Last week I must have been feeling extremely ambitious, when I decided to paint not only a portrait in watercolor, but a portrait of my husband and I! It was a fun photo of us at the beach and I thought – why not? I think I thought with the hat and sunglasses it would be easy. lol!
Things went along smoothly until I got to the faces, where I encountered a struggle similar to painting my “beach girl’s” face. Both faces were partly in shadow and no matter what I did, the skin looked blotchy and unnatural. I realized that, quite simply, I lack the “know how” to paint the highlights and shadows on a face while maintaining the smooth look of skin.
Despite this, I still think I did a decent job. Towards the end, I relied heavily on watercolor pencil, to add in the shading. But the main reason I feel good about this project is that I identified what training I need. Not only that, but I found a book that will help me in this area. I’m very excited to follow along with the step-by-step demonstrations in this book, “Realistic Watercolor Portraits: How to Paint a Variety of Ages and Skin Tones,” by Suzanna Winton.
Here were my steps:
I started sketching in a light watercolor pencil, because I figured I could erase any lines I wanted to. Then I added in the color – except for the faces.
Once I started adding paint to the faces, things got blotchy and funny looking.
I went back and forth with paint and pencil trying to get the right shading and trying to get it to look smooth.
So brave!
To try painting it or posting it? Lol! My daughter laughed when she saw it.
Haha I was going for the painting it… But you are braver than me for posting one your daughter laughed at lol! I really hate when the sketch and the paint don’t add up! I always get angry at the waste of time and get discouraged. Push on! Do it again! Practice practice practice! I think by the end if summer you will be sketching portraits. As a matter of fact… That’s a good way to get the faces into practice. Have you ever painted from a mirror in front of you? I’ll email you the one I did in college if I still have it. It helped, but I hated it… And learned a lot.
I have tried a couple of times to sketch myself. I end up looking like an old lady! lol. Maybe I should leave the lines out. 🙂
Haha lol ok ok! I always leave out the ‘lines’.
You are doing a nice job showing your process here! People are hard!! Thanks for visiting my blog and I’ll try and show some collage techniques!
Thank you! I’m learning as I go! I’m looking forward to seeing your collage techniques and to trying them out!