Tutorial : Adding Detail to Face

Streetkids in Mexico

Jim is often asked how  he creates such detail in his paintings, particularly the portaits. In this step by step he shows  how he does this with the popular painting “street kids in Mexico”  which was created in Acrylic washes and pastel.

The background and the figures were originally laid in using Acrylic washes. I use both acrylic inks and tubes of acrylic watered down to a milky consistency. This is layered roughly over a fairly detailed pencil sketch. I sometimes also use an Airbrush to lay some of the washes and use the spatter mode to add texture. Here you can see that the face is very roughly created  as is the background.

It is important to note that I will do no further work to the background and leave it as it is and concentrate on adding a little more detail to the figures. Using a pastel pencil I add details to the eyes. And define the bottom of the nose.

Here I have added  more detail to the eyes, including adding lashes and lightening  the highlights around the upper and lower lids. I have also started to to form the edges of the mouth. And the eyebrows. These features are added simply and directly with a little bit of blending from the edge of a finger.

In the final image we can see that I have added  pastel under the nose and blended lightly to add  a shadow to that area. Using a dark  wine coloured pastel pencil I have added the form of the upper lips. I added  a light peach coloured pastel to the lighter areas of the face and neck and  blended them in with a home-made torchon to give the face light and form.  Very minor highlights were added to the hair.