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Description
I recently started a portrait of my favorite singer and songwriter, Amy Lee from Evanescence, painted in acrylics.

This is a work in progress, so I thought it would be fun to post updates throughout the project.

In this step, I've completed my sketch on a 9x12in canvas board. I like to start my paintings with a rather detailed sketch. Because acrylics are translucent when applied as a thin glaze, the sketch will continue to show through the first few layers of paint. This provides a useful guide as I develop the painting.

I started by drawing the major contours using a standard 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Then I blocked in some of the major dark areas of the hair and dress using a Sharpie fine point permanent marker.

I added some shading to the midtones using the same mechanical pencil, blending each area along the way using a rolled tortillon blender for darker midtones and a simple Q-tip cotton for lighter midtones. I may have gone a little overboard with the blending - I don't think this level of refinement is entirely needed for a painting sketch. But I was having doing it.

Finally, I gave the canvas board a very light spray of final fixative to prevent the graphite from smudging when I apply the first layer of paint.

In the next step, I'll apply a thin glaze of paint over the entire composition to establish a warm midtone color.

Christopher Spicer (CBSpicer Art)
www.cbspicer.com
www.instagram.com/cbspicer

Description
I recently started a portrait of my favorite singer and songwriter, Amy Lee from Evanescence, painted in acrylics.

This is a work in progress, so I thought it would be fun to post updates throughout the project.

In this step, I've completed my sketch on a 9x12in canvas board. I like to start my paintings with a rather detailed sketch. Because acrylics are translucent when applied as a thin glaze, the sketch will continue to show through the first few layers of paint. This provides a useful guide as I develop the painting.

I started by drawing the major contours using a standard 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Then I blocked in some of the major dark areas of the hair and dress using a Sharpie fine point permanent marker.

I added some shading to the midtones using the same mechanical pencil, blending each area along the way using a rolled tortillon blender for darker midtones and a simple Q-tip cotton for lighter midtones. I may have gone a little overboard with the blending - I don't think this level of refinement is entirely needed for a painting sketch. But I was having doing it.

Finally, I gave the canvas board a very light spray of final fixative to prevent the graphite from smudging when I apply the first layer of paint.

In the next step, I'll apply a thin glaze of paint over the entire composition to establish a warm midtone color.

Christopher Spicer (CBSpicer Art)
www.cbspicer.com
www.instagram.com/cbspicer