This is the beginning of a portrait of my son Jack. I laid him out, did some shading and then was sort of lost.
I wanted to make his face colorful, which was something new to me. I really can only paint what I can see.

This was my sad attempt to put color here in there and he was just getting stranger and stranger looking.
So, I decided that I would let the computer show me how to place the right colors.

I took the previous picture, loaded into my computer and pulled it up in a program where I can go and do all sorts of fun things to photos. This is a HUGE aid to me when I get lost and don’t know where to go next. I put in into the illusions and had the computer paint him in “finger paint”. It shows me where the colors need to go.

This was the next photo I took after taking the advice of the computer program. It is looking much better, but know that I need to lighten him… too dark.

This is the final portrait. I like the way he turned out, even though he looks a tad surly. (Didn’t want to give me a nice expression for the photo… I warned him that I can only paint what I see!) I still like it. I looked at the computer picture all the way to the end. I highlly recommend that anyone starting to paint, do this. I show my students how it is done so they don’t have to have to make up the colors, just paint what the computer photo is showing you it is suppose to look like. I often do it first with the actual photo that I am doing the painting with to lay out my pallette with all the colors the computer is showing me to use. Great fun and takes a LOT of the guess work out of the begining stages of a painting.

The first picture above shows you what I have used for a template to give me the size I need to cut out of the sheet. I had measured the inside of a frame that I had made, and cut a piece of cardboard to fit. I cut around the cardboard, leaving about 2 or more inches on all sides because you are going to be wrapping it around some wood.

Because I keep my sheets in a plastic bag, they are wrinkled, and you don’t want wrinkles on your canvas. You must iron the sheet until it is perfect – do not use starch, but just a water mist to help flatten it out.

When you are finished ironing, you will want to get two boxes like I have in the next picture, and buy some of the small clamps too as you will use these supplies over and over. The smaller of the two boxes will be turned upside down, where you will lay your sheet to put the gesso on it. I use a sponge brush, like I have in the photo, and then put some gesso in a cup with a little water to thin it out. You will put gesso on the sheet taking notice of the size of the canvas, making sure to cover the entire area.

A good way to check to make sure you have gotten enough gesso on the canvas, is to pick it up and look at it in the light. It should be solid with no dark areas (where the gesso isn’t…).

I take the prepared sheet and attach it across the larger box on each side which elevates it off the cardboard surface which is wet with the gesso.

You can either just leave it until it dries, or dry it with a heat gun like I do, making sure to keep the gun moving as to not burn the fabric. I learned that the hard way, so keep it moving back and forth until dry to the touch. I cannot tell you how long it will take to dry if you don’t use a heat gun, because I always use it to dry my canvas after I gesso it. This takes only a few minutes.

While the canvas/sheet cools, I get my wood board prepared by making sure that it is smooth to the touch. I had measured it to fit inside the frame as I had done with the cardboard. You are now probably wondering why we have both a piece of cardboard, and a wood piece the same size. Well, I use the wood over and over again for painting on as the support for the canvas. When I am done with the painting, I take it off of the board and put it on the cardboard to put into the frame – this way, I always have a nice board to use (providing I want this size again, which I often do!). I have tried painting with the cardboard as my backing, and it just doesn’t work. You will end up with lines in your painting from the corrugated surface. Trust me on this one….

I have shown both the front and the back of the frame pictured below, to show how I found the measurements of the wood and the cardboard. You can see that I tried some different stain on the wood on the back of the frame – good place to do this if you make your own frames like I do. The finished product will be covered up with a backing, so nobody will be the wiser….

This next step, you can skip if you like a rougher surface for your canvas. I like my canvases very smooth, so I take some fine grit sandpaper and rub on the gesso’d surface until it is to my liking.

After you get the texture that you like, put the canvas face down and put the board on top, making sure to keep the sides even.

The photo below shows how I have tucked over the material and pulled and stapled it to the board. You don’t need any special tool to do this, just your hands to grab the canvas sheet pulling tightly, and a good stapler. Staple as I have done in the photo.

At this point, I have chosen a photo that I want to do a painting of, and drawn out the outline. When I am doing this, I put the canvas into the frame to see how it is balanced in the frame. See the last two photos below.

That is it! Homemade canvas out of a bed sheet! Have fun!

Holy smokes - how can I get a picture of this lady so I can paint her?   Well, the only way was to go up to her and ask, so I did.  I went up and sat next to her telling her that I wondered if it was ok if I spoke to her for a second.  She was very friendly, smiling saying “Of course, what can I do for ya?”  I told her that I was a portrait artist, and I would love to paint her just because she was so darn pretty!  I told her that I work from photos and would need to get together with her to take some pictures, but I would then just give her the portrait for free, no strings, I just wanted the exercise to do her face.

Needless to say, she was surprised, but flattered and fortunately agreed.  She came up later that week and we sat and took a couple of photos.  This is the photo that I worked from and here is the painting.  I finished it in one day because I was having such a good time.  I called her the next day and told her to come and get her portrait - she was shocked that it was done already and that was fun for me.  I told her I was able to do it fast because of the paints that I use, Genesis Paints.

I have painted Concetta 3 times and I have painted her daughter Rio once.  Rio has a face of an angel and I had a hard time capturing her beauty as she is overwhelmingly beautiful.  Sweet 16 and just as sweet as she is nice.  Everytime I see her I tell her that she doesn’t belong here on this little island, but on the cover of Cosmo!  That is my story about Concetta, and that is how I got started in painting black faces.  I love the features, the hair, the skin tone and all that goes with doing their portraits.