Serial Imagery – Repetition with Personality
Serial Imagery with Oil Pastels & Acrylics:
Repetition with Personality
Hi everybody!
Today, we explore the concept of serial imagery—a creative technique using repetition and templates to bring variety and personality to your compositions.
Whether you're new to oil pastels and acrylic painting or looking to expand your artistic approach, this tutorial offers a step-by-step guide to working with simple shapes and limited colours to produce visually compelling portrait studies.
We’ll be using a basic template to paint groups of faces in four different stylistic approaches, experimenting with flat colours, added facial features, textured brushwork, and even abstract elements. You’ll see how to make your work cohesive using limited palettes, shared tones (like burnt umber or yellow), and strong intentionality behind your choices.
Each style builds on the previous one to help you understand how colour, repetition, and subtle changes can transform a simple pattern into a vivid and expressive series.
This method is incredibly versatile—you can apply it to various subjects such as women, men, animals, or florals. While today’s video focuses on a group of men, future videos will cover more themes using the same serial process.
Through the use of templates, this technique also helps take the pressure off perfect portraiture. If you're intimidated by realistic drawing, this is a playful and accessible way to explore identity, expression, and colour without getting stuck on perfection.
The goal is not only to teach a technique, but to spark your creativity and help you see how repetition can actually unlock uniqueness. It's all about intentionality, colour harmony, and making bold artistic choices—even with minimal tools.
Perfect for beginner and intermediate artists working with oil pastels, acrylics, or mixed media.
Key Concepts Covered:
Serial imagery and creative repetition
Using templates for portrait art
Working with limited colour palettes
Painting with oil pastels and acrylics
Exploring texture, abstraction, and unity in composition
Portrait art without pressure—building confidence through intentionality
Ideal for:
Beginner and intermediate artists
Artists exploring portraits, colour theory, or abstraction
Anyone looking to loosen up their art practice and enjoy creative freedom
Useful links
• Portraits
• Beginner’s guides
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:09 Template
01:03 First composition
04:15 Second composition
08:08 Third composition
10:31 Fourth composition
13:48 Results
14:24 Outro
Hashtags:#OilPastelArt #AcrylicPainting #PortraitArt #SerialImagery #ArtTutorial #PaintingWithTemplates #ColourTheory #MixedMediaArt #ArtRepetition #CreativePortraits #BeginnerArtTutorial #ExpressiveArt