filters. This lets you see how much contrast you have going on. The more, the better. Add black and white doodling & mark making with paint markers to increase interest & value contrast. I love playing with the stencilled shapes, embellishing them however I desire. Dry thoroughly. Sometimes, I ll fix the marker with workable fixative just to ensure that there is no smearing. Sketch your character in Stabilo All Pencil to get a sense of where she s going to live on the page. Wipe out any excess Stabilo using a baby wipe. Fill in the face and torso with gesso. Let some of the Stabilo come into the gesso as you work to create some shading. Add a thinned down layer of gesso to the painting around the girl, allowing some of the background to shine through. Leave the scarf, earrings, and garment alone at this point.
Add more Stabilo where desired, and activate it with a wet brush. This creates a beautifully inky outline. Spray with workable fixative once you have the look you desire. Dry thoroughly and wipe down with a baby wipe to remove any excess Stabilo. At this point I added a bit more gesso to the face, neck, and shoulders just to give myself a nice, clean ground to work on. I added some gold details with a fine brush. Glaze the background with a transparent layer of fluid acrylic. I used Pthalo turquois by Golden. I also glazed in the edges of the headscarf to create some dimension. Glaze the scarf with Quincrodone Magenta. Dry thoroughly. Sketch in the facial features, starting with the lips and moving up the face through the philtrum (lip dip), nose, eyes, brows, and hairline. While you re still working in graphite, use your eraser to make adjustments.
Smudge out the graphite lines with a blending stump to soften. Spray with workable fixative. Mix up a caucasian flesh tone using titan buff, quinacridone magenta, and yellow ochre. Add titanium white to get the desired lightness. This lets you create a graduated flesh tone from medium to very light as you add more white. Add some Transparent Red Iron Oxide to the medium you originally created to make a good shading colour. Paint the face, neck and shoulders using the lightest shade of flesh tone. Add the darker tones around the areas of the face that racede (around the eyes, nose, mouth, under the chin, sides of the face, and under the hairline. Keep pushing and pulling lights and darks in the face until you achieve the depth you desire. Keep lights on the areas of the face that come forward (tip of the nose, nose bridge, chin, cheeks, forehead, edges of the philtrum, edges of the upper lip, inside the lower lip. Dry completely and add a layer of clear gesso. Dry this completely as well.
Add Prismacolor pencil in Sienna Brown around the shape of the face, around the eyes, lips, and chin. Blend out with a blending stump. I also used the pencil to reshape the chin. Add Prismacolor pencil in Black Raspberry in much the same way you did in the last step. This deepens the shading. Blend out in the same way as in the last step. Add some waterproof black pen to the darkest dark areas - nostrils & pupils. Take this opportunity to reshape the pupils if needed. Use the Sienna Brown or Burnt Umber pencil to add eyebrows.
Using titanium white paint, add some light to the iris of the eyes. Take this opportunity to highlight the brow bone, cheek, chin, shoulders, etc. with scrubby applications of white paint. and blend that out as desired. I added a bit of a contour underneath the mouth using the Sienna Brown pencil, and blended it out with a blending stump to really round out the chin. Bring in a bit more darkness around the sides of the face with coloured pencil, and blend that out as desired. Glaze over the white in the eyes. I used green gold to colour the eyes. I used the same green in her earrings. Use black fluid acrylic in the pupils to darken them. I also scrub some black in around the girl to pop her up off the page. Using a fine liner brush, add light to the pupils of the eyes, and then touch down all around the edges of the girl to light her up and bring her to life. I also added a bit of Forest Green to the edge of the iris to darken it.
Glaze over some of your lights in her scarf with Quinacridone magenta. Use the same magenta to glaze her lips, and add a tiny touch to the corners of the eyes. Glaze her hair with Quinacridone Burnt Orange (or stick with the Transparent Red Iron Oxide if you prefer). Tend with little touches here and there. I m adding a bit of a highlight to the upper lip, and the top eye lid with titanium white. I added a bit more black to the pupil using my black pen. Add text using a Sakura Glaze pen (or other black waterproof pen). Once it s dry, I like to seal my pieces with a white candle, which I rub on the entire piece while I m heating it, and then buff with a soft cloth. This prevents sticking if I glue this into a journal. You can also use beeswax if you prefer. Please note that the coloured pencil may move a bit during this process, so if you d prefer to avoid that altogether, use a layer of Krylon workable fixative before sealing with wax. TADA! Your turn! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed creating it for you! Please come find me at effywild.com, on YouTube, Facebook, and in my teaching network at http://learn.effybird.com. xo Effy Wild effythewild@gmail.com