Monday, February 18, 2008
I sat down and painted Joshua’s head this afternoon and the result was so neat that I thought I would show him off.
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I have found the secret to painting a Black character and that’s that you don’t use any black paint! I used the following colors for his face:
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-Red Iron Oxide
-Yellow Ochre
-Midnight Blue
-Dark Burnt Umber
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I mixed up some of the Red and Yellow and then painted the face as I usually do with any character. Once that was done I came back with the Dark Umber to color in the darker areas around the eyes cheeks and chin. Once that was done I used a wash of the Blue for the beard. For the hair I mixed Blue into the Umber to make an almost Black but not Black color for the hair. Finally, I came back and painted in Red highlights on the lips, nose and cheeks.
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When painting Flesh tones the important thing to remember is that the determining color of flesh, any kind of flesh, is the color of blood. Add a little Yellow Ochre to Red while taking into account the material you’re painting on, in this case yellow-tinged Basswood, and you’ll end up with a nice warm flesh color. I would never use white except in a case where I wanted a fish-belly looking color for someone who has never been in the sun. About the only cases I can think of for doing that would be the Farmer’s Tan a cowboy has when he removes his hat or the creamy toned skin of a Saloon Hooker after she removed her bodice. But we’d better not go there, at least not yet!
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I made the hat’s hurricane strap from a piece of aluminum flashing. In the next post the painting of the rest of the figure will be addressed.
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