Facial features are difficult to recreate, especially when working with oil colours. In this step-by-step plan, artist Zarina Situmorang (@zarinasart on Instagram) shows us how she builds a mouth using Rembrandt and Van Gogh oil colours.
“Today we’ll be painting lips together! They will have a soft pastel look. It means that we don’t need saturated colours and high contrasts.” Let’s begin!
I usually divide the process of the painting into three stages:
The base: this part is pretty sloppy. I try out different colours, see how they work together and add some variety.
The transition: once I’m happy with the result of the previous step, I proceed to mix and add the transitional colours in between the existing colours.
The blending: this is where I create smooth lines between the colours I have already applied. I use an old fluffy brush to do that.
Prepare and mix your colours.
Create some mixes of different skin tones and shadow shades on your palette using the colours pictured and the white spirit and linseed oil.
Start with a sketch.
Paint the outline of the lips. I did this using a diluted brown colour.
Colour the skin around the lips.
This area will act as a background and will help us decide what colours to use on the lips themselves.
Time to fill in the lips!
I’ve added some red paint to our base mixes to create these pink colours.
Let's blend!
Add your transition colours and blend them together with the existing colours.
To provide some texture, add a few bold brush strokes.
I also changed the colour of the middle line of the lip so it is much redder than before.
And our lips are done! I hope you liked this lesson. Don’t forget to share your results using #RoyalTalens!
This wonderful step-by-step plan was made for Royal Talens by Zarina Situmorang (@zarinasart on Instagram).
