Achieving Volume in a Portrait

It’s all about the values!

The beginning stages for my portraits start with light washes of color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colors in this photo are a little distorted… a little too yellow, but wanted to show how the detail and sculpting of the face starts adding volume.  It’s important to not only add the detail in the eye, for instance, but also the darker values surrounding the eye to put the eye back into the eye socket to start forming the bridge of the nose. 

Also, surrounding the mouth area with the correct values.  The corners of the mouth are usually rather dark.

Here in the finished painting you can see how the dark values in the tree have helped form the baby’s hand and given that area a nice three dimensional feel. 

 

 

 

 

Around big sister’s head is a nice range of values from light to dark…  Notice how some areas of her hair against the background are dark and some are light… some are also similar in value but different in color… this helps to create a sense of 3 dimensional space.