JJ Worden

When longtime friend and supporter, Liz asked how I would portray her—curious about the colours I'd choose and the reference photo I’d land on—I knew I wanted to tackle a piece that was as challenging as it was compelling. I found myself drawn to a specific photo with an incredible sense of attitude, both in her facial expression and her posture. The catch? The original image was incredibly dark and moody. I wanted to see if I could translate that quiet, heavy atmosphere into something fiercely vibrant, using a bold, super-saturated palette. Painted in acrylic on paper, this piece became a journey of balancing intense colour with deep character, and I’m excited to pull back the curtain and show you exactly how it came together, layer by layer.

Because I plan to gift this piece to Liz, logistics actually dictated my choice of canvas. I stuck to paper to hit that perfect sweet spot—large enough to fully capture her attitude, but small enough to slip into a mailing envelope without a massive shipping bill. Is it a bit cheap? Maybe, but a practical artist is a working artist! These days, everything starts with that signature orange base layer (gesso first, always). From there, I mapped out the initial lines. They are incredibly faint and barely visible, but they provide the perfect guide before the heavy paint comes into play.

Giving myself mini-challenges along the way is half the fun of experimenting or creating for myself. I've often used black and white value maps but I wanted to try it in colour. Mapping out the value scale in just four distinct colours (black/darkest shadows, deep red, that bright orange underpainting, and white highlights) locks in the proportions and features before things get complex. I used Photopea to reduce the colours on the left, and my rendition on the right. 

The next phase is blocking in the colours using a palette of Magenta, Teal Blue, Lemon Yellow plus Titanium White and Black. Still keeping the strokes large trying not to get bogged down in small details. Using a larger brush sure helps!

Note how the cool teals begin to contrast against the warmth of the underpainting, and how the features start gaining sharp, illustrative definition by the second phase as I start to refine those shapes.

This final stage is the most crucial: DON'T OVERDO IT! It requires an immense amount of patience and deliberate forethought before a brush even touches the paper. My goal is to keep that raw vibrancy and energy fully alive while simultaneously refining the entire piece. It’s a careful dance of mixing the exact shade of red, pink, or teal-tinged yellow, and placing it precisely beside the original stroke so it reads as a cohesive form—never blended out or muddy. Once the colours are exactly where they need to be, I go in with the final refinements in dark tones, and lastly, those sudden pops of white that instantly pull the whole portrait together.