Acrylic Tips and Tricks

Joker in the elevator (reference)

My longest YouTube video shares a couple of tips and tricks for my acrylic painting process, but I figured a blog post would act as good SparkNotes. In the video, I painted Joaquin Phoenix from the 2019 Joker, and I started the tutorial with a light graphite sketch. 

I then tap away the darkest parts of the sketch with a moldable eraser but the back of a pencil or a pink rubber works too. It’s important to tap rather than rub with the eraser at this point because you don’t want to lose your sketch entirely, just make it a little less opaque.

Next, I started mixing colors for the piece. I went into this one with primary colors and black and white to practice color theory a little bit. My favorite tip from this video is to darken colors without making them muddy by reaching for the color opposite of it on the color wheel rather than immediately using black.

This is especially important to the scene I paint because the whole look is simultaneously vibrant and muted. I then mentioned glazing to color correct because the jacket in the reference photo looks more orange than red because of the lighting in the elevator. I mixed yellow and red paint with water to shift the nearly cherry-red color to a more manageable shade of terracotta. When making a glaze I suggest testing it on a separate paper, so you know how thin/transparent to make it. It helps me to think in terms of watercolor when using thinned-out acrylic paint.

I compared highlights and shadows in this piece to a graphite portrait I did in another video and reflected on how much simpler it is to think about highlights and shadows in black and white. That leads me to my next trick which is making a lot of a base color and then making a lighter and darker version of the mid-tone, so everything’s premixed for your highlights and shadows. When mixing custom colors, I’d always recommend making “too much” or at least more than you think you’ll need because it’s a pain to recreate them unless you measure the ratio of all the colors involved.

While working on the hair I talked about brush techniques and the amount of paint you should have on your brush. I noticed that I should have used more paint on the jacket to create a cleaner edge but using less paint and a stippling motion with a fluffier brush was important for creating the look of dead ends and the way hair frames the face softer at the hairline.

I took a moment to highlight the importance of understanding your reference because of the way the actor’s eyelashes catch a little bit of light from overhead. Taking time to understand different details in your reference really closes the disparity between your piece and what it’s based on.

As I’m wrapping up the piece, I mention that I use an LED lamp while working but occasionally turn it off to see how the colors look in natural light.

Thanks for joining me for this blog post tutorial and I hope you learned something new. :)