Winter Acrylic Portrait Challenge Masterclass, Lesson 1: Prepping Your Canvas for the Portrait

[@Cyril-eu4gf]

Brilliant and informative as usual Matt. It’s been a long time since I used acrylics having tried airbrushing for a while. In the UK Nova Color is not available and buying from the US is costly so I will probably stick with Liquitex. Looking forward to the next lesson.

[@fineartbymattphilleo]

►► Sign up for the Acrylic Portrait Painting Challenge! It's FREE: realisticacrylic.com/acrylic-portrait-painting-challenge

[@40bdg]

Is it okay if we use a canvas panel instead of a stretched canvas?

[@fineartbymattphilleo]

Yes, you certainly can!

[@user-rg9er9fe9r]

Question about the last step: Why do another layer of gesso and matte medium, versus skipping the last step and instead pressing lighter with the colored pencil or using a lighter color so it shows through less?

[@MrsMemster]

Because it not only mutes the lines but it seals in the grid.

[@user-rg9er9fe9r]

@@MrsMemster But isn't the grid already sealed in from the translucent matte layer applied on top of the colored pencil before the final matte + gesso layer?

[@mattphilleo971]

Good question. You could go lighter and omit the last step. Just seal it with matte medium. The reason I demonstrate it this way is that it’s difficult for many to go light without having tbe colored pencil skip and miss on the canvas surface. But if it works for you, give it a try!