Progression of a portrait painting in acrylic

Nine figures. If you include the jellyfish.

Which I do.

I thought you might be curious what the process looked like.

sketches from photos:


 monochromatic acrylic wash sketch on paper:


create composite photo:


draw on prepared canvas with yellow pastel:


go over pastel using cadmium deep orange and a paint brush:


correct errors with color paint:


go whole hog:



Now I think I'll put some matte gel on it to finish. Or maybe some other varnish... I'll have to research this.


ETA: the only varnish I found which is non-toxic is the high gloss from Liquitex.

I'm not keen on high gloss. So I think I'll skip the varnishing thing.