[Blade]

These are a bunch of pictures I took of the mural I am working on at school in the art room. The damn thing sucks right now and I could really use some suggestions with how to go about doing this. This unfortunatly is my FIRST painting non-digital and it isn't working out too well for me. I, however am not going to just stop and not finish this thing and have it painted over because I don't give up especially on these kind of things. I really need some suggestions or if anyone knows of any good websites that talk about painting with acrylics and flesh tones and hair and everything basically. If you could give me suggestions on how to go about painting the hair and face and eyes, that would really help me out. The hair is supposed to turn out as a dirty blond, light brown where it is dark and light yellow where it is light. The face just didn't work out at all the eyes were supposed to be cartoonish but I need to fix them up a bit somehow. The light source is coming from the right side of the painting. I am really having trouble on the face though, I don't think the hair will give me as much of a problem as the face will. Anyways the thing is I REALLY need some help, suggestions, and such.
Make fun of me all you want for how bad the painting is but I have been asked to do something despite that I haven't painted before and I am not gonna stop. I know it looks like a child threw finger paint on it but that's why I am posting here to see if anyone could give me suggestions or any form of help except for the that sucks just paint over and don't do it.
...I hope geocities shows the damn pictures grrrrr.

Here they are: http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Face-and-Hair.jpg http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Feet.jpg http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Full-Screen-Shot.jpg http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Left-Leg.jpg http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Right-Leg.jpg http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/Mural-Torso.jpg

[maxon]

Too much text for one of us (leavin' ...) www.maxon.rules.it

[Plouffe]

Hey its not that bad =). What i suggest is You should of Made a reference image on a 8 x 11 peice of paper with the drawing and the color test. If you would of done this you wouldnt need our help hehe. Never NEver start a project with it all in your head ( unless your just experimenting).

Start off with a basic back color than add lights and finally add darks. I think this way works best for me while painting with acrylics. As i get into the darker colors my brushes get smaller and smaller to put in details. So for your hair, I would start with a brownish/yellow/beige color as the back color. Then I would add highlights as needed and then add the darks. Use this methode it works great. AS you can see you started by mixing colors right away and getting into detailing too early.

Do not be afraid of using photo reference even if its cartooney. It will help you a great deal to get the right colors, tones and ligthing.

hope this helped...

[Blade]

Doh, i thought I mentioned I had an image to work off of. Ok well anyway first of all i was asked by our school art teacher to create and paint a comicbook type character. I drew up a character and I put down the basic colors green shirt, blue jeans, mechanical arm, blond hair...and such. Here is the picture I have if you wanted to see it:
http://fp.geocities.com/avetice/pin-up.gif

[MisterOwl]

It helps to "posterize" images when you paint them this large on a wall, especially a wall that is so textured as the one you are showing. Concider doing it as Plouffe suggested. Start with the base color of each subject, allow this to dry, then go back and add solid colors over it to indicate shading and lighting. Don't worry about blending the colors so much. That textured wall would make it difficult to do so. Also, a full color sketch, if not a complete painting to use as reference is ideal for a project like this. You say you used a sketch and "put down" colors, but the one you are showing is still black and white. A full color composite is essential.

Try watering the paints down to lay down the preliminary coats so that you can get some sharper edges. Build up the coats if needed, don't expect to get it all at once. You have to approach mural painted a little more industriously; almost like painting a house, to get it down.

What you have so far isn't really that bad. Just don't let it freak you out. You'll get it if you keep at it. Good luck!

[Plouffe]

Cool the picture looks nice.. But the problem is that the colors are in your head. You should do a test on paper before because at the end you might not have the effect you want or the right tones and values of colors.. Just a suggestion Do a small paint over that sketch and try colors out before you go on a huge wall =)