Acrylic Portrait - need color help!

[Threes]

Hello everyone, I don't post here much -sadface- but I've been really inspired to paint lately when a peer told me i should start thinking about entering into some (donation) art shows. what a boost to the ego

I havent painted much in the past year or so, and i think i forgot how to mix color

this is a painting i'm working on now and the skin tone i am going for is very pale and cool tones... i did a purple underpainting and glazed some cool orangey tones over it. I've been playing around with glazing. usually i do oil paintings with color mixing on the canvas and on palette, so acrylics are very strange for me.

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These are my stages

[arenhaus]

There are lapses in the underlying form. The nose structure isn't resolved, it does not connect to the upper lip, the eyesockets aren't defined, you weren't really aware of how the mouth relates to the rest of the skull, etc. You need to figure the structure out before you can make your lighting work.

[lpetkov]

What arenhaus said. Something that would help you to follow his advice: use a big-big brush for 90% of your paintings - this will force you to think more about structure, rather than detail. I'm not great at mixing traditional colour either, but I'd say, don't be afraid to saturate more and go much darker/ligher than this.

[Threes]

There are lapses in the underlying form. The nose structure isn't resolved, it does not connect to the upper lip, the eyesockets aren't defined, you weren't really aware of how the mouth relates to the rest of the skull, etc. You need to figure the structure out before you can make your lighting work.

thank you, i'll have to take a look at it again,

if you could elaborate, all you said was that i wasn't aware, and it would be nice of you or someone else to help me figure out how the features relate...

as far as nose structure, i think i know what you mean and i think i know how to fix it.

for the mouth, i am at a loss. I know that it is wrong but i don't know how to change it to be right.

And defining eye sockets, i will try to do that more in my next stage, i realize i haven't brought them up to par with the rest of the image

[arenhaus]

if you could elaborate, all you said was that i wasn't aware, and it would be nice of you or someone else to help me figure out how the features relate...

1. Track the underlying bone and muscle. 2. Observe the light and shadow to break down the form into planar patches.

Tracking the planes is probably the easiest way to look at form. There is nothing special about, say, the mouth; it can be still broken down into variously lit planes. But the planes should be continuous; it is a mistake to paint the cheek and then paint the mouth onto it; you must track the planes connecting the two. It's the same with any other feature.

If you are working from a photo with lighting that does not make planes evident, work from life or find a photo with better lighting.

[Giacomo]

if you could elaborate, all you said was that i wasn't aware, and it would be nice of you or someone else to help me figure out how the features relate...as far as nose structure, i think i know what you mean and i think i know how to fix it. for the mouth, i am at a loss. I know that it is wrong but i don't know how to change it to be right. And defining eye sockets, i will try to do that more in my next stage, i realize i haven't brought them up to par with the rest of the image

What you have isn't actually all that bad, especially for someone new to painting. With regard to her features, I'd advise you to just be generally more careful about observing the model (hopefully there IS a model, or at least a photo.) If you look more closely, you'll see where the contours of her eyes, nose and mouth are off....it's just a matter of slowing down and seeing more objectively. Yeah, I know, easier said than done.

The one thing that does bug me here is that you've closely cropped to her face without including any detail on her hair and/or neck. Right now she feels like the Giant Floating Face From Dimension X. Spend some time on her neck and hair.