Art Anatomy: The Skull

I paint and draw skulls all the time, this is due to my teaching activities but it's also very important for my own learning process. The more I study the skull and the more confident I become when I approach portrait painting. I've been teaching to paint skulls because painting a portrait knowing the structure of the head creates a much more realistic result.
You can paint a skull with me in my upcoming portrait course!

I paint skulls in monochrome because that allows to concentrate on lights and shadows introducing the importance of tonal values to identify the different planes of the head.

When you pic a color to paint in monochrome make sure that the color is dark in order to give you a wider spectrum of tonal values. A Burnt Sienna clearly shows a lighter tone in my darkest darks than in the previous example.

In my studio I have a skull replica in resin so I can keep studying different views of the head always painting from life. Painting from life is very important in order to break the limitations of a photo reference. I can always change the subject position and it's illumination, see my object without distortions, add symbolic elements for a composition and get a real connection with time and observation.