How to Paint and Color a Fantasy Character (with 7 Cheap Acrylics)

This tutorial is focused on GLAZING which is: Adding transparent layers of color over a painting. Only a few colors of paint are required and all of this was done with very cheap materials.

Painting Surface

Brushes

White Acrylic Paint

Burnt Umber Acrylic Paint

Floating Medium

Neon Pink Acrylic Paint

Neon Yellow Acrylic Paint

Neon Blue Acrylic Paint

Neon Green Acrylic Paint (Optional)

Bright Red Acrylic Paint

Begin by painting a character in Burnt Umber and White acrylic. Why burnt umber? Because it's warmer than black and will save you a little time when adding the glazes that will become skin tones. Also, it allows you the option to make the shadows darker later on if you decide you need more contrast. It is important to remember that if you want a detailed painting it is easier to add the details now.

Now that your shadows, wrinkles, hairs, etc. are exactly how you want them, your painting should look like a black and white photograph (except brown and white). This is called an "Underpainting" or "Grisaille" and once it's dried, it's time to start adding color!

These Neon/Blacklight Acrylic paints are designed to be painted over a white surface, so they are actually quite transparent already but if you mix them with Floating Medium they become a very effective glaze! Adding a small amount of standard Bright Red Acrylic paint can help to make it darker.

Remember that glazes mostly make the painting darker, you can always add another layer if it isn't dark enough but it's hard to make it lighter, so be cautious.

Start by mixing a darker skin tone for the areas around the eyes, mouth, tip of the nose and ears (Neon Blue, Neon Pink, Bright Red, Floating Medium)

TIP

if you find the glaze you applied is too dark, quickly brush floating medium over the wet glaze and you should be able to blend it to a more desirable tone.

Now time for some lighter tones! You can mix Neon Pink with Neon Green (or Neon Blue and Neon Yellow to make green) into a tan/brown color with a good amount of Floating Medium and apply it to the entire character. You can even go over the prior glazes with this new glaze to help blend the transition and make the glaze more cohesive.

If you have an area where a light is shining upon your character's face (like my lightning bug) blend up to that area with your skin tone and Floating Medium, then use any color you desire for your light.

If it's a very bright light or the light is very close to your character, you can brush the light glaze following the darkest parts of that area (wrinkles etc.) and after one or two thin coats it will appear lighter and achieve that glowing effect.

Important: The Neon Yellow is quite transparent but does contain a small amount of white. Applying it over dark areas will lighten the painting but too many applications will loose detail and result in pure yellow.

Once you are happy with the skin tone, you might notice that the shadows aren't quite as bold as you'd like. This can easily be fixed by applying a thin glaze of Neon Blue and Floating Medium into the darkest parts of the shadow. You can even create some reflected light effects with thicker glazes of blue!

If there are some areas that you feel lost too much detail, you can mix some of your skin tone with a little White and apply it to the areas that should be lighter. This is also a good way to bring out little light accents and shiny areas in your painting.

And that's it! I hope you have fun with this, experiment with different techniques and share!

If you'd like to see more videos of me painting strange characters you can check out my YouTube channel!

www.youtube.com/@DeadlyEffigy