Watercolor Portrait Step by Step (Theo)

August 20, 2015 in step by step, commissions

This is Theo, the little brother of Simon, whose step-by-step portrait I posted a while ago.

Step 1. Thumbnail sketch, in color:

I use thumbnail sketches like these for three purposes:

1. This is the initial translation of a photo to an artwork that I do. It lets my collector see what I see when I look at their photo. It gives them a rough idea of the final result.

2. In the absence of a live model (not that I paint dead models...wait, yes, I do...) - anyway, most of the time, people, kids especially, do not sit for my portraits. They send me photos and these photos are the only source of information about them that I have. So, spending some time with the pictures, and making these little sketches of them, is a way for me to get to know them a little better.

3. Finally, these sketches are essential tools I use for planning my paintings. How much of the photo do I crop? Do I need to rotate things? Move something? Delete something? Which colors will I use? Which values will work best? All of these questions can be worked out in advance, in a thumbnail sketch.

On to Step 2, Drawing.

I used grid method for this drawing. I won't go into detail on how to do it here but I am including it into the bonus chapter of my "How I Paint Children" ebook, which you will be able to get very soon (and if you are on my email list, you will be the first to get it. For free.)

Step 3. First couple of layers. I keep things very wet at this point and paint runs all over the place. Yes, the green background bled into the boy's face but that's okay. Keep reading :)

Step 4. Once my first wash was dry, I lifted off some of the green on his face and began adding definition to the shadow areas.

Step 5. Adding light blue washes on his forehead, chin, and above his eyes. Defining his eyes, nose, lips, and ears more. More texture along the hairline.

Step 6. I don't always do it, but in this particular portrait, I smoothed out much of my brushwork on face. This will give the painting a more finished, detailed, and polished look. For that, I use a soft synthetic brush. Here's my favorite one:

This is a Cotman 1/2" flat brush but any softish synthetic brush will do. I originally bought it for the one and only watercolor class I took in the U.S., and it didn't take as a painting brush. It's great for blurring the edges though.

Step 7. I added another background wash to deepen the color. A little more fiddling with the details.

Step 8. The background wash left a hard edge around the head (phtalo blue tends to do that). So I softened the edge and lifted off some hairs here and there. Done!

Simon - A Watercolor Child Portrait Step by Step

July 06, 2014 in commissions, step by step

Some time last year, I had the pleasure of working on two custom portraits for Laura of http://tinyscissortimes.blogspot.com/. I painted her two sons, adding to her growing collection of family portraits created by different artists. It was fun! She let me choose from several reference photos and we worked together to arrive at paintings that made both of us happy. She is pretty much my perfect client :)

10 x 8" Watercolor on Arches cold press 140lb watercolor paper.

This is one of those portraits. Simon is the older kid and Laura wanted a painting based on one of her favorite photos of him as a toddler. I typically advise for the reference photos to have a strong light and shadow pattern, preferably in natural light and to avoid pictures taken with a flash or those with softer, diffused light, or back light. This just happened to be a backlit photo. If you are a beginning painter, it could make things difficult. The variation of values in the face becomes very subtle and you need a good understanding of facial structure to make it convincing. But it is doable and incidentally, two of my portraits I'm rather fond of have back light:

(Both of them also have step-by-step posts, here and here).

As always, I started with a thumbnail sketch:

I do this to get a general feel for the personality and mood of my subject and to give the client an idea of the end result. Sometimes I do more than one sketch, trying out different compositions, crops, colors, value schemes. Once the sketch is approved, I move on to the drawing:

You can barely see anything here because in portraits, I tend to keep the drawing minimal. I don't map out areas of light and shadows and prefer to that with paint. This drawing was made using grid method directly on the watercolor paper.

On to the next step, initial washes:

Very lightly, I mapped out main shadow areas, while leaving most highlights as the white of the paper. From now on, it's building up the layers with the general idea of keeping the color cooler in the shadows and warmer in the lights.

Some more form modeling here. Still keeping the highlights white.

Most of the time, my portrait palette consists of a yellow, a red, and a blue. Sometimes, there is an additional version of each color - a cool red (quinacridone red), a cool yellow (quinacridone gold), a warm yellow (indian or hansa yellow), and a warm blue (french ultramarine or cobalt). In this painting, I also had small areas of phtalo blue (cool blue).

Getting close to done. This image looks a bit pale compared to the previous one because of the different lighting when I took the pictures. I softened some of the edges and signed it. I felt that it was at the stage where it was still lively but not overdone. When I sent it to Laura for approval, however, she wanted a greater level of detail and depth. And so the work continued:

Working with smaller brushes, increasing value contrast (i.e. making dark things darker next to light things, which makes them pop), softening some edges.

And the finished, color-corrected version!

She loved it. :)

Colleen - Portrait of Little Girl with Pumpkin Step by Step

August 08, 2012 in commissions, step by step

First of all, let me say that I was immediately inspired to paint this portrait when I saw the reference photo. I love the backlit figure against the pumpkin patch background, the abundance of rich colors and, of course, the priceless expression on the little girl's face. I knew it was going to be a good painting right away.

I started with a thumbnail sketch, with a bit of color to help me plan the painting and communicate to the client what I see when I look at their photo:

After the sketch, I stretched my paper and made the drawing using the grid method.

A word about using the grid method with portraits: after you find your reference points and locate the facial features, make sure you double-check your drawing with the usual facial proportions rules. I.e, the vertical center line hits the features in the middle, the horizontal lines of the eyes, bottom of the nose, and mouth are parallel, the distance between the eyes is approximately the width of one eye, the lines from the wings of the nose to the inside corners of the eyes are parallel, etc.

Next step: wet-into-wet background wash and ultramarine blue in the shadow areas. I also put light yellow, red, and orange washes over the skin areas.

Next, I continue working on the hair and face, put a wash over the shadow side of the pumpkin and reclaim the round shape of the pumpkin on the right using a scrubber brush.

Next, more work on the pumpkin and main shapes of the face. i also deepen the skin tones using transparent quinacridone red and quinacridone burnt sienna.

Next step. I might be guilty in spending too much time an effort on the hair, but I just can't help it. I like painting hair. I darken the shadows throughout the painting, define the eyes, soften the hard edges around the hand and add detail to fingers and the girl's dress. Almost done.

From the last stage to the completed painting, it's just a matter of deepening the shadows even more and refining the important details. I also add a few spots of semi-opaque yellow to the pumpkin and, in a more transparent manner, the girl's face. These last steps seem fairly insignificant, and you may say that the main idea of the painting was already stated in the previous stage - but they often take the longest time with a lot of reflection and evaluation. When my additions and refinements are no longer making the painting better, I declare it finished.

I find it important to take it slowly at the end, so that I have a lot of opportunities to step away from the painting and come back to it with a fresh eye. It helps me catch myself before I overwork it - although, of course, the level of finish is very subjective. Some other artist would have stopped twenty hours ago, while another one might want to work it to a more realistic stage.

Rainy Night in New Orleans Watercolor Painting

July 10, 2012 in commissions

After a failed first painting and all those studies, this is where it took me. I am pretty happy with the end result, and so is my client :). A couple of lessons learned:

- When venturing out to paint an unfamiliar subject (and I've never been to New Orleans, as of today, or painted rainy nights. I have painted IN THE RAIN though) - when painting something new, it is a very good idea to do some studies. Duh! :)

- When stuck, ask for advice. Also obvious, but I'm one of those people who'd rather get lost than ask for directions. I reached out to people in the EDM group and my fan page on Facebook, and the feedback was extremely helpful.

- In addition to getting myself more familiar with the subject, the studies allowed me to try out color schemes and moods and kind of search my heart to figure out what I wanted out of this painting. I think the end result is fairly close to my initial vision.

- I need to paint more (and I could put the period here) scapes. Streetscapes, landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes. For a while now, I've had the idea of a painting project in my mind, something focused on landscapes. Maybe 30 days of landscapes. Or a landscape a week...if only I could rely on my kids to sleep simultaneously (which they never do, except at night).

In case you are wondering why I didn't sign this painting, I was asked not to do it on the front. The painting will be a part of a wall collage along with other artworks, illustrating events from the client's life. I guess the signature would be distracting or something...I'm very curious to see it when it's done.

So, what do you think about it?

Adelaide and Gianna - double portrait

March 28, 2012 in commissions

Here is another one of my Christmas commissions, two beautiful little girls who are cousins and live on the opposite sides of the U.S. I painted this in record time - less than a week. As it often happens with my group portraits, it is a composite of several reference images. I enjoyed working in a looser, more "impressionistic" manner, which is also part of the reason why I could finish the portrait in such a short time. The multiple-glaze smooth and "realistic" look requires that the bottom layer is bone dry before applying the next one.

If you are interested in a custom portrait, go here.

My new website design is up and running (thanks to my wonderful husband :)) but will probably be a work in progress for some time. I still need to find a good way for people to shop my greeting/note cards and some logical place to put my artwork that is not for sale (like the sketchbook section). Any ideas? What do you think about my website in general?

Wedding portrait in watercolor

February 10, 2012 in commissions

Wedding portraits? Yes, I can say now I've done that, too :). And with the Valentine's day impending and all, I thought I'd share a recent wedding portrait I did for a wonderful new collector. This is one of my smallest portraits ever (rivaled only by the Icelandic Lady) and it gave me the opportunity to work with some brushes I normally never use - like #3 and 4 red sables. It also involved quite a bit of imagination, since this couple did not have high quality wedding photos, and development of a few ideas before we settled on this version.

Interested in having your own wedding or anniversary portrait? Here is how it works.

Camilito - Sleeping Baby Portrait in Watercolor

January 24, 2012 in commissions

Pre-Christmas time was very busy for me last year, mostly due to several portrait commissions. One of them was this sleeping baby boy. The unusual thing about this painting is how small it is - 6x6 inches. I don't even typically offer portraits this small. However, it was requested by a loyal collector and I decided to give it a try. It turned out fairly easy to work on (not too much fiddling with tiny brushes) and looked good when finished.

(If you are interested in a custom painting, go here.)

I am still sort of recuperating from that busy painting period... It allowed me to keep paying off my new Mac and buy some framing equipment. In the absence of art fairs or gallery shows, commissions are my main source of art-related income (that, and classes now). But painting only custom work can be much more exhausting than working on whatever you feel inspired to paint. Ever since Christmas, I found it extremely hard to motivate myself to do pretty much anything. Of course, there are things I have to do and I do them - but anything not-so-mandatory, like being creative and active, just falls through my fingers.

The good thing is, once I realized that what is happening is just a good old burnout (mixed in with pregnancy, sickness, and stay-at-home-mom stuff), I also became interested in getting myself out of it. I restarted work on a few more commissions and checked out art books at the library. I looked through the long-term and short-term goals that I wrote down last year and found out that, for example, some goals that I was skeptical about at the time, I have achieved relatively easily. I also bought The Right-Brain Business Plan: A Creative, Visual Map for Success by Jennifer Lee, after reading a comment about it on Artists Helping Artists (another good motivational resource). I received it in the mail today and I'm looking forward to ....something. Some kind of a breakthrough, upswing, burst of creative energy.

I'm also considering another painting challenge for myself. Maybe 100 landscapes. Or a month of daily paintings. A Portrait A Day didn't quite make it to over 200 portraits I had in mind - but it was a good project nevertheless. I learned a lot, I met new people, I grew. Something like that, maybe not quite as ambitious (especially since I'm about to have another baby) could be good.

How do you get yourself back on an upward curve? I'd love to hear some ideas :)

Garden Scene with Blue Pot and Stairs - Watercolor on Aquabord Step by Step

August 29, 2011 in commissions, step by step

Ampersand Aquabord is nice. 2" deep cradled Aquabord is even nicer! You don't need to mat it, just spray it with a fixative and varnish. You don't even need to frame it. Stain the sides any color you want and it's ready to be put on a wall. The painting above was born partly of the client's wish for a smaller size and partly out of my desire to try the cradled Aquabord.

blue pot with hydrangeas reference photo

Reference photo: their very attractive corner of the yard. I love the windmill but I also felt that it would compete for attention with the pot. And, since we decided on a square format Aquabord, I would have been difficult to squeeze it into the composition.

As in most of my commissions, I spent some time doing preliminary sketches.

We went with this one.

I skipped the drawing - I typically don't feel the need for pencil lines unless the subject is complex. For the first time ever, I noticed that on the Aquabord packaging, they recommend washing it with clean water before painting. So I did. It bubbled a bit (which it is supposed to do) and behaved much more wet-into-wet than I expected. If this last phrase sounds odd to you, I just mean that the paint spread and mingled better.

That's what the 2" deep cradle looks like with a 6x6" board. I like it.

Next layer: trying to keep the flow and spontaneity of the first wash while adding a lot of detail. Not easy!

And the end result :) Like it? I do have prints and greeting cards :)

Andrea - Custom Portrait in Watercolor - and some thoughts on art fairs

July 15, 2011 in commissions

Hi! Just so you are forewarned, this post has quite a few images. I have not been blogging very often but it was not due to the lack of content :)

I'm happy to share with you one of my latest custom works - the portrait of Andrea. The way that this painting came to existence is pretty sweet and romantic. Inspired by my painting of Brooke, Andrea's husband walked straight into my booth at the art & wine festival and told me about his idea for a painting of his wife for her birthday. That was during the Lake Arrowhead Rotary Art&Wine Festival at the end of June and her birthday was on July 12. So, a few days later I was already working on this painting. I fell in love with the reference photo. The light was perfect, the pose natural and beautiful. Since it is a generous 20x16" size, I could work in life size and not worry too much about insignificant details. I finished it in about a week, which is probably my record for commissions. Not having my son at the time (he was with grandparents in Sacramento) definitely helped with that.

As I promised in the last post, a few words (and pictures) about the Lake Arrowhead Art & Wine Festival. First of all, Lake Arrowhead is a jewel that I had no idea about and it is relatively close to where I live. It is hidden in the mountains, so you have to go through some winding roads and scenic vistas just to get there. Next time, we will take a motorcycle! :)

artist booth at lake arrowhead rotary art and wine festival

I was fairly pleased with the range and quality of art and high end craft that was represented at the festival and with the quality of the visitors. For such a tiny mountain community, the event drew quite a crowd.

At most festivals, I offer 30-minute portrait studies, and this time, someone even decided to get one. Here is the result:

It actually looks more colorful and the values are a bit darker in real life...Of course, I wished I had more time to work on it, especially since the model was doing such a good job sitting there.

On our way back from the festival, we stopped to take some pictures and I somehow succeeded in making my husband pick me some flowers. It was my idea and not a random romantic gesture on his part, but it was still cute. Especially when I learned that the flowers were very prickly...Love hurts, and there's nothing you can do about it :D

And then I posed for some pictures that were also supposed to be cute...I did my best, even though cuteness has never been my forte. Even in kindergarten, I wanted people to take me seriously :)

On the 4th of July, we went to Ventura for the 4th of July Street Fair - which turned out to be a total waste of time and money. I'm not sure what happened, but it shouldn't have been advertised to artists as anything having to do with fine art. There was a lot of nice clothes and trinkets, which, I'm sure, sold quite well. There was good music and tasty food. However, it just wasn't made for fine art. So...I feel at best misinformed and overall very disappointed.

On a good note, my video interpretation of the Vase with Twelve Sunflowers has been featured on Watercolorpainting.com, which is a very informative website on, yes, watercolor painting. If you haven't been there before, go check it out!

Mississippi Blood Services - completed painting

May 24, 2011 in commissions

14 x 11" watercolor on Fabriano 140lb cold press watercolor paper. Another commission finished! :) I have to say that I do prefer portraits to buildings. Not sure how I ended up in architecture school in the first place...

How to use artist's tape

May 13, 2011 in art tips, commissions

I discovered artist's tape not in a class or workshop but by a kind of accident. When we were learning to make our own giclee prints, we bought artist's tape to attach the prints to the back of the mats (which works very well, looks neat and can be easily disassembled). Recently, I started using artist's tape to block off the edges of my paintings to give the finished work a clean and professional look. I also used it for lifting off very thin lines in one of my recent paintings and, of course, for picking up areas masked out with liquid frisquet. The following step-by-step guide is one of the most popular applications of artist's tape - to give you a straight edge separating areas of different color in a painting. The painting I am working on is of the new building of the Mississippi Blood Services. It makes me think back to my first years in architecture school (nothing to do with blood..just the hands-on approach to architectural renderings). So, here I am going to do a gradated wash that represents the sky, while blocking off the edges of the building with artist's tape. Here is the drawing:

I need to cover the flag and some smaller elements with masking liquid:

I decided to mask out the stars on the flag but leave the blue area of the flag open to the wash. This way, I will be able to achieve more unity within the painting. Enter the artist's tape:

I applied the tape along the edge of the building that meets the sky. I also blocked off the top middle section of the building, so that I don't accidentally paint over it when I make the horizontal strokes of the sky wash. Make sure the edges where you need the straight line are completely attached to the paper. Otherwise you might end up with paint leaking under the tape.

I apply the wash upside down and keeping the painting at a slight angle. The color is a mixture of ultramarine blue, phtalo blue, and a little bit of verditer close the horizon - which, in retrospect, was not such a great idea. Phtalo blue is transparent and non-granulating. Ultramarine is almost transparent but quite granulating. As a result, my wash wasn't completely even and I had a couple of stripes of ultramarine blue that separated from the mixture and decided to go their own way. I almost scrapped the painting and started all over - but went ahead and applied a couple more washes to see if that would even everything out. To my surprise and delight, it did. I applied several gradated washes of ultramarine and phtalo blue, using only one color at a time. The result is this:

Not ideal, but definitely better and I don't have to start over! I also like the deepened color quite a lot.

Final tip on the artist's tape - before putting it down on paper, stick the piece of tape to your clothing (something not very fluffy or furry), like your jeans, and then apply it to your painting. This will make it a little less sticky and minimize the chances of you removing paint or damaging the paper when you lift it off.

Like I said, this is just one of the many, many ways to use artist's tape. What's your favorite? Do you have a secret trick involving artist's tape? Please share :)

David's Europe

May 09, 2011 in commissions

These street scenes are what I've been working on for the last month and a half. The genre is somewhat new to me and it was rather interesting to work on five paintings at the same time, learning quite a few things along the way. I named the series "David's Europe" as a nod to "Christina's World." The five paintings are moments in someone's journey through Europe and even though the subjects are very much a cliché, they carry a special meaning to the client.

All of the paintings are 11x14" and painted on Fabriano Artistico 140lb cold press paper.

In this last painting, I changed quite a lot of things (after a not-so-successful first attempt that pretty much copied the reference photo) - and I'm glad I did :)

All of the paintings are available as signed prints and cards. Click on an image to go to the gallery.

Ink and watercolor winter landscape - step by step

March 31, 2011 in commissions, step by step

This painting was a commission I did for someone who gave it as a thank you gift for a wonderful skiing vacation at the Okemo mountain in Vermont. As usual, I started with a sketch:

And, since the client wanted two skiers in the picture, a rough Photoshop mockup:

On to the drawing and the first wet-into-wet wash (paper is stretched on an 11x14" stretcher frame and bordered with artist's tape to a 9x12" size):

At which point I remembered that this was supposed to be an ink and watercolor painting...

And after this, there was darkening of shadows and intensifying of color here and there. I also added some iridescent medium and snow, along with the writing on the bottom, to arrive at this:

At the request of the client, I mailed the painting directly to the couple who generously let them stay at their house during the vacation at Okemo. I included one of my note cards that I think goes very well with this painting:

Mia - Baby Portrait Step by Step

March 25, 2011 in commissions, step by step

I do not typically post the reference photos for the portraits I paint but this one is special:

So you can see, this was more of a restoration project :) Starting with the sketch, to get familiar with the general shapes and try the values and colors that might work:

I also removed the baby seat and added the unicorn on the shirt - the unicorn has special meaning to the recipient of this painting.

On to drawing (my unfavorite stage, always takes tooooo long):

And the completed painting:

The curious thing about this painting is that the subject is the mom of another baby I painted :). Tried Lanaquarelle cold press 140lb on this. The paper is soft and has nice texture, glazes look beautiful on it. However, the paint sets in a bit too fast and lifting is very hard. I also encountered several light spots that would not take paint (almost like a resist).

To learn how to order your own custom portrait, go here.

A Portrait A Day 50 - Brian

January 14, 2011 in a portrait a day, commissions

12x9" Watercolor on Arches CP 140lb. A study for a larger commissioned painting.

A Portrait A Day 45 & 46 Clem and Millie - step by step

December 30, 2010 in a portrait a day, commissions, step by step

Watercolor on Kilimanjaro CP 140lb watercolor paper, 11x14." Since I'm behind on portraits-a-day, I'm going to count this as two portraits :).

Looks like I'm on the roll with in-progress photos :). Hopefully, this will be helpful to somebody. This painting was a commission as well, this time for someone I met at a local craft fair. I'm fairly pleased with the outcome, considering the quality of photos I had to work with (none in focus, poor light and/or flash).

Step 1 - establishing the main shapes

Step 2 - defining the features further

Step 3 - working on the left side of the painting

And the finished painting. Kilimanjaro, which is a brand of paper sold by Cheap Joe's, is a 100% cotton rag paper that is half the price of Arches. I decided to give it a try and got a 10-sheet pack for $24.99. Well, I am pretty pleased with it so far! I haven't tried any heavy scrubbing or a lot of layered washes, but it stretched nicely and performed well under my usual painting techniques.

Incidentally, the Richeson Lyptus Lobo easel that I have I also bought from Cheap Joe's. They had the best price and did not charge me oversize shipping (the easel comes unassembled).

To learn how you can order your own custom portrait, go here.

When We Stayed in Lisboa - watercolor on Aquabord, step by step

December 29, 2010 in commissions

This is another commission that I got through Etsy.com. It is an 8x10" ink and watercolor on Aquabord painting of a hostel room in Lisboa (Portugal).

Step 1 - Ink drawing

Step 2 - color. I could have easily stopped at this point and I'm still wondering if I should have.

And step 3 - detail and deeper values. After finishing, I sprayed the surface with clear gloss fixative and brushed on two layers of gloss varnish. While Aquabord is not my favorite surface to work on, it is extremely easy to frame (or display without frame if it's cradled) and, enhanced by gloss varnish, the colors on Aquabord look vivid and rich.

A Portrait A Day 44 - Christina - step by step

December 21, 2010 in a portrait a day, commissions, step by step

This painting was a commission I got through Etsy's custom requests section - Alchemy. It is a Christmas present for the person depicted. I do hope she will like it :). Since it was a custom request, I worked a bit bigger than usual (this is an 11x14, which makes her face a lot bigger than life size) and finally found use for my tube of Payne's gray (I never use it otherwise). The client said that the resulting painting was "exactly what she envisioned" - which is nice. But if you are at least a little familiar with my work, you know that working in grayscale must be pure torture for someone who loves color so much! I can't say that it was torture - and I even kind of liked it before adding the red lips - but I promise you, the next post will have COLOR! :)

This is probably not the most interesting painting to show step-by-step photos for, but I made this anyway so that the client could keep track of where I was in the process. Here they go:

Step 1 - the idea sketch. We decided on showing a bit more of her face and neck. I did the grayscale first, then added the bright red lips, and then, wanting more color, I tried adding a bit of pale color. I wasn't sure at this point if I would add the pale color in the big painting or not.

Step 2 - the drawing...what usually takes the most time. I skip this step in my portraits-a-day but I felt that I need to do a drawing here because the face was so much larger than life size. I used the grid method to establish major points in the drawing.

Step 3 - wet-into-wet. I liked it quite a lot at this point.

Oh yes! Meet my new easel! It's a Richeson Academy Lobo and I love it so far (as does my son, who thinks it's an excellent play gym).

Step 4 - more detail, deeper shadows

Step 5 - the red lips!

Step 6 - the final version, with some areas corrected, deepened and more detailed.

Here it is.. Here are also the holidays, my family, more commissions, and a lot of material to post. Hopefully, I will find the time for a couple more blog posts before the New Year, but if not - Merry Christmas and see you in 2011! :)

A Portrait A Day 43 - Allen - step by step

December 14, 2010 in a portrait a day, commissions, step by step

Watercolor on Arches CP 140lv, 9x12." Allen was actually a portrait study somebody commissioned me to do through ArtFire.com. It means that I might just hang out on ArtFire a little longer and hope for more sales to come. I do love the user-friendliness and all the available options of their shops.

Back to the painting. This one was a struggle...I was captured with the photo - the emotion, the colors, the pose, the tilt of the head - all were interesting to me and I plunged into it. Well, this is one case where I wish I had done a drawing first. My attempt #1 was failure:

So, at some point I decided I wasn't going to be happy with this painting and it was too late to fix the structure. I had to start over.

Step 1, semi-wet-into-wet. Just trying to get the main shapes in place. I actually went ahead and drew the center line and the eye line of the head with a brush, to make sure I had the angles right. I softened the lines before they were dry.

Step 2 - placing smaller shapes and building up the volumes.

Step 3 - deepening shadows and constantly correcting errors...

Step 4 - more detail and more color. The point at which I am still not happy but done. The painting doesn't look exactly like the photograph, but that's not really my objective in these quick portraits. The lady who commissioned the painting was thrilled and said that I captured the boy's spirit :) It is what I was hoping for, then!

Icelandic Lady watercolor portrait step by step

August 27, 2010 in commissions, step by step

This is pretty much a continuation of the previous post. I worked on two paintings at the same time, and it was a very interesting learning experience. Here are the progress pictures of the 9x12 almost three-quarter figure portrait of a lady in Icelandic national costume. As usual, I started with sketches. This one was only one sketch that I altered many times trying to decide on the background (the reference photo, taken in a studio, has a very boring tan-beige-taupe-bleh background). On a totally irrational impulse, I made the background red. Maybe as a response to the boredom of the background in the photo?

Well, this was the "fire" part of The Land of Fire and Ice, and most people I consulted (including those of you who so kindly left a comment to my post about it) felt that the figure disappeared in the intense red and/or gold background. So I tried the "ice" side of it, together with a mossy-medowy green:

And we finally settled on the background above, a hint at the glaciers and the grasses. On to the drawing and blocking out the lace with masking fluid:

(and no, I don't like masking.. or doing details in general. I like splashing paint.)

And the completed painting:

In addition to learning a couple more things about working small in watercolor (hands were hard!) and spending hours figuring stuff out with an anatomy book (granted, I love doing that), I expanded my knowledge about Iceland beyond Bjork and volcanoes :) a little.

Question: how do you change a large area in a watercolor painting (like the background in those sketches) without painful scrubbing out and washing off?

Answer: Cover it with acrylic gesso and paint on top!(that's what I did) Or use gouache. Or acrylics. Or pastels :)