Ghanaian wedding - the rich background needed 4 or 5 layers of paint for best coverage.

I have been busy with portraits for my American client and here are some of them.

I paint in acrylics over a poster or photograph and it’s effective but full of little difficulties. The surface I’m painting on can vary from shiny to matt and most of the backgrounds are dark and quite complex which means I have to use a lot of layers of paint for full coverage. I have mastered the technique so I can normally finish a portrait in a week. The big ‘however’ is the weather because when it’s hot in the studio the acrylic paint dries almost instantly even with the addition of retarder in the water. I start early before it gets hot and do other jobs if it’s unbearable.