Give Your Creativity a Curl with Mixed-Media Artist Christa Forrest
Learn how to embrace hair as the true expressive focal point of a portrait.
Art is about the pure joy of creative exploration, and for mixed-media artist Christa Forrest, there's nothing more joyful than portraying hair.
The core takeaway of this lesson (77 mins) is learning how to embrace hair as the true expressive focal point of a portrait. By focusing on form and feeling rather than hyper-realistic facial details, you will discover how to use voluminous, textured hair to inject raw personality and movement into your artwork.
Christa guides you through a liberating mixed-media process focused entirely on experimentation and intuitive layering. You will start by deconstructing your subject into simplified value blocks using a posterized photo reference, which allows you to map out your lights, darks, and midtones with absolute confidence.
From there, you will learn to build a rich, toothy foundation by mixing clear gesso directly into your acrylic skin tones. This creates a gritty surface that allows your colored pencils to glide smoothly, giving you exceptional control over the final shading and blending.
The true magic happens when you move beyond the reference photo to let your imagination take over. Christa demonstrates how to raid your paper stash to collage a vibrant, patterned crown right into the hair using matte gel medium, transforming an ordinary portrait into a unique story.
Finally, you will master expressive hair techniques by tapping, smudging, and layering deep acrylic purples and turquoise highlights to capture lush, natural curls.
Ready to let your creativity unfurl amid a head of curls? Let's get started!
