During my SmArtSchool classes I try to work in at least one or two demos during the fifteen weeks we work together. And I’m beginning to understand that watching someone paint multiple times can be the push needed to bring one’s work up to another level of understanding.

It’s usually difficult to squeeze many in because I feel that the student should get as much attention about the piece they are working on at the moment; to get them at a time when their insights are at keen levels of listening strength. But sometimes, showing is better than telling in this regard.

Notes about painting these:

After the initial sketch, start with a mid-tone value, even on a face; be bold and sweep the tone all around.

Next, a mixture of any darks can be applied to the bolder areas of the face, i.e., hair, eyebrows, eye socket shadows, nostrils, lip line, under bottom lip, ears, under nose, under chin.

Then, work your way up through the value range, darker skin values first, laying lighter and lighter skin values on top of them.

Ta-daaaa! Simple and direct.

Remember: value first, then shape, then color. Value is color, shape is form, color is description. In other words, once we know the value, we need the shape to tell what it is, and the color becomes the final information. Worry least about color, but get value down immediately.

Last bit of info: consider that the difference between painting a man’s face full of brushstrokes and a woman’s the same way is how much the value shifts between strokes. A man’s face can take a broader jump between values and still look manly. A woman’s face should have more shallow shifts between the values, a tighter range, so that the impression is one of a smooth transition, and therefore smoother texture on the skin. Just study the pictures here for a bit.

So I plan on adding more demo time to my classes. If you’ve been thinking about taking one of my classes, sign-up for the Fall semester is coming up. I keep the atmosphere in the class a comfortable setting where all questions are welcome because they usually lead to even better questions.

I consider the class like a dojo for training. ‘Cry in the dojo; laugh on the battlefield’ is an old saying that helps us understand what we are really trying to achieve in an educational setting.

I want you to eventually laugh on the illustration battle field.