Mason Guerster
Academic Concentration in Creative Studies: Capstone Project
My work is portraits of empowering women using oils on canvas. Portraits are 16x20 and each has different background colors. Using charcoal pencil on the canvas I make a symmetrical grid where I give a rough sketch to layout shadow shapes.
The main focus has been to create a strong likeness of the person in the portrait. I mix a nice warm brown to get some of the shadow shapes highlighted, and work my way to a skin tone color. Once the underpainting is complete, I choose a background color to highlight the undertones of the skin, and continue to push that color more and more into the darker shapes. Getting the undertones to resemble that of the woman is key to creating a strong likeness.