‫This is the third coat and an opportunity to make any adjustments you feel you need to make. This coat
‫is specific to each individual's painting.
‫So the changes I make aren't necessarily the same as you'll need to make.
‫For example, now that the coat of clear acrylic medium is dried, I can see that the texture of my
‫brush strokes on her forehead is still a bit choppier than I'd like them to be.
‫So I'm going to paint another layer over the area to smooth it out.
‫And the same goes for any other spots that stand out to me when I step back and examine my work.
‫You should do the same.
‫Think of this as an "Adjustment layer".
‫An "adjustment layer" isn't quite a detail coat.
‫It's in between the second coat where a painting usually comes together and the detail coat. For some
‫paintings
‫I have to add a number of adjustment layers.
‫It's really up to you how fine-tuned you'd like your piece to be. And how smooth or textured you prefer
‫your brushstrokes to look. Because this is going to be very similar to the last coat
‫I'm going to move quickly and speed the video up as much as possible to avoid being repetitive.
‫This also isn't required of you.
‫If your painting is as you like it to be, then you don't need to perform this step.
‫I'll start with a 1/2 inch angular shader in the hopes that a larger brush will both save time and
‫leave a broader, smoother texture behind.
‫I do want to leave some texture, by the way.
‫I prefer my work to look a bit more "painterly". Again because this is her forehead and foreheads lean
‫towards the Yellow side of the color spectrum.
‫I'm working with this combination of colors, which is mostly on the Yellow scale. As usual.
‫I'm working from left to right and I'm moving quickly because my pain is very diluted, which makes
‫it easy to blend.
‫I'm picking up pure Titanium White for the brightest highlight, just like I did in the last coat.
‫And by the way, I am looking at my printed reference off screen right now.
‫I'm not just making this up.
‫I didn't put it on screen because you've already seen this done.
‫And I want to give you the best possible view as I apply this coat.
‫Please follow along with your photo reference for this lesson.
‫I'm incrementally adding more Burnt Umber to my mixture as I transition into the shadow on the right
‫side of her forehead again, as I did in the last coat.
‫As I get to the darkest parts of this shadow I'll revert to the "shadow formula" for this painting, which I
‫established earlier.
‫There, that looks much better.
‫Next, I'm going to smooth out this blend from the shadow into her forehead.
‫It's a smaller area, so I've switched to my 1/4 inch angular shader.
‫I'm picking up the exact same color combination, I'm even using the same brush stroke pattern as I
‫did in the last coat. Everything I do in the third coat will just look much smoother because of the
‫layering techniques, which you're all very aware of by now.
‫I'm going to slow it down for a moment to point out that I'm picking up much thicker paint for this
‫lighter area.
‫It's almost a highlight on the bridge of her nose.
‫The "adjustment coat" is a great opportunity to get some thicker paint on your canvas or in this case,
‫illustration board.
‫And remember, thicker paint used in the appropriate places and under the right conditions really makes
‫a painting into a masterwork, that slight expression in your brushstroke is where an artist's hand
‫is truly recognizable!
‫That's why most people can look at a painting done by a specific artist and know who did it- just by
‫the expression of their brushstroke!
‫That goes for paintings with perfectly smooth brush strokes as well.
‫From the Dutch Masters to John Singer Sargent.
‫No matter how loose and expressive or smooth the strokes in a painting are, I can see the undeniable
‫style and brilliance from their hands in those brush strokes.
‫One of the major benefits of doing a glaze of clear acrylic medium in between coats, is that it brings
‫out any mistakes or areas that need to be adjusted.
‫So take a look around your painting and see if any areas stand out as coarse or unfinished.
‫For example, I'm noticing this spot in my piece.
‫I'm using the same colors as I did in the last coat.
‫So if you need more specific instructions, please just go back and rewatch that part.
‫I'd like to smooth this area out- again, this may not be the case in your painting.
‫The color shifts more towards the Yellow scale here, so I'm picking up some 2nd value, just like
‫I did in the last lesson.
‫The shadow needs to be Grayer and lighter, so I'm going to apply a transparent glaze of 2nd or 3rd
‫value over the area, I'm going to do this in real time because it's different from the last coat.
‫And I'll even bring in a cross-section of the photo reference for a moment just to give you a close
‫up visual aid to follow along with.
‫Really pay attention to how washing my paint is, all I'm doing is applying a tint to the area.
‫I'm standing up right now, which I'm sure you can tell by the way I'm holding my brush.
‫Some of the paint I picked up was too thick.
‫I'll try spreading it out, but I may have to wipe some of this off.
‫I'm just using a paper towel to wipe and dab off some of the excess color, that's an easy trick I use
‫when I want to reduce the amount of paint in an area I'm applying a transparent glaze to.
‫OK, that looks good to me. The next thing I want to do is make some adjustments in the sunglasses
‫and again, you may not need to adjust your sunglasses.
‫I chose to put this material into the course because I want to make sure every student leaves this lecture
‫with the knowledge and ability to make these changes and adjustments on their own in the future.
‫I'll bring in a cross-section of the reference for you all to follow along with, but again, this is
‫all been demonstrated for you in the previous coat.
‫So if you want more specific instructions of color and value choices or even brush choices, please
‫reference the previous lecture where I paint this line step by step.
‫I've really sped this up because I'm not making any substantial changes, all I'm doing here is going
‫over everything I painted with the same values to smooth out the brush strokes and gradients.
‫I'll slow down for a moment here, because I want to point out this hard line that still showing through
‫the layers of paint from the under painting. I think this is an opportunity to show you how I go about
‫fixing that at this stage in the process.
‫First, I'm going to attempt to repaint over the area with thicker, undiluted colors.
‫If that doesn't work, I have to add some gray scale to the color to make it more opaque.
‫Then once that dries, paint back over it again with full chroma Orange to readjust the color.
‫I'm overlapping my paint with a darker value first so I can come in with a lighter value and manage
‫the gradient. Lighter values are more opaque, so they're good at covering lines.
‫But remember, the thicker your paint is, the more brushstrokes it will have in it.
‫So this area may be a bit more textured.
‫I think that worked out well.
‫The values are more pronounced, it added some more contrast and the hard lines have been smoothed out.
‫While that dries, let's mix a Blue scale to paint some color into her eyes and the background.