my first real go with acrylics, had a little mess around on a5 canvasboard a couple of times, really speedy stuff, but this is the first real painting with them, 30x40cm canvas, from life, around 6-7hrs over 3 nights, , my son max.

apologies for the shitty photography (aaggh the glare)

http://www.merulifestyle.com/Portals/10/maxacrylicsml.jpg

bigger version (http://www.merulifestyle.com/Portals/10/maxacrylicbig.jpg)

Looks really great monk! Can't really say much more about it. I used to do acrylics my self earlier. Nice. :)

That looks really good Monk. Taking pictures of artwork sucks, you always loose something.

The only critiques I have is with the shirt, it looks rather flat but maybe that just the photo and the back of the head looks a little too elongated I think.

:)

Excellent work Martin. The way youhave defined ever so subtlely the outline glow around Max - it gives teh subject an almost angelic glow and works effectively for this type of portrait.

[talking from my ass]
Aside with the flatness of the shirt if I were to offer any helpful critiques on this piece they would come in the form of value balance. You have played it extremely safe with our palette here, and the value distribution is seems even throughout - at least the mids and darks seem close to even (but it could be argued otherwise but this is how I see it). Even value distribution tends to make for a boring image, however the lightness on his face and the little subtle glow help alleviate this.

As with any painting its always good to strive for value dominance in either one of the following Lights/Darks/Mids. Your digital paintings tend to have a strong darks balance.

The neutral tones of this painting really (this effect may be hindered or enhanced by the photo) really give the image a quiet and somber feeling.
[/talking from my ass]

Okay with all that bull pucky said, take it for what its worth and know this...I think this is a beautiful painting and appreciate it even more having attempted portraits myself with acrylic paints. :)

thx guys, yep i agree about the shirt, kind of called it done a little early, will fix tomorrow, his hair is getting long, and yeh, sticks out that far hehe, really thick at the back, the pallette, yep, totally agreed, partly intentional, i rely on black a lot, so i avoided using it completely, not a drop of it on the pallette, just to see if i could get values down without using it, as i know from my last oil attempt (eek), that it kind of muddies up the shading (the last portrait i did i used black in with the skintone for darks, looked odd), more of a test image, but the contrast is really subtle without it, started off with an umber wash and just added to it, working on that base, hiding brown, had to go for a muddy greyish background colour to let any value show through (the photo isnt the best, theres slightly more contrast in the face/hair and less on the shirt and the burnt sienna wash stands out a bit), i was thinking about the way brom does some of his lighter stuff (not the rendering but the way he has a good few images with monotone brown skintones, set off with lighter colours around it), was a good learning process, and i doubt i'll do it like this again, i like my black hehe, but the missus is happy :)

the missus is happy :)

That's the most important thing. :)

I hardly use pure black at all, I usually do a mix, most often with paynes grey and one or two other colours (like burnt umber, alizarin crimson or french ultramarine). I find this creates nice dark toned "black".

:)

I know what you mean about photographing acrylic paintings monk. I dread it. But I can tell that this is a great painting (kind of looks like my Nephew). What makes the painting for me are the light values in the face. Great job. :)

First time I have seen you doing some thing like this Monk......and I do believe you have captured a very nice portrait of Max.....and if the missus is happy - well, what else can we ask for eh!....excellent job !!

nice painting! the head is large