How to begin an acrylic portrait from reference?

[ohGr]

How would you begin? I recently had to do this for a project at school and the results were mediocre. I got a B+ on it even though it wasn't finished. When I took it home to try and finish it, everything went south. Since then I shoved the canvas in the corner and forgot about it until tonight. I tried again a little more confident only to gesso over the entire face and grow horribly depressed at my inabilities (ironically I've been listening to Judas Priests' 'Paint it Black' the whole night).

Here is the reference (Lance Henriksen):

http://www.inalonelyplace.com/show/Black.jpg

What has been kicking my ass most is the flesh tone. Aside from that I initially grided off the portrait and had a very good drawing beneath the painting that is now long gone from my frustration. So right now I feel like I'm painting in the dark as trying to get a likeness down without a grid is much riskier.

Anyways, what would you suggest if I were starting all over again? I don't have too many acrylic paints but I do have most of the basics FYI.

[tskills53]

Make that picture smaller for one.

No need to have a detailed underdrawing on such an opaque medium. Best to do the study on a seperate paper for easier use. For the flesh tones, it's basically yellow, red, white, and small ammount of blue, experimenting can help too, skin tones don't always have to follow the typical look, you can make him look like sand paper or like a rock if you want and I think it would work.

[koroshiya001]

The skin tones on this guy have a lot of real deep reds and bright oranges. It might be hard to get to look real, since his skin is kind of an akward color to begin with.

[fishw]

blur the picture so that the features are indistinguishable. turn the picture upside down. paint this with big brushes. turn everything over (so it's the right way up), and continue with an unblurred picture using a progressively smaller brush. keep looking at your progress in a mirror.

[ohGr]

The skin tones on this guy have a lot of real deep reds and bright oranges. It might be hard to get to look real, since his skin is kind of an akward color to begin with.

Yeah, I've been having real difficulty with that. Deep reds and bright oranges you say? I'll have to try that combination.

fishw: Blurring is a good idea. This is gonna be some project if I ever get it done.

[Flake]

blur the picture so that the features are indistinguishable. turn the picture upside down. paint this with big brushes. turn everything over (so it's the right way up), and continue with an unblurred picture using a progressively smaller brush. keep looking at your progress in a mirror.

Sound advice.

[egerie]

It's going to be quite a challenge since as it was already mentionned, this picture was heavely manipulated. I wonder if it's such a good idea to practice your flesh tone from such a source...
Ayhow, you might also want to try glazes with either water (will produced a matte layer) matte medium or glossy medium to progressively play your skin tones or shapes. It's an interesting thing to learn too.

[jrr]

yes it is a terrible idea to work on skin tones on this image, because IT'S BAD IN THIS IMAGE. if you must use this image, fix it up in photoshop