I think there's something special about drawing and painting faces. Artists throughout centuries have been trying to capture the stories through portraiture and I am always excited and inspired to do it too. And seeing hundreds of people joining our Faces Bundle I get a feeling that I'm definitely not alone in this. Maybe the secret is that we always paint a little bit of ourselves in each portrait? Whatever your reasons, if you feel the pull to painting and drawing faces, please read on because I have an excellent exercise for you.
And if you're one of those creatives who want nothing to do with portraiture you are free to close this email, but if you stick around and give it a go I promise it can be incredibly exciting.
Loosen up - quick portrait painting exercise
Right, so now onto my exercise. From my experience a common problem for people who attempt to paint expressive faces but don't get great results is getting caught up in the details. We work on our sketches meticulously, erasing and redrawing, trying to get every detail right. And while I think this is often important too, I believe what's more crucial is that we acquire the looseness and confidence in our brushstrokes.
I find a great way to do that is by practicing face planes. This is all about the surfaces, big patches and smaller areas on a face that catch the light and cast shadow. Understanding this can be a huge game changer in your face painting practice.
My favourite way of practicing this is with the Asaro head model. Now the models can be quite pricey , so a great way to start is by using a photo of Asaro head as your reference. You can find plenty of them online. Print it out and let's paint.
Supplies needed: an image of Asaro head model printed out or open on your tablet device (you can google Asaro head and you'll get different variations), large paintbrush, black and white acrylic paint, pencil, a sheet of paper (printer paper for the exercise is good enough)
1.Quickly sketch the oval of the head. Don't overthink this, you're not allowed to erase anything.
It's good! ;)
2.Squeeze out a bit of black (or I used dark green) and white acrylic paint onto your palette. Mix 4 colours.
Mix 1: Lots of white and a super tiny speck of black.
Mix 2: White + 2 tiny specks of black.
Mix 3: A little bit more black again.
Mix 4: Black with some small amount of white.
This is all you need.
3.Look at your reference picture and start putting colour down onto the darkest areas with your mix 4. Important: Don't overthink. Apply colour in large patches. Don't keep on going back in with your brush and avoid multiple brushstrokes. One bold brushstroke for each plane is ideal.
4.Move on to medium dark areas. First with mix 3 and then mix 2.
5.Finish off with lightest areas using mix 1.
Now that's all. Your Asaro head painting is imperfect (in fact you may see a lot that is wrong with it) but that's exactly how it's supposed to be. This is an exercise, not a masterpiece. If you must, you can go back in now and attempt to fix whatever you feel isn't right.
But it shouldn't give you sleepless nights if you don't right? The best thing would be to immediately grab another piece of paper and start all over again. Your next Asaro head painting will be a whole lot better than the first one. And continue until you run out of paint :)
I strongly encourage you to try. It can be very exhilarating to all of a sudden not having to focus on details and precision. From my experience the learning process is super fast and pretty enjoyable. Asaro head model is the thing!
If you'd like to dive deeper into painting, sketching, drawing and even collaging faces I'd love you to join our Faces Bundle
Learn from a diverse group of instructors who bring different art styles and approaches to the table. This is a huge bestseller on our website and our Adventurers have found these classes to be a valuable opportunity to challenge perfectionism, create intuitive portraits, and experiment with various scales and materials.
What's included in the bundle:
Proportions with Jamie Avery
Presence Without Perfection with Belinda Fireman
A Look in the Mirror with Kasia Avery
Tresses & Trees with Tracy Verdugo
Blue Hair with Lynne Furrer
Collaged & Stitched with Jeanne Oliver
Into the Night with Ivy Newport
Over 6.5 hours of video content + printable. Instant life-time access. Jump in here!
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