The document discusses experimenting with colors and techniques for creating realistic portraits and figures using references from artworks and life. It includes notes and sketches exploring color blending, lighting, composition, and rendering techniques for skin, eyes, lips, hands, and other body parts. Thumbnails and sketches show progress on developing portraits and figure studies focusing on realistic textures, shadows, and details.

1. Experimenting with colours for a
piece.
Blending the cool colours with pale
values gives off a cold feeling.
Personally, I do not like the purple
undertones in this thumbnail.
For the second thumbnail, I started
adapting Freud’s colour scheme.
Freud exaggerates oranges and
greens, like in his painting of the
Queen.
Passage, Jenny Saville, 2004 Portrait of Her Majesty the Queen, Lucian
Freud, 2000
Thumbnails by me

2. Examination of Freud’s work. I looked at
these paintings primarily to copy how Freud
pints flesh.
In the top painting, I noticed how he
exaggerates shadows by creating high
points with a singular solid, pale yellow.
The legs, which are darker, is mixed with
blues and purples, to create dimension.
In the second painting, I noticed more the
colours he mixed into the skin tone. He
mixed purple into the forehead area to
colour contrast the yellow, and it created
shadows which weren’t too harsh due to
blending.
NAKED GIRL WITH EGG, Lucian Freud,1981
NAKED GIRL, Lucian Freud,1922

3. More facial sketches using a real
life model (my face’s reflection in
the mirror).
Makeup causes the face to look
different. When drawn, the eyeliner
makes the lashline darker and
mascara makes the eyes appear
bigger.
For the final piece, the darkest
shade would have to be the
eyeliner, due it it being solid black.
If I want a more natural look, I can
adjust the colour to a dark blue.
Sketches by me

4. Practicing using reference from life.
When looking at a face from below (an angle of about 30
degrees), the jawline is not as defined and creates a
softer shadow. Additionally, when eyes are downcast,
eyelid is visible. Since the ‘camera’ is from below, nostrils
can be seen making the nose look bigger.
Pastel of life from life.
Eyes are NOT a pure white. I thus experimented with
adding blues and greys. Thin, fine tip pastels were used
to create eyelashes, however they were not pressed
down enough.
Adding mind green and an undertone of purple under a
peach pastel added dimension and made the eye appear
more realistic. While the yellow, however, makes it look
more like a painting, it attracts the eye and matches the
purple undertone aesthetically. The green above the eye
was supposed to help with dimension, however it simply
looks like eyeshadow. Therefore, if green is to be used,
it must be used lightly or underneath a layer of pale
yellow or peach.
Lastly, paying attention to light source is what makes an
eye come alive. I added a thin layer of white, mimicking
the reflection of the overhead lights in the classroom
which allows the eye look ‘awake’ and ‘alive’.
Art by me

5. Rough sketch of a sketch Van
Gogh had done once before. The
main method was to create different
shades through pencil pressure and
crosshatching. While I personally
feel crosshatching is difficult, I like
the effect. Using a traditional pencil
as opposed to a mechanical pencil
makes it easier to vary line quality.
It is quicker than traditional shading.
Sketch by me
Portrait of Postman Roulin, Vincent Van Gogh, 1888

6. Composition working
The main focus of my piece were
lips, so I copied a thumbnail and
added more originality. By not
following the exact colours and
using warm oranges to contrast
with the blue and green used for
shadows, I created depth and made
the composition more interesting to
look at.
paint
thumbnail
and
sketches
by me
URL source:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4
38960294909950464/

7. stp
Thumbnails for piece. Blood creates
a giant contrast with the colour of
the lip due to being a deep red
colour.
The second thumbnail has a very
thin upper lip.
Thumbnails by me
URL source:
https://www.pinterest.com/p
in/428264245786388637/
URL source: http://mf-
chao.tumblr.com/.

8. I purchased small canvases for my pieces.
Thus, I decided on using each canvas to
create a series. When put together, the
pieces create an overall appearance of
lips, but when separated and viewed
individually, it is abstract.
I used this page to create a final
composition. I took a concept from my
previous sketches and decided to feature
scabs, blood, and bruises on a pair of lips
for my piece. This way, it creates a
timeline of the wounds and a metaphor for
the storyline of a relationship
Thumbnails by me

9. The colours I chose for the face
were bold, yet the texture blends it
well with the others to make the
figure recognizable. Using blues to
shade is something I want to do for
my final piece.
Painting by me

10. Notes halfway through sketch:
While negative space is still undecided and
I am having issues with the figure in my
photo, I have decided on drawing water at
the bottom of the piece.
Water is more complex to draw than
expected due to the ripples and how it
reflects the sun. Thus, rather than having
an ideal shape, there are a lot of high points
and low points. The two thumbnails use a
lighter layer of white as the highlights and
deeper blues and greens as the shading to
create depth and give the water dimension.
Thumbnails by me

11. Notes for composition:
Asides from drawing hand I will be
drawing a stomach. Generally, stomachs
are photoshopped flat or muscles are
made more extreme. I would like to draw
a realistic stomach with some fat -
preferably an “average” size.
Sketches are of hand surrealism covering
a “chubby” body.
Sketches by me

12. Part of colour swatches and composition thumbnails.
The first features a close crop around bruised knuckles. The
bruise was created with purples and blues. By blending them
together, it makes it difficult to see where the bruise starts and
ends, yet the purple areas hints that the side of the hand they
appear on was hit harder than the surrounding area. Despite
believing my composition would feature a bruise, I ended up
featuring as bloody wound,
The second thumbnail is an example of a bloody wound. To
make the red darker and appear deeper, I blended purple to the
middle and added a highlight layer of white. The contrast
between red and pale flesh makes the wound look fresh and
painful.
Thumbnails by me

13. Vector portrait notes:
Characteristic of vector portraits are the blocks of colour
used and laid atop of each other. The only form of
blending are gradients within a selection. Other than
that, there are defined lines between each selection of a
vector. Vector portraits can be done
Lineart w/ line quality of the paths
Using colour families
Monochromatic colours
Contrastic colours
Vector edges are smooth, and use layers in photoshop

14. I want my digital vector piece to be similar to
Lau’s; solid selections layered on top of
selections filled with gradients. Shown in the
thumbnail above, I used a gradient for the face
and the backdrop of the skin, as well as the
shadow of the nose. Hair and eyes were done
with solid colour.
For the background, I decided to contrast with
warm values with cold. The gradient from blue
to white mimics the foreground.
Finally, I planned to add a layer of text similar
to how magazines are set up, keeping the
face clear, yet all else covered
Thumbnails by me