A friend asked me recently for a painting of Yoda to hang on his office wall. I love Star Wars (who doesn’t?) so was happy to be given the opportunity.
I started with a raw umber under painting, using my favourite new dry brush technique, smudging and wiping away highlights with a cotton bud. This feels a bit like drawing with charcoal, just a bit stickier! It allows for a lot of experimentation without building up a thick layer of paint.
https://instagram.com/p/BSY4d-Zghdz/
After learning so much about human anatomy recently, it felt weird drawing someone human-like but with obvious differences. I was able to see lots of the same facial planes that I’ve been studying, as Yoda is clearly based on a human, but there were lots of oddities to look out for.
https://instagram.com/p/BSn7tGxAoRU/
I painted the majority of the next layers without medium or thinners, wanting to keep a consistently rough texture throughout the skin and clothing. The only time I added some extra linseed oil was whilst adding details as it’s easier to place the paint when it’s not too stiff.
https://instagram.com/p/BTmPOaRgbOJ/
This was really fun and has made me want to paint more portraits in more of a textured style. It was interesting mixing green skin tones and studying how the light reflected off Yoda’s head. It took me a number of days and evenings to finish, probably 8-10 hours in total. The painting is on hardboard, 12″ x 18″.