Octavia Spencer is one of my favorite black actress. I fell inlove with her when I watched Hidden figures and I’ve watched quite a number of her movies like The Help, Self made just to mention a few. This motivated me to paint her. When I choose a picture to paint, I usually look at the facial features and hers is one that I love. Also in order to practice skin tones and master it well, I decided to go for this particular picture.

Source

While painting I learnt a lot like the effect of light on the hair. How to paint the texture of the lips to be realistic because my goal is to be able to make good realistic portrait paintings. The main problem I faced was even after I’ve completed the painting and I was left with the background. Painting background has always been a big issue for me. I changed the background color three good times, lol. From a bright color, to a dull color to finally a mixed of it. In overall, it came out nice and I loved it.

Below, I will be taking us through the process of me making the painting. It is an oil painting which was made on a primed canvas. I will love to hear your thought about the piece in the comment below.

PROCESS

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THE DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS …

The first background

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The second background

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The final background

FINAL LOOK

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