Palette Knife Abstract Self Portrait

1. Welcome: So a lot of people think self portraits is a very difficult thing. Now, in many ways, technical, realistic self portraits are probably hard. It's an activity, takes a lot of time. However, today, we're going to be doing an abstract version of a self portrait. We'll be looking at our face, understanding where our eyes come where, es come where, smile comes where hair comes, where receding hairlines come. But we are not going to be doing these fancy self portraits today. It's abstract. Hello, I'm Sangita Angela Kumar, and I normally take classes and art sessions. I will be focusing primarily on acrylic paints and palette knife for my painting. Now, you can use whatever you want, but thick acrylic paint is more pliable and you can move it around. So that's what I'll be using. The point is having fun and trying to recreate your face in the abstract form. But do post. I love it when people post what they what they have learned in the class. And it will be really wonderful to see your interpretation of this class and also of your face. Feel free to also put before and after, like, your face and then also what you drew. Might be interesting as an activity. The essential facts and the rules and the lack of rules are the same. So let's get started. 2. Your Face: What we're going to be doing is we're going to be doing an abstract self portrait. And for this, you need your face. Hopefully, everybody has a feas, so that will be very nice if you can join in. So if you have a mirror, look at your beautiful face, and it is beautiful. Ha. And so just like you can close your eyes and touch the top of your head. And just with your hands move down and feel your ears, and then the bottom of your chin. Okay? So this is the top of your head. This is the bottom of your chin. The halfway point, if you see, is your eyes. So it's really interesting because your eyes are literally halfway from the top of your head to your chin. And these are your ears which are at the top of your eyes. So now, this is art Lesson one oh one. I mean, my art teacher taught me this one. We were doing self portraits, but we are not going to be doing these fancy surf portraits today. It's abstract. So but I just want to tell you a few of the important things halfway to your eyes and your is the bridge of your nose. Now, some people have stubby noses, some people have long noses, some people have however their noses are. But essentially, our faces are symmetrical to our own faces. So if you do this, generally, your face like your eyes and everything is symmetrical to your own face. It may not be symmetrical to your neighbor's face, but definitely to your own. You learn this officially in class. But I'm just taking you through understanding your head. Now, above your eyes come the eyebrows, and then your hairline comes definitely not in the top of your head. Like a lot of us have hair. Some of us don't, which is also. Halfway is your hairline and halfway is the bridge of your nose. And then the lips come between the nose and the chin. So all faces are symmetrical. It's just that the symmetry is uniquely yours. And that's what we're going to study today, and we're going to be going through, understanding the face and creating an abstract painting. It's like an abstract self portrait. It's not as bad as drawing a realistic self portrait. That's I find very challenging. But an abstract version of what you think your face is is what today's activity is going to be. So this is an understanding of feel free to touch your head, touch your eyes, understand the shape. Like, some people have round eyes, some people have long eyes. So feel your ears, understand your eyebrows, understand your nose, to have a long nose, you have a wide nose. I have a yeah, I have different noses. Well, we all have different noses. Whether you have round eyes, square eyes, square face, round face, oval face, whatever shape you have, this is not an activity to put yourself down. Actually, it is on the contrary, it is your face. And that's what the beauty is in you. So I would encourage you to embrace that. 3. Supplies: When it comes to using paper, you're welcome to use acrylic paper, which is heavy weight. This is 400 GSM. Ideally speaking, that would be good. However, if you don't have access to this, you're welcome to use any mixed media paper or even if you like, you can use a watercolor paper because it's heavier, so it holds the paint. I will be using acrylic tube paint. You don't need to necessarily use this brand. You're welcome to use any brand that you want, but this is what I will be using. These are more or less the colors that I will be using for the session. But essentially, I'm using tubes because they are easier to play around with and it's important that you choose your colors first. So I'm basically taking out a few colors that I think I will use. I definitely may not use blue, so I won't bother taking it out, but I mean, want to use a red. So this is titanium white. This may help with the tones for my skin. This is nice for a light colored person. Feel free to experiment with the colors. Not everyone's skin tone is the same. If you have green eyes, if you have blue eyes, if you have brown eyes, if you have fluorescent eyes. Because it's abstract, you can really experiment. Like, for example, um, I'm going to be adding a little variety in shadows with light brown and dark brown. Also, if you like adding gold. This is the fun thing about this activity is it's not really authentic, so if you want to make your skin blue, you're welcome to do so. The point is not to limit yourself in checks if you'd like. This is a nice, Naples yellow is a nice skin tone color. So I'm getting a lot of reds and because I'm Indian, I'm sticking to browns and beige and pinks and to mix colors and crowning us White. You don't have to use all these colors. You can pick and choose what you'd like, which is why you have to figure out what color tone you'd like. I'm going to show you what I will be choosing. So there are about three types of yellow. Four types of yellow that I picked. Again, this is just to mix a tone. This is what I'm gonna be using for browns. I'll be using again, different types of whites. So titanium white is one. And then I'm also going to be experimenting with these different types of whites. And in terms of black, I'll be using Mars black, a little bit of pink and a little bit of terracotta for variation if I'd like for my lips and cold if I want to be fancy. Now, because I know I know more or less this is my skin tone. This is what I'm going to be using. However, you're welcome. I'm going to be trying a little bit of this as well, and a little bit of this just to experiment with what I'd like, and I'd probably use a burnt umber to experiment with the shades and highlights. You can use the pinks to do this as well. But for me because I have a dark skin tone, I'm going to be experimenting with these colors. But, for example, if you were a fair skin tone, then you would probably not have these colors, and you'll probably have this with a dash of yellow and pink. So what colors you choose for your skin tone is really up to your experimenting, but I will be using I will be experimenting with this, but not all colors will work, but that's where the abstract open feeling comes where you experiment with your colors, and you can build it as you'll see. You can build it. Even if you make a mistake, you can add a few more colors and mix it right there on the artwork itself. Along with that, I will be using palette knives. So you don't need many, but I'm just showing you. Like, there are different kinds of I generally don't use these big palette knives. I use a thin one and this. But because it's a face and I need a variety, I'm using it. But this is good enough. If you have one, just get this. This one is good enough for using for this activity. Because I'm going to be experimenting with eyes and adding a little highlight in the eyes, I'm using the small one. 4. Choosing Colors: Oh, in an ideal world, it would be very nice if you could use all these paints and complete your illustration. However, if you don't have all these colors, what I would say is if you can maybe get unbleached titanium, naples yellow is a good skin colour one. I always like pink opera rose because it helps with the skin tone. It also helps if you want to add some blush to your skin. For Indian skin tones, I often use a combination of raw sienna. Naples yellow, either this brown or the burnt umber brown. So that is, of course, dependent on your skin tone and skin color. But today, I'm interested to experiment with these. If you don't have all these colors, that's okay. Just get a skin tone that you feel is closest to your tone. If you have these small, small ones, then I would probably mix yellow with a little bit of brown and a little bit of white. So that gives you the tone that matches your tone. But then again, if you want to make your skin pink, you can if you want to make your skin red or gold, you can. So experiment with what you feel. If you want to make your skin blue, you're welcome to do so. Whatever you are able to get your hands on, whatever is accessible, that's most important. But the non negotiables, of course, are a palette knife. This is not an activity with a brush, although no one is checking, so if you want to use a brush, you can. But the fun and the spontaneity that comes with a palette knife is something else, and the feeling you'll get is something else, as well. 5. Palette Knife Basic Technique: So you put the paint here, and then you fly it flat. Okay? The second option is you apply paint on the side, and then you draw lines. Then you can apply it at the tip and then fly it like this. So I'm just going to give you a demonstration. So I'm going to take a little bit of paint on the back of the knife. I'm just gonna paint. So this is when you apply the paint and you drag the paint across the page. If you drag it less, then it doesn't create this kind of texture, and then it creates like a bulb of paint. For example, I'm not going to so this happens is you get a less opaque line. Whereas if you drag it, then you get a little bit of what's in the bottom layer. Why is this important? Because when you paint with two different colors, if you drag a little more, then the color below it emerges, and that's really fun. So the way you do it is that you squeeze the paint, right? And you just pull back to line the edge of the palette knife. And then you in an angle where the line is facing, you draw a line. You can go left right to add more color. You can drag this. If you want to add more variation. But generally, for markings, it's draw line. And for curves, it's like, it's it is. But essentially, this is a line. Now, if you have paint left over here, you can lean in and lean out. But I was showing you about the color ray, the bleeding. So let me try and show you this is the back of the paint. So now, if you can see, the light blue is below and the dark blue is on top. So now what I've done is I've created like a dual color with variations. So this creates a beautiful texture, which is something that see you can see this. It's very, very beautiful the process of painting that. Challenges with things like eyes, I would say, is creating a circle. So what I would do is I would just dab it. So it's not exact circle, then if you want to just move it to the edge, and that's what happens. Then you want to line the eye. It doesn't have to be perfect. Like, you can see, there's a little smudge with the eye. But you can still see that it's an eye, right? So that's what you can do. And if you don't want the eye, you can just smudge it out. Something that I really love doing, adding gold. So for example, now, I've created this texture. So now, as you can see, the blue is still visible. But the gold is now also created the markings. So just feel free to experiment if you want before getting started. You can also mix colors. So like, right now, this is the gold has a little bit of yellow, so it's a little bit of a turquoise look. So now I'm putting in a turquoise here, and I'm going to put in yellow. Now I've brought it both here. Now I can I can mix it well, or I can mix a jag it to create a gradient. Whatever color you choose, you can mix it. You can add it. And then when you slide it like this, you get a beautiful texture with a mix of colors. So that's how you paint it. And then, again, like I said earlier, if you want to draw a dot, then you get paint in the tip of the tip of your brush, you draw it. And you move it in the shape of what you want, but don't be afraid. You have to trust the process of the beauty coming through. And another thing I want to tell you is, if you want, like, for example, I've done all this, but I don't like that there's so much green. So the nice thing about acrylic paint is you can paint over. Like, if I want to if I want to add color, you can just paint over the acrylic. So acrylic dries really fast. So if you let it dry, then you won't blend it. Then you can add extra colours into the process. 6. Rough Practice: We're not going to start straightaway. We're gonna just start checking how loose you are with your hands. Most faces I'm drawing with a pen. Most faces are round oval. So it's kind of long round. And the other one is the pointy chin. So like a jaw line. So it's kind of like a triangle that goes into kind of a square and then become circle. So this is for me, this is my face. This is what I have. Of course, my face is not so thin and long. Your face could be round, it could be square, it could be oval, it could be different different shapes. So it's very important that you look at shapes. And so when you're touching your face and understanding, okay, what is the shape of my face? More or less, these are the shapes that you will come through. I find this a very common structure. So when you're looking at shapes, this is what you have to approach. When you're touching your face, try and figure out, is it a round face? Is it a square face? Now, when it comes to faces, let's just say you have a you have a round face, okay? This is what I kind of talked about in the beginning. Halfway to this is more or less this point. That is the top of your ears, and that's also where your eyes are. Okay? Okay. And then from this comes your nose, and then halfway from your nye to nose, Then your hair comes here. Okay. And if you have less hair, if you have more hair, and then of course, that's your neck. Now, that's if you have a round face. Even for It's halfway. So if you go, this is probably halfway. You don't need to measure it, be instinctive. So if it's half half, so this is the top of your ear, this is your eyes. You may think there's so much space between the eye and the head, but it's the crown of your head, top of your head. This is the top of the head. Okay, this is the nose, and halfway down is from your nose to your chin is your smile. So when you understand that, you've understood the basics of a face structure. Now, I know this looks like a doodle. It's just giving you an idea about faces. And, of course, you're welcome to study about faces and face structures. This is just to give you an idea. Coming back to shapes, this is not a masculine feminine thing. It's just about your face. So many men have round faces. Many women have round faces. Many men have rectangle faces. Many women have rectangle faces. What is your face shape? Is up to you figuring out when you touch your face? Again, we're not getting too technical into it, but if you can't figure out the idea of your face, it'll be easier to even approach it in an abstract way. That is a brief understanding of shape and form and symmetry. 7. Self Portrait Demo: So I'm taking this just for creating a shape. I'm going to just plop a little bit on the on the paper. And I'm just gonna create a shape with my knife, okay. It doesn't have to be perfect. But, like, now I'm a round face in this. So I'm just gonna create a little bit of a chin for myself and here are my ears because I have understood that this is kind of the halfway point of my face, right? So now this is very, very fair for me. So I'm just going to add onto my brush I add some colors. But this was to establish my face and the shape. So now, right there on the paper, I'm mixing these colors. You can mix it on the side and bring it on, but I want this to be a little instinctive. I think that burnt umber was a little too burnt, but I'm building the colors, so I'm going to try this brown. So as I'm working the paint, it's actually mixing and creating a shade that I'm more happy with. Okay. My ears were getting lost, so let's get my ears back. Alright. Now, the advantage of having two colors is that when you scrape, you get this richness of tone. So, for example, now, if I want to make my nose, in that spot, I can, which I'm not gonna What happens is I can make these markings, and the lighter color or the darker color, whichever you choose comes out while you're mixing the colors. I think this is a little lighter version of my skin tone, but I'm going to just go with it because otherwise, it's going to get lost, but I will build on it as I continue. This is the top, and this is the bottom. And so I'm going to find a spot in the middle. This is the middle of. This is where my eyes are gonna come. This is my ears. I can create the whites of my eye or I can create the blacks of my. So I'm gonna have fun little bit, and I'm going to add whites of my to make it a little interesting. That's my whites. Now I'm going to get a black. Okay, I'm not gonna get too much. It's just a little bit, too. That's really wide. I'm using leftover to create a little line. I create like a shape. I have big eyes, so I have to make sure I'm being authentic to my big eyes. But with that, I'm drawing a shape of my nose. Alright. Now I have black hair, but I also have white hair. I'm gonna be mixing a little bit of black. A little bit of gray. On a little bit of white. So now I'm gonna focus on my hair. I have um I have short hair, so What I'm doing is I'm just using the leftover to just extend my neck a little bit. Just for the shadows. I can always go over this part. It's helpful to have a tissue. So now I'm going to just brighten my skin because it's looking a little muddy. And so I'm going to maybe add a little bit of sienna opaque. I don't know if this will work. Again, I'm just experimenting. I don't know how this will look, but I just want to add some color into my skin. I'm just adding a little bit of color to my skin because brown has red in as well. I know it may be like, What are you doing? It's just not looking like you. But this is where you're working with the paint, understanding it. I don't know if you can see this, but there's a richness to the skin tone that I'm getting, which normally, I wouldn't probably get unless I was mixing all these colors together. This class is for brave people we're open to looking a little bit like hydra here, but that's okay. There are a few things I want to add. Like, I'd like to add a little bit of pink onto my face. I'm gonna have a little fun with my lips because it would be nice to have. So again, bridge of the nose halfway down. Let's give me a little blush. I'm building on the colors. So it's creating. Now that I've given it a little time, it's kind of dried, so I can I can go back and add a few variations of colors. Okay. Similarly, I can work on the eye shape. Just moving the paint around to create more sheep. It helps having a tissue to wipe your paint off. Now you may think, Okay, the form is not really exact, but that's what it is, right? This is about experimenting with a semi abstract approach. Now, I would like to create a shadow above my eyes, so I'm taking a little brown. So as I'm creating this, I'm creating a shape to my eye by adding a little shadow. You see? So similarly, so I'm darkening the colors for the shadow. Wherever I need a shadow, I'm adding the darker color. But see, this is where I would be so curious to see how you guys did in terms of getting your choosing your tone, choosing your palette. Sparse eyebrows, so to make her smiling. Now, I'm also putting the leftover paint around because I'd like to also fill this space. So I'm not wasting anything. And that's why if you'd like to add your blues or your golds and this is just purely on your instinct. And if you've gone a little over, where you can cover it and bring the shape back. Whether you feel it's beautiful or, like, and if you accidentally spill, you just wipe it off. It looks nice. You're just basically moving the palette, you're putting paint on the surface, and you're just experimenting with Now, I really like blue, and I'm feeling really sad that I don't have blue in my art. So I'm going to add a dash of blue just because I'd like to. Alright, so that is the final version. It's not It's not authentic and it may not even look like who you are, but it is My ears got lost here. It is what it is, and that is abstract acrylic self portraits. Et's have a little color here. Again, if I'd like to add form. I feel like a little bit of darkness here. We'll add a little more. Now, another thing if you'd want to, like, I really like this style, but if you'd like to add a little bit of white highlights, I don't know if this is gonna help. But what I do is I just add a little blob and I just just to give a little bit of highlight. Sometimes it helps. Then if you'd really like to experiment with eye color, you can make your eyes brown. So for example, not everybody has black eyes. So you can add just a little bit on the sides to add a little bit of variety. But then if you want to add more definition, so what I do for lines is that I run my palette knife while squeezing the paint. So then it's kind of like eyelashes. So from far away, it looks really nice. Up Close, it looks like a big fat mess, but that's how we are in our own way. But I hope you really enjoyed this process. Any leftover paint that you don't want to use can paint it away. And I'm feeling this painting is a little dull to brighten their surroundings. So if you have, like, fluorescent, I'm going to be using a little bit of floorcent to kind of brighten brighten this up. You know, to just take away the take away things. And I'm not I'm not thinking so much about where I'm putting the lines. Just let your process help you with the flow, just to kind of give it a little bit of variation. Then, of course, you're welcome to add more gold. I love experimenting with different tones and colors. So that's it. 8. Demo for Rectangle Form : I'm just going to set up my paper. And this time around, I'm using this mixed media paper. It's not so hard, but it's not so soft either. So I'll be using this, right. So let's just make some space. So I'm going to show you different varieties of faces. I'll use a smaller. So I'm going to use a smaller palette knife, and I'm going to use let's try this unbleached one. And for highlighting and shadows, I'll be using brown shade of tone for lips. I'll be using this. If you want to add stuff, you can. If not, then that's also fine. But I'm going to be just experimenting with this. I will be using a black. Whatever's leftover, I'll just be painting around it. Okay? So now today, this one, I'll do rectangular face, okay? You can drag the paints along to fill it. It creates a nice texture when you do. So this is the face shape, okay? There's a little now I'm just, again, halfway mark remember we talked about. This is the year. And now this time around, I'm gonna be using brown paint to mark the ice maybe brown paint to add some hair. 'Cause not all hair is black. And now, given that I have some paint on my palette knife, I can spread it, or I can use it to mark the nose. And use a little bit of pink to mark the Oops. Let's give her a little bit of mush. I'm not using so much paint as I did in the other one, but this is just to have an idea. Okay. I do want to give her a neck, you? So now what I'm seeing is she's looking a little pale, and I would really like her to have a few shadows, too. Well, you can give her a semblance of her body, as well. But she's looking a bit pale, so it would be nice to give her a little bit of color. So now I'm gonna use this this color a little bit of it to add a few shadows. So, for example, just to line her eyes to give her a little, it's time to get a little bit of white in. You can use a little bit of white to mix with the paint and add some depths in her face. This is a little bit of naples yellow, which is a little like I feel like it's it's a nice skin. But I'm just adding I'm not using too much logic. I'm just adding the paint in. Okay. This is more or less done, but I want to, like, create a little shadow. So let's get a little bit of for her nose. A little bit of shadow for her neck because So this is a different approach. Now, you can leave it blank if you'd like, or you can add a little color. I'm going to be adding a little turquoise. Maybe the dread. If you want to add some black. Work on getting rid of the colors that are already on. So now it's kind of less. So now I can add black without mixing colors. Again, like I said, squeeze slightly and mark the edge of your knife for lines. And again to give a little more depth and definition. Now, let's add some depth to her hair. Then if you feel like her eyes are getting lost in her her face, you can just have a little bit of But try your best to be light handed that way. Mm hmm. This isn't me. This is somebody else. Then if you want to change here, like if you feel like you want to give her more of a shape, you can just go over it and That is a rectangle shape that I created this. You can create a man. You can create a woman. In this case, I've created a woman. You can experiment with her smile. You can make her frowning. You can give her more of her chin definition. But it all depends on how you're moving. And like here, I've kind of curled and given it like a curls structure. So it looks like she has curled hair. So this is how you play with things. So we had began with her looking very pale, but I literally built up her face by adding her little darkness above her eyes. If I want, I can add a little darkness below as well. But for her, I won't do that. So it depends on what you'd like to do. And then, of course, if there are these patterns that have come, that's okay. That's part of it the charm that's there. This is the rectangle version of a face. If you have a face that's rectangle, then you know what I like about this process is that it is instinctive and it doesn't look like it's going to work out, but then eventually it does. And that's the beauty of this form where it's just paint and a paper and a palette knife. And then you have fun creating the shapes and what you want with it. And then you get this beautiful form. 9. Round Face Male Portrait with Blue eyes: This time, I'm gonna be doing a round face as round as I can. Now again, half half. More or less. I'm not measuring it. Extending it a little bit. I'm also not as you can see, I'm not actually drawing the shape of the year. I'm just making marks, you know? Let's get Nick. Now, let me add a little bit of yellow, just to see what happens if you add a little bit of This is a different yellow. This is a pale yellow. But for some variation. K. I'm gonna use a little bit of osianaopiqu to mark the ice. And, like, you see, I just made a mistake here. That's okay. That's not a big deal. I make him a little angry. And, of course, leftover paint just marking it into the hair. This person is a bit angry. I'm going to add a little white because I feel like he's become a bit of a yellow man. So the white what I'm hoping will balance. Et's get some white into the ice. We'll give him a straight blue eyes for fun. I'm just wiping the paint around. Right? So Mr. Angry man with blue eyes. Is get a little bit of darker shade for some shadows in his nose. I mean, it's different. This one is nice. Naples yellow is nice because it becomes like a skin tone. I'm just feeling like yellow is just making him look like he has jaundice, and I don't want him to look like he has jaundice. So like I said, he's just we're not being perfect, but just by adding colors and mixing them, we're getting different tone. I'm just gonna jazz it up a bit and have fun with it. I like this dark color, so I'm gonna see if I can add a little bit. Oops. Yeah, on that note, just be careful about spilling because sometimes it doesn't go. So sometimes, adding black kind of creates a definition. So be here, so weird. Oh, oops. That's okay. He still looking angry, that's fine. Even with the Osi, we got some nice So, yeah, so this is a round face a round face shape of a man. 10. Project: For your project, understand your face and create an abstract version of what you think your face looks like using a palette knife and acrylic colors. And it will be really wonderful to see your interpretation of this class and also of your face. Feel free to also put before and after, like, your face and then also what you drew. Might be interesting as an activity. 11. Thank you: Thank you so much for joining me in this class. I hope this exercise was great for your ego, not just as a painter, but even understanding and appreciating your face and seeing how beautifully you've been made beautifully your eyes and your ears and your mouth and your smile and, you know, everything, your hair, your hairline, or the receding hairline that you Um, I hope this activity really helped you. It helped you understand yourself. It helped you understand what you're comfortable with abstract artists fun that way, because it allows you to play and enjoy the paints, as well. So I really hope you had fun in this class, and don't forget to leave a project. And so I can see and celebrate what you created, as well. Thank you for joining me. I will catch you in the next class. Bye.