Lucia by Lala Woods

A lovely portrait, so pretty. Her hair is well done, great colour.

Thank you Carole for you comment, I appreciate it very much as this is in acrylic and I still can't get my head round acrylics, especially for portraits. I'm sure it makes a big difference which make of acrylics you use, and at the moment I'm using Daler Rowney System 3. I struggled so much with the skin colour, even bought a book on acrylic portraits for help. But didn't like the book, didn't like the portraits, they were very harsh and artificial, and so contrived, so that was a waste of money. I went back to making up my own recipe by trial and error. So thank you again., I need to keep on practicing but maybe I'm on the right track?

I think you have won the battle with acrylics - we artists should be more confident - a striking portrait.

Thank you Ronald for your words of encouragement. You are so right, we should have more confidence, so what is it that makes us, and me especially, look at previous work, even if only a week old, and think "I could have done better"! Is it because some of us are still learning, developing, trying out a new media, new style. Every painting I do I look at it a week later, a month later, a year later, and think "How can I have put that out there, I could have done better!" Which is why it's so important to have feed back from colleagues like you! Thanks for the pat on the back.

Lal, we are all learning, all the time. We never get there as there is always something new to learn about painting. The main thing is that you enjoy it. The improvement will come automatically. Try those new interactive acrylics. They allow you to spray the canvas afet they have dried re-activating them for blending. Also, do you use a 'stay wet' pallette. this helps too. I use a piece of paper on a sponge if i run out it works just as well to keep the paints dry on the pallete (but not on the canvas). Systems 3 are a good student quality paint but you might like Lyquitex paints. They flow lovely and have a really buttery texture. (Butter when soft not out of the fridge!!!) Anyway, happy painting. This portrait shows you are on your way there.

Sorry Lala, so many typo errors. The paints are called 'Liquitex'. Don't forget to put white A4 paper on a wet sponge! (Those flat ones you get for cleaning work quite well.) You can then use the paper as the pallette and throw it away afterwards. (Obviously, the proper acrylic papers for this purpose are best but can be expensive. You can use this as a stop gap if you run out but be careful not to tear through them as they get wet) Then you are not struggling quite so much with trying to speedily get your painting down on canvas before the paint dries on the pallette. You can take your time and paint as though it is an oil painting.Hope it helps Jx

Jean thank you so much for taking so much time and trouble with very helpfl tips and advice. The interactive are the Australian ones aren't they, SAA had a limited palette on offer. I must look in my catalogue and see what their range and price is. Also need to check out the Liquitex, I love the sound of soft buttery paint!! have a home made stay wet palette, but the idea of putting paper on a wet sponge to act as a palette is a good one and I will certainly give that a go. I suppose the fact that every painting I finish I look at after a time and think "I could do better, I can do better" means that I am learning. So that's encouraging, and as you say Jean, we never stop learning. And I'll keep posting for valuable comments like yours and Ronald's and all the others who take the time and trouble and for the fact that "I can do better"! :~))

I need to add that the opportunity to see other peoples' work in the gallery is very inspiring and I learn so much, and the paintings spur me on to try and try again.

Hi Lala, just to thank you for your compliments on my mountains. May I return it on your protraits? I'm in awe of people who have to courage to look at a face and paint it, whatever the result. Even more so when that result is a recognizable personality. I don't know Lucia; perhaps she doesn't even look like this. But that doesn't matter one jot. She's clearly a character (and reminds me of my own daughters at the age!) Bravissima.

Kim,if I could paint mountains like you I would probably die happy! Thank you for your words of encouragement. I have terrible internal battles with myself over portraits, still trying to find my style