ACRYLIC PORTRAITS
Master Composition, Value, and Color to Create Expressive Acrylic Portraits
COURSE IS OPEN – $149
Do You Feel Overwhelmed By All of the Choices Involved in Creating Portraits?
How do you choose the right reference photograph?
How do you create a strong composition?
How do you know if your values are correct
—and how do you mix the colors you see?
Imagine looking at a reference photograph and knowing:
how to turn it into a compelling painting. You understand the values, recognize the colors you need, and trust that you can mix them using a simple primary palette.
If that sounds like what you are looking for, you’re in the right place.
Acrylic Portraits gives you a clear, step-by-step path through reference selection, composition, value, paint mixing, and the creation of a finished portrait.
Acrylic Portraits – It’s Just Paint
Acrylic Portraits is a comprehensive course designed to help you understand how composition, value, and color work together to create expressive portraits. You will learn how to select and adjust reference photos, paint a black-and-white value study, and mix the colors you see using a limited primary palette. Finally, you will follow a complete color portrait from beginning to end and learn how to work through uncertainty with greater confidence.
Inside this course, you’ll learn how to:
✔Choose a strong reference photograph
✔Use value to create dimension and form
✔Paint a black-and-white acrylic portrait
✔Mix a wide range of colors from a limited palette
✔Match paint mixtures to colors found in reference photographs
✔Paint a full-color portrait from beginning to end
Listen to Kara’s complete thought process as she paints two portraits from beginning to end!
Course Description
PHOTOS/COMPOSITION
Learn what makes a reference photograph suitable for a painting. Explore ways to crop, manipulate, and adjust a photograph to create a stronger composition and a more emotionally engaging portrait.
UNDERSTAND VALUE
Discover what value is and why it is essential in representational artwork. Practice identifying light, middle, and dark values and learn how value creates form, dimension, and depth.
BLACK AND WHITE
Apply your understanding of value by painting a complete portrait in black and white. Removing color allows you to concentrate on shapes, shadows, highlights, and the structure of the face.
LEARN ABOUT COLOR
Explore the color wheel and learn how colors relate to one another. Develop a better understanding of primary colors and how they can be combined to create the colors needed for portrait painting.
MIX TO MATCH
Practice mixing colors from a limited primary palette using a variety of portrait references. Learn how to observe a color, break it down, and adjust your mixture until you achieve the color you need.
FULL-COLOR PORTRAIT
Watch a painting develop from beginning to end as I share my decisions and discoveries throughout the process. This demonstration will help you understand how to move forward even when you are uncertain about the outcome.
What Else….
This course is for artists who:
What is included:
Designed for ALL artists for just $149.
Meet Kara Bullock.
Your guide on this journey.
I am Kara Bullock, a self-taught artist, educator, and entrepreneur based in Southern California. For over a decade, I taught in elementary classrooms and later at the university level, where I specialized in education, child development, and online teaching. My love for art began as a personal hobby, a way to nurture creativity while balancing a busy teaching career and raising a family.
I describe my work as loose realism, with a focus on expressive portraits and figurative art. I believe I am drawn to people as subjects because people are my greatest passion—even more so than art itself. I am endlessly intrigued by the stories and experiences that shape who we become. If we meet, don’t be surprised if I ask you to tell me your life story! I genuinely love discovering what makes each person uniquely who they are.
Love notes from students…
Course Supplies
Supplies You’ll Need for This Class
Below is a list of what I’ll be using, but please don’t feel like you need to run out and buy anything special. Use what you already have on hand. If you’ve got a different brand, a different size, or even a totally different tool that does the job, go for it. This is about making the process work for you, not matching my setup item for item.
Substrate:
Paint Colors:
Paint Brushes:
Paint Palette:
Other:
Please use what you have to get started.
This is Your Invitation!
You do not have to keep guessing your way through composition, value, and color.
In Acrylic Portraits, you will witness my entire process—including the uncertain moments—and discover that successful paintings are not created by avoiding doubt. They are created by continuing to observe, adjust, and trust what you have learned.
If you are ready to take the mystery out of acrylic portrait painting and gain confidence in your artistic decisions, I would love to welcome you into the course.