Portrait of a little girl

Recently I started experimenting with a combination of airbrush and color pencils. I prefer the oil-based pencils because they're not affected by paints and lacquer. In addition their coverage is quite good and they leave light-fast colors. The Surface of this particular portrait was Canson's linen textured paper, which is not the ideal surface for color pencils when attempting to create realistic art, since the bumps and dents of the surface results in grainy lines and coloured surfaces. When the pencil tips are sharp this problem is reduced.

I tried the whites of Faber-Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Pablo (which are oil-based), but the graphite Derwent GraphiTint gave the best result and is probably the cheapest of the three as well. The Derwent has the same feel as the oil pencils, perhaps even a little bit more oily - smooth movement over the surface - and its coverage was absolutely great. I haven't tested smooth surfaces yet, but will do so in the near future. My guess is that the Faber-Castell and Caran d'Ache will do better on such surfaces, but I have to experience that to be sure.

The reference photo does not show the top of the girl's head, so I created some more hair there to be able to position her face better on the surface. The photo also lacked detail, but fortunately child's faces have less accents than that of older people. Airbrushing those requires good concentration, because subtle accents are easily messed up. The girl's hair was a different story, half messy (which is what it should be with children) and also difficult to interpret due to the lack of fine detail. This where the Derwent pencil saved me a lot of time.

I started using the Iwata HP-BH and it behaved badly. Checking the needle tip under a looking glass showed a slight kink in the tip. I straightened and polished it after which it performed well again. For the hair, I used the Iwata Custon SB after first polishing its needle. Since I always spray freehand, this top of the bill airbrush was necessary (saves time). The Inspire H2O paints in combination with the Createx 4012 Reducer currently are the best paints /reducer available to spray fine detail. It took me four days to spray - doing all sorts of other chores in between airbrushing.

Oldest stages at the bottom, newest on top as usual.

Virtually framed (using Rhinoceros 3D)

Double child portrait

This portrait is sprayed on canvas. It is a surface for airbrushing very different from paper or board since the canvas' surface is littered with tiny cavities that require special attention to be filled with paint. The surface was grounded with Schmincke Aero Grund, a white primer to ensure good adhesion of the paint. Many layers of this primer were sprayed prior to airbrushing the portrait. Portraits on canvas take much more time than airbrushing on paper, but they have an atmosphere that is difficult if not impossible to copy on smooth surfaces.

The paint used is Inspire H2O, mixed with Createx 4012 reducer. The airbrush used, is an Iwata Custom SB, which is a versatile tool. When used in the 'normal' position it is a regular siphon feed gun, but when tilted slightly gravity steps in to make it behave like gravity feed airbrush. Unlike airbrushes that have the paint cup above the main tube, nothing blocks the artist's view, allowing unobstructed sight on the artwork. Its needle / nozzle combination produces very subtle thin lines to be sprayed, which is a great benefit for portrait artists.

Children's faces consist of very subtle lines and areas. It requires much attention and concentration to airbrush them correctly - especially on a canvas surface. I intentionally beautified the portrait, because the children were in the episode of losing their baby teeth. Since portraits are (sort of) permanent recordings, I prefer to 'skip' the dental process and airbrush them with more beautiful teeth...

The photographs were shot with a Sony Xperia Z5 Compact smartphone that produces much better photographs than the Samsung S4 Mini I used before. A really great improvement. The difference in hues is the result of the time of day at which the pictures were taken. I don't have proper artificial daylight lighting and prefer working during the day in natural sunlight.

So far (May 29 2016 13:00), it is a work in progress; the oldest stage at the bottom, the most recent at the top. Click the images to see larger versions in Blogger's Lightbox.

Virtual rendering in 3D frame to assess what portrait will look like

An other Hazes portrait

Using the ideal combination (at least until I find something better): Shooting Inspire H2O waterborne paint, mixed with Createx 4012 reducer through an Iwata Custom SB onto Createx Yupo paper (45 x 32 cm). Until recently I favored the Iwata HP-BH airbrush, but the Createx 4012 reducer allows the H2O paint to snugly pass the Iwata Custom SB nozzle / needle combo, while NOT continuing to flow after hitting the paper. Yupo is a synthetic paper which has an extra smooth surface on which paint 'spiders' easily since there is a minimum of grip. But Createx seems to have solved the paradox of paint having difficulty to pass small size nozzle (0.18 mm) while making it stable immediately after hitting the paper.

The clusters of molecules of paint typically are ten times smaller than the nozzle opening, which may sound like a lot, but actually isn't since paint builds up on both the needle and inside of the nozzle, which rapidly narrows the surface through which paint has to pass. A good reducer somewhat reduces the size of the paint molecule clusters and keeps them afloat before the paint is exposed to air. After that it should allow the paint to adhere to the surface the paint is sprayed on. This is exactly what the Createx 4012 reducer does. This is of course asking a lot of the reducer medium. The price the artists pays, is being very alert on the sounds the airbrush makes; if it starts to whistle, immediately move it away from the paper, clean the needle tip or even take the needle out and clean the entire needle. Than blast a few pulses of air through it to remove clogs of paint.

Which all is very convenient, since this portrait is a rush job...

In 2.5 days from blank paper
to a virtually framed portrait

Apr 03 2016 - 20:00

Apr 01 2016 - 02:00

Apr 01 2016 - 01:00

Apr 1 2016 - 00:00

Mar 31 2016 - 22:00

Mar 31 2016 - 17:30

Mar 31 2016 - 11:30