How to Paint a Dancing African Woman

You may spend several minutes trying to mix the right shade for the flesh tones.

The challenge of painting a dancing figure is in capturing the movement, spirit and soul of the figure, and the dance being performed. When a viewer looks at a painting of a dancing figure, there should be a sense of the rhythm the dancer is moving to, and the type of dance, whether frantic or graceful, spiritual or artful. This type of painting likely will be challenging even for skilled artists, so don't become discouraged with your first results -- practice will improve your ability to paint this type of subject.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Paper
• Canvas
• Paintbrushes
• Paint (various colors -- oil or acrylic)
• Paint thinner (water or turpentine)

Instructions

1. Find a picture to paint. The picture should be detailed, large and in focus. Draw several practice drawings of the figure on paper. Make different drawings at different speeds, and emphasize different qualities of the figure in each drawing. Make a point to study the flow of the clothes or jewelry being worn, the flipping movement of the hair, the gyrations of the body and arms. Try to capture the gesture and body language of the dancing figure. Draw axis lines through the center of the body and the arms to show the center of gravity for the figure. Study the musculature of the figure, and spend time trying to capture the exact shape of the arms and legs as they appear in the photograph.

2. Mix the color for the flesh tones. Darker skin tones will be a mixture of brown, red, blue and a little yellow or white.

3. Paint the first layer of paint on the canvas, painting only the basic colors of the flesh, clothes and hair. Leave details for later. The paint should be mixed with paint thinner (water for acrylic, turpentine for oil) for a thin application, applied quickly to try to capture the chaotic movement of the dancer.

4. Apply additional layers of paint to the canvas, building up the color of the flesh tone and adding details to the figure. Consider leaving some areas of the figure slightly unfinished -- for example, the hands and face might be blurry and somewhat lacking in details, and the hair might blur at the ends -- in order to convey a sense of rapid movement. You should paint enough layers of paint on the canvas that you no longer can see the texture of the canvas through the paint.

5. Add highlights and shadows to the figure. Highlights falling on the flesh tone will be painted on by mixing white paint or yellow paint into the original flesh tone color. Use blue or dark brown for the shadows. Avoid using black because it will make your painting murky.

References

• Drawing How To Draw; How To Draw the Movement of Shapes and People's Figures
• Dragoart; How to Draw A Ballerina Dancer
• Oil Painting Techniques; Portrait Paintings