Painting Demo: Soccer Champ

Here are a few photos of the progression from my initial sketch on the canvas board to my finished oil painting. I started by taking photos of my subject outside and from a perspective I thought would be visually different and interesting.

I gessoed a 16x20 art canvas board three times and sanded lightly between each coat after letting the gesso dry for 6 hours. I sometimes use a fan to help dry the gesso between coats.

Stage 1 /Photo 1:

I sketch the image onto the gessoed board and started to block in the largest color areas.

Stage 2 / Photo 2:

I block in with more palette colors for ball, shirt and background to round out the values.

Stage 3 / Photo 3:

I start adding skin and hair colors at this stage. I have to admit that I was unhappy with the skin tones and the way I rendered the initial light and shadows on the face after this first stage so I let it dry, then repainted the face again (and again) and I worked to model the facial details more in line to my reference material photos.

Stage 4 / Photo 4:

These are the paint strokes details close up. Notice the brush strokes following the curve plane of the skin.

Photo 5:

The soccer ball and the Derry Eagles logo close up.

Stage 5 / Photo 5:

Final: the big jump with all the details of the face, arm, hair, ball and embroidery.

 

VIEW DEMO 2: Horse in Field »