Wondering how the artist made the paper texture in the last picture? Curious to know how it was integrated with the portrait to get the desired effect? Well, here’s a brief insight.
The artist first made a sketch of the painting and then drew vertical lines using soft pastels. He then applied clear gesso all over to prepare the paper and pattern.
He then preserved some highlights of the face with white acrylic before applying soft oil pastel over it.
Gradually, the artist built the face with oil pastel and simultaneously worked on the paper texture with different shades of colour pencils — mostly sandstone and white.
Dark values of the face were then added and red oil pastel was used along the edges. Red water colour pencil was used for the dried drop effect.
The final retouching took over two hours. The artist laid more contrast in the face using colour pencils and used bright highlights and textures with white gel. He concluded the piece by fine tuning the paper texture to emulate that of cardboard.
I have been following his works for a long time. Riju Nag is not only a good artist,he is a great Artist.