"Bixby Bridge Big Sur" (oil on linen, 8" x 10") sold

 

sold

The famous view of the Bixby Bridge at Big Sur, California. Completed in 1932, the concrete span, one of the highest bridges of its kind in the world, soars 260 feet above the bottom of a steep canyon carved by Bixby Creek. I love Big Sur!

"Donut Fest" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 12")

 

"Donut Fest"

The following is the description of what we did in the eighth week of the spring term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

Yesterday we painted "Donut Fest", inspired by Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021), who created many delicious-looking pastry paintings. This is a hard-edged, paint-by-the-numbers-without-numbers project, just like what we did in the first week with "Santa Ana Mountain Wildflowers".

What we did was paint a food still life, an important sub-genre within the still life genre. I heartily recommend you should draw and paint many still lifes. Set up whatever objects that interest you and get into the habit of drawing from life. If you have time, paint them too!

We drew the design with a pencil together, including three rectangles to fit in the donuts. We tend to run out of space as we fill in the paper with still life objects, so if you locate the top and bottom and draw in small rectangles like this, you will never have that problem again. Draw as many construction lines as you need; if you use light pressure, you should be able to erase the graphite lines. Use straight lines instead of curves and circles. The finished drawings will look more dynamic and truer to life.

Next we masked the sprinkles in the pink and chocolate donuts with masking fluid. First, wet the rigger brush, lather it in soap, then dip it into the frisket. Use a moderate amount of frisket; if used in excessive amount, the thing will dry very slowly and you will get into all kinds of trouble. It dries quickly if used properly. When finished with the frisket, always rinse it with soap and water immediately. If you leave the brush until the end of the painting session, you have ruined it forever!

Then we started painting with the cake part of all three donuts, from light to mid-tone to darks as always. For the light, I used Winsor lemon; for the mid-tones, the mixture of quinacridone gold and cadmium red; and for the darks, the purple mixture of French ultramarine and alizarin crimson. Get into the habit of developing the painting all over, instead of finishing one section at a time. Even in a landscape, in which we tend to paint from the top to bottom (distant to close-up), block in the entire painting first if possible, then develop each area. Everything is relative (values, chroma, temperature, etc.), so this way you don't have bad surprises.

Next we painted the icings of the three donuts. For the pink donut; I used permanent rose; for the white donut, after painting the shadows (cobalt blue and permanent rose), I used cadmium red (red stripe) and cobalt blue (blue stripe); for the chocolate donut, I used first pale cobalt blue for the blue sheens, let them dry, then painted the dark chocolate color with the mixture of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson.

The biggest problem of the entire project was surprisingly the dark wash for the chocolate donut. Most of the class painted this in light to mid-tone. Use more paints! If the wash turns out light, glaze! If one glaze is not enough, glaze again!

When everything looked good, we removed the masking fluid carefully with a clean finger. Then we painted the sprinkles in various colors, making sure a few sprinkles are left untouched. In my case, I used white gouache to create more white sprinkles, because everybody wants more sugar!

Finally, we painted the soft-edge cast shadows in cobalt blue on dry paper. Use enough water so that you have open time to finish the job. Once you have brushed in the cobalt blue, with the clean damp brush go around the edges of the wash to soften them. When satisfied, quickly drop in the dark mixture of ultramarine blue and crimson inside the bulls eye of each donut and around the donuts where they meet the table or whatever. I've noticed that quite a few forgot this last step; if so, paint the dark shadows within the cast shadows on dry paper.

"Sabrina at Hanauma Bay, Oahu" (watercolor on paper; 14" x 10")

 

"Sabrina at Hanauma Bay"

The following is what we did in the seventh and eighth weeks of the spring term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

The last independent project is the full-length portrait and the focus of the last two weeks of the spring term. The following three images are from Laurel Hart's "Putting People in Your Paintings". She has a YouTube channel with full-length videos. Check them out!

"Figure Proportions I"

"Figure Proportions II"

"Shadow Patterns"

I also introduced two books: Christopher Hart's "Figure it Out!: Human Proportions" and "The Complete Book of Poses for Artists" by Ken Goldman and Stephanie Goldman.

There are a number of ways of handling a full-length portrait but, in my opinion, the easiest way is focusing on the light and shadow pattern in the face and body and paint it in either two (light and dark) or three (light, mid-tone, and dark) values. (Refer to the third image from Laurel Hart's book.) If you are capable, you can soften the edges since face, torso, and limbs are round objects of either egg-like or cylindrical forms.

But keeping the light and shadow patterns distinct is more important in rendering the human form in such a small scale than softening edges. My demo painting, "Sabrina in Hanauma Bay, Oahu", is 14" tall and her head is only 1 1/2" tall, whereas the average human head is 9" tall. (Remember that the average person is 7 to 7 1/2 head long; my daughter, who is 5' 2" tall, is  less than that.) The features are tiny, but if you draw the light/shadow pattern right, the subject will emerge miraculously, as you can see in the work in progress below!

"Sabrina in Hanauma Bay in Progress"

I used the three value method for "Sabrina at Hanauma Bay" and "Artist at 28". You can paint anything, not just skin tones, in three values, be that the hair, clothes, or whatever! For the image below from my whimsical figure journal that I keep for pure fun, I used Schmincke's naples yellow reddish (light), rose dore (mid-tone), and perylene violet (dark). You can use whatever colors of your choice that harmonize well with each other; just designate a different color for each value. 

 

 

"Two Women in Black"

I used watercolor pencil shavings and water spritz to create the sand texture in the beach. I also used watercolor pencils the draw in some patterns in the coverup, then painted dark shadow patterns with indigo blue; to restore light patterns, I used white gouache. For these tiny portraits, if you are having trouble getting features right, you may want to consider using either watercolor pencils or colored pencils in appropriate colors.

 

Below is the finished image of "Artist at 28". The painting is based on an old photo that was taken when I was 28 years old. I look like a girl!

 

"Artist at 28"

 

"Red Giraffe" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"Red Giraffe"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the seventh week of the spring term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week we explored a stylized portrait of an animal through "Red Giraffe". I don't usually paint like this, so it was a lot of fun and a liberating experience. Art should be about creativity and thinking outside the box. This may not be your cup of tea or it could be just what you were looking for. Finding one's own bliss is the goal, not getting the approval of your instructor or family!

 

You will need white gouache, a dip pen and black india ink, and Pentel Arts Portable Pocket Brush Pen. If you cannot get hold of the Pentel brush pen (make sure you get the right one, there are many different Pentel brush pens!), you can use a small round brush or rigger brush with India ink instead.

First draw the design, then wet the paper thoroughly and drop paints (cobalt blue, Winsor lemon, cadmium yellow pale, and cadmium red) randomly without overmixing. Immediately spritz water and let colors drip and mix. Let it dry.

Do the linework with the dip pen with India ink, then with the Pentel pocket brush pen, using my paintings as reference. There is no right or wrong, so do your thing!

Finally, paint markings on the giraffe in cadmium red and restore the lost white with white gouache. Have fun! 

 

 

"Mimosa Time" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 8")

 

"Mimosa Time"

 

The following is what we did in the sixth week of the spring term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week we are exploring the portrait with prominent hands. When handled well, the hands can contribute hugely to the success of the portrait, so much so that a great portrait painter is usually someone who can paint hands masterfully. Instead of avoiding a subject with hands, let's embrace the hands and try to get better!

Below is the image of my class demo in progress. Just like anything else, painting hands is all about paying attention to plane changes and value shapes, the latter caused by different amounts of light falling on them. Often the quality of light is subtle, but it is still there. In my case, there was the natural light from the window (right side) and the warm artificial light from the interior (left side). The subject's melon-color shirt also strongly influenced the colors in the hands. I had to play with the warm/cool contrast as well as the light/dark one. 

"Mimosa Time in Progress"

The end game here is modeling the hand (with five fingers!) successfully so that it looks three-dimensional. When I realized that I had lost the light shapes, I reintroduced them with white gouache, and there you go, the hand holding the champagne flute appeared in full glory. 

The beard is no different from anything else. Paint light and darks. Of course, hair has soft texture, so the ability to control the hard/soft edges is paramount in the success of painting a beard and mustache. My husband has a salf-and-pepper beard and I had to make sure the darks were dark enough. The hair on the left side, near the orange drink, reflected the warm color and it was important that I didn't use cool darks. Yes, values are the most important things, but color temperature has to be sometimes considered as well.

 

When I was satisfied with the light/dark pattern of the beard and mustache, I went over to add the "salt" part with white gouache using my "lifting"brush. I was mindful not to overdo these finishing touches. Remember that it's not the details, but the overall light and dark pattern and soft texture, that gives the impressions of the facial hair or any hair.

 

"National Cathedral" (oil on stretched canvas; 40" x 40") sold

 

"National Cathedral"

 

The painting is a commission for Catherine and her husband Andrew. Andrew went to St. Albans School, right next to the cathedral and practically grew up in and around the magnificent Gothic cathedral. He got married there and had planted a tree in front of the north side (entry area) with his father. It was an important sentimental project for Andrew and he chose this image personally so that his tree would be a part of the finished painting.

It was the largest oil painting project ever for me. It took about two months to draw, block in, paint and add finishing touches. I needed a little stool to reach the highest areas of the big canvas! Thank you for the opportunity, Andrew and Catherine, who were the most gracious clients. 

I must say that my patience and drawing skills have improved much because of this project. The only drawback is that I couldn't take a proper photography of the huge canvas, so I had to make do with a quick shoot with my phone. What a shame!

Work in Progress I

Work in Progress II

Work in Progress III

"Margaret" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9") sold

 

"Margaret"

 

This is a commission portrait for Christa. Her beautiful mother passed away last year at the age of 86 and the portrait is meant for her father. I have known Christa for over 20 years and it was an honor to paint her mother, whom I have never met but heard about when our daughters went to preschool together. It is time like this when I feel particularly good about being a portrait painter, helping my friends and other clients to remember the happy memories of their beloveds.

"Great Falls Rapids" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 12")

 

"Great Falls Rapids"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the sixth week of the spring term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week we painted rocks and rapids with "Great Falls Rapids". Painting a landscape can be daunting due to the seemingly endless shapes of trees, leaves, rocks, etc. It is essential to break the scene down into big shapes. In this painting, there are three big shapes of the sky, trees, and rocks/water. As you are familiar by now, we generally paint the landscape from what's farthest to the closest from us (from the top to the bottom of the paper).

So, first we wetted the sky thoroughly and evenly and painted it in cobalt blue in graded wash. We dried the paper for the next step of the tree shape. By the way, the rest of the painting was painted on dry paper with mostly hard edges.

Here I decided to do something different from my sample painting above, which I felt too claustrophobic. Upon analysis, I realized I had painted the trees (two stacks of the farther, blue green and the closer yellow green treelines) too dark and too bright. Instead I decided to paint them slightly lighter, duller, purpler and with less details (and soft edges between the two stacks) so that they will recede to the background instead of coming forward.

For the darker tree stack, I used the purple mixture of French ultramarine blue and permanent alizarin crimson and cut its brightness down a little with the complementary yellow (quinacridone gold). We used the largest round brush we can handle for the tree shape.

While the wash was still damp, we quickly brushed in the dull blue green mixture of ultramarine blue and gold, making sure this front stack was lighter (more water and less paint!). If you are quick enough, you will end up with the soft blurring between the two stacks of trees.

While this front stack was still damp, I decided to brighten the wash by charging (dropping) Winsor lemon into the wash (make sure you don't introduce too much extra water). That was enough and we were done with the tree shape That's how I like to roll with the minimum fuss.

Now the fun and excitement of painting rocks and water began. That rocks are hard and water is not is what you have to remember. Forget the details and focus on the big shapes and gradually break down the big shapes without ending up with tiny pebbles or hard-edged, frozen water.

First, we painted the rocks, then water. For the first wash of the rocks, we painted in a light mixture of gold, burnt sienna and cobalt blue, sometimes pushing the color to yellow, sometimes to brown, and sometimes blue. As long as you don't mix the three colors completely, you can paint the same light-value, first wash in subtly changing colors!

For the mid-tone planes and dark crevices and cracks, I used two different dark mixtures: the first mixture of ultramarine blue, alizarine crimson and gold and the second Jane's Gray mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. Remember that the rocks are not only hard-edged, but also round objects with volume. Think mass/planes, not lines. Otherwise, you will have a bunch of flat-shaped, busy-looking thingies. Also don't paint over all the light-value, first wash shapes. They are the highlights. Think light, mid-tone, and darks to create the rocks with hard outer edges, but with voluminous mass.

Make sure you don't accidentally paint over the white water shapes. Paint slowly, looking for the rock shapes. Get into the flow and enjoy the process. You are not in a rush to finish the painting. If you get tired because this may take a while, take a break or finish the painting another day.

For the water shapes, we switched to Winsor blue as the base blue; it's a transparent, staining, and cool-temperature/greenish blue. For the turquoise water, we added Winsor lemon; for purple areas, we added a little alizarin crimson. Leave plenty of white shapes to suggest white water. If you accidentally lose white water shapes, it's okay to retrieve them with a white gouache, but it's always best to be mindful and utilize the white of the paper to the maximum.

I  didn't get to finish the demo. But I love the way it's heading; it's so much better than the sample painting, don't you think? I may even finish it someday. I think that's the value of doing the same project twice: learn from the first try and do things better and differently the second time. Be one's own constructive critique without the destructive self-talk. Be kind to oneself, but be objective to oneself as well.

"Great Falls Rapids Class Demo in Progress"

"Queen Anne's Lace Lake" (watercolor and gouache on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"Queen Anne's Lace Lake"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the fifth week of the spring term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week we explored the mixed media of watercolor and gouache. Whenever you add a little white gouache to watercolor, the latter turns into an opaque medium of gouache. Please check out James Gurney's YouTube video on "Painting Peonies with Watercolor". In this video, you will learn the nuts and bolts about plein-air painting and how to paint tree peonies in watercolor and gouache. He is a world-famous painter of many mediums; he is one of the most creative artists I know of.

"Queen Anne's Lace Lake" involves the hard/soft edge handling as well. After drawing the design, we wetted the paper thoroughly and evenly and first painted along the horizon (both above and below) with a very pale winsor lemon (if you are heavy-handed with lemon, your sky will turn green!), then painted the rest of the sky and water in cobalt blue.

After drying the paper, we wetted this time the sky shape only and dropped the greens (lemon and cobalt blue) and purples (French ultramarine and permanent alizarin crimson) to suggest the distant trees. If your paper is too wet, you will lose control and the distant trees will be as tall as the middle-ground tree. Drop purples generally along the horizon, but don't be automatic. Refer to my painting. At one go, I created the impression of the soft-edged distant tree line with layers of tall and short trees.

After the paper dried, we wetted this time the water and tall middle-ground tree shape. We dropped purples for the reflections of the distant trees along the horizon and the reflections of the tall tree and middle-ground land shape. We also dropped greens and purples for the tall tree. Make sure the tall tree shape looks like a tree, not a mitten! If you haven't wetted the paper thoroughly, you will have hard edged reflections!

While the paper is still damp, make grass strokes in the foreground with various greens and even some purples for dark shadows in between grasses. 

When the paper dried, we pained the middle ground land shape (now hard edges are happening for definitions).

Time for gouache! Whenever we use gouache, we have to use it with much less water. If you use it in the consistency of watercolor (with lots of water), gouache practically disappears. Whenever we mix watercolor with white gouache, the mixture dries about two value scales darker (the opposite of watercolor).

Keeping these two things in mind, stipple dots with the watercolor/gouache mixture of appropriate colors in the tall tree, middle-ground land shape, and middle-ground reflections in the water. These dots suggest the tree foliage, distant Queen Anne's lace and their reflections in the watercolor.

For the foreground, we are also using the watercolor/gouache mixture, but in a more controlled manner, tiny dots for the Queen Anne's lace flower heads, elongated strokes for the cattails, and long grass-like strokes for the tall grasses. 

 

Make sure that the flowers or cattails don't have the same heights or are not evenly spread out as if they are a marching band. The grasses should have different heights and some should reach all the way to the middle-ground land shape. Grasses should have a variety of greens; stroke in some ocher-colored grasses and dark blue shapes for a variety as well. 

At the end, as the icing on the cake, I painted the tiny water lilies in the water using permanent rose and gouache.

As you can see, introducing a white gouache to watercolor opens a whole new world to the watercolorist. We can go not only from light to dark as the medium dictates, we can also go dark to light. Freedom it allows us may not be for all watercolorists, but I embrace it whole-heartedly!

"Amsterdam Jordaan Neighborhood" (oil on linen; 6" x 8") sold

 

sold

 

 In 2017  my husband and I visited the Netherlands. For me, it was to visit its world-class museums. We stayed in Amsterdam at the beginning and end of our two-week-long trip. I loved this charming city! Do you know it has the highest density of museums in a square mile in the world? It has even a museum of purses, which I had to stop by! People are easy-going and speak English better than us. You have to watch out for the bicyclists, though.

Admire the neat row of townhouses by a canal in the famous Jordaan neighborhood of Amsterdam. In the foreground, red geraniums bloom in planters hung over the bridge. A quintessential Amsterdam view in a miniature! This is the second time that I painted this particular image and the painting sold right away in both occasions. Another reason why I love Amsterdam!

 

"Sabrina at Dean Village, Edinburgh" (watercolor on paper, 8" x 10")

 

"Sabrina at Dean Village, Edinburgh"

 

The following is what we did in the fifth week of the spring term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week I finished "Sabrina at Dean Village, Edinburgh". It is an independent project with the focus on painting a subject with glasses/sun glasses. She is wearing the shades with a metal wire frame and brown, ombre lenses. What I did was paint around the frame and at the very end of the session, I toned it lightly with yellow ochre (quinacridone gold would have worked too) with the a few exceptions of highlights (left untouched). Then I gave the frame dark accent wherever appropriate. However thin the wire is, it still has a volume, so be careful about where you add the dark accent strokes (it can be the top or bottom or the entire width of the thin frame) if you have a similar situation.

The lenses were painted at the same as when I was developing the skin tones, which required three or four further layers, each additional layer becoming increasing deeper. I used cadmium red, Sennelier helios purple, cadmium yellow pale, permanent sap green (in the philtrum and below the lower lip areas), ultramarine violet, brown madder, perylene maroon, and quite a bit of perylene violet (for the dark form shadows around the cheek and chin and in the neck as well as inside the lenses).

Lately I have been avoiding using cobalt blue in skin tones; instead I seem to be using perylene violet, which is a dark, muted violet. The reason behind is that blue (either cobalt or ultramarine blue) can lead to too blue purples in shadows.

Sometimes you may see the eyes, as in my case. There aren't going to be any pure whites of the eyes due to the dark tint of the lenses. After a few layers, I painted around the eye shapes (the pencil lines had disappeared long ago; you may want to redraw the lines with pencil if you feel nervous about "drawing with brush", which I do all the time). Suddenly the "whites" of the eyes appeared; values being relative, the lighter-valued shapes were, because of their shapes and locations, obviously now the "whites of the eyes".

I painted the irises with dark color; when it was still damp, I added the pupils with neutral tint. I also gave the darker lines along the upper lash lines, and darkened the inner and outer corners of the eyes, as I would have done in any portrait.

I didn't have any exciting reflection shapes, which you get sometimes inside the lenses. I did, however, have the exciting, wing-shaped cast shadows on the subject's cheek areas. I used warm/cool colors to develop these shadows with hard edges.

I paid a particular attention to the hard and soft edges. The form shadows have soft edges and the cast shadows usually have hard edges. The contrast of the two give the finished portrait the pizazz, I believe.

This attention to the edge quality (that is the artistic term) applies to the hair, of course. You will see in the recording how I further developed the hair (using indigo and perylene violet).

"South Downs Fog" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"South Downs Fog"

 

The following is the description of what we did in the fourth week of the spring term, 2022 for my "Watercolor from Start to Finish" class (my online Zoom class with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

This week we explored the aerial perspective through "South Downs Fog". The aerial perspective is the phenomenon that occurs in nature in which the farther things (let's say, mountains) are, the lighter (value), duller (chroma), and bluer (hue) they appear. The details also disappear progressively as the distance between the viewer and things increases. The phenomenon is caused by the presence of dust, pollution and moisture. The following images from the internet are good examples of the aerial perspective.

How do we achieve the aerial perspective in watercolor? Watercolor is ideal for painting this sort of landscape situation. We have been exploring the wet-on-wet variegated wash for the last two weeks and that is precisely what we used to create the soft, diffused look of the distant hills in the reference. Since we go light to dark and soft to hard edges, we established the general atmosphere in the first wet-on-wet layer.

We wetted the paper thoroughly and evenly and painted in horizontal strokes, using cobalt blue, permanent alizarin crimson and ultramarine blue (the last two make purple). At the very bottom of the paper, you may want to use a little winsor lemon with cobalt blue to paint the light yellow green field. Dry the paper.

The rest of the painting was painted on dry paper to create crisp top treelines, using stippling method (reminiscent of Seurat's pointillism). A small round brush is better than a large one. You have to use enough water, otherwise the dots will dry by the time you stipple the next brushful of different colored dots, therefore not allowing the paints to mix on their own on paper (as supposed to the artist mixing the paints on palette).

If you look at my painting above, you will observe the bottom of each treelines is darker than the top of the treelines. This occurs in nature as the bottom of a tree or treeline doesn't receive as much light as the top. We created the illusion by starting each treeline with the dark purple mixture of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson.  Immediately we switched to stippling with the darker green mixture of ultramarine blue and gold and the lighter and brighter green mixture of cobalt blue and cadmium yellow pale (for the top of trees). In the shadow areas, you can stipple with the purple mixture.

Make sure you draw some tree trunks and limbs to suggest these dots are trees. Also connect the dots here and there so that they don't look like a jumble of meaningless dots. Some trees should have more "sky holes" than others for variety.

Before the first dark purple strokes started drying, we stroked cobalt blue shadows to create the soft, fuzzy look. In the case of the first treeline, I stroked the cobalt blue wash diagonally and left some first light yellow green wash intact (to suggest the sun rising and the fog lifting) in this mellow southern English landscape.

For the second treeline, we used slightly less paints to make it lighter; for the third treeline, even less so that the aerial perspective was materialized. The control of values by using less or more paints (or more or less water) isn't easy. In my class demo, I erred on too light a third treeline, which had almost the same value as the fourth treeline. I could have added another layer (glazing), but didn't have time.

The details also were minimized in the third treeline; by the fourth treeline, there was no detail.

At the end I tried the milky white gouache horizontal strokes on the fourth and third treelines to emulate fogs. You can try them too!

 

 

"Female Portrait in Full Palette" (watercolor on pape; 12" x 9")

 

"Female Portrait in Full Palette"

 

The following is what we did in the third and fourth weeks of the spring term, 2022 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class (my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA).

First we talked about the essential skin colors I use. I highly recommend that you should acquire these paints. I usually start a portrait with a very pale wash over the highlights in the face, neck, and shoulders (if applicable) in Winsor Newton cobalt turquoise light. The mother color of all skin tones is cadmium red; for cool red, I switch to Sennelier Helios Purple (this is a primary color and cannot be mixed successfully). For an area that is getting sun, therefore light and warm, I add a little yellow (cadmium yellow pale works well) to cadmium red.

When I see a little green in the skin tone, I use permanent sap green; when I detect a little blue (either caused by blue sky, clothing, facial hair, or blood veins), I introduce cobalt blue (I don't use French ultramarine blue in the face; I never use Winsor/thalo blue in any skin tones).

"Essential Skin Colors"

Before I started painting the brunette hair of the subject, I made a couple of color swatches: blonde and brunette. This is only the beginning. There are so many colors of human hair; one must continue to experiment how to render them accurately. Again I stand by the colors I use, but you are welcome to come up with your own concoctions.

"Hair Colors"

We started the full-on Caucasian female portrait in full color and will finish in in the first half of the next week's class. I successfully took the screen shots during and at the end of the demo and photoshopped them for you.

I always start the portrait with the background with the wet-on-wet variegated wash. In this painting, I aimed at the loose, mid-tone, yellow green/blue green background that suggests foliage. You have to wet the paper thoroughly and evenly, otherwise you are risking a hell of a mess!

"Screen Shot I"

Then I started painting the brunette hair with very pale cobalt blue highlight, then washed in cadmium orange, thereby created a damp environment to paint burnt sienna, Daniel Smith Piemontite Genuine, and the mixture of Piemontite and Ultramarine blue. (Paint one half at a time).

Hair is all about softness. I had already softened the outer hairline with a small stiff bright oil painter's brush. The reason why I dampened the hair shape with cadmium orange is to paint basically wet-on-wet, because as you know the wet-on-wet technique is all about softness within the shape. Apply the brushstrokes the way the hair grows. If it is straight as this particular subject's hair, use a long, graceful stroke. Think the hair as a series of long light, mid-tone, and dark strands, not individual hair (the same applies to eye brows or any other facial hair).

Many students struggle with hair. (As a matter of fact, many students struggle with everything: background, hair, skin tones, drawing of features, folds of clothes, you name it!) My aim is to make watercolor portraiture accessible to most students and I hope this step-by-step approach helps.

Next, I softened the inner hairline with the lifting brush (there is hardly any painting within which I don't use this brush). Then I started painting the first layer of the skin tones on dry paper, using the pale, watery versions of the above-mentioned essential skin colors (minus cobalt blue, which I used in the second layer).

I didn't mix any colors, except a little cad yellow to cad red in the forehead, etc. Depending on the moisture level of your brush, you may end up with blooms. Don't worry about them. It's sometimes hard to read whether a certain passage is a cool red or a warm red. You can mix the two reds; you can use either red (they are so pale that it doesn't really matter). As we spend more and more time looking at the subject, it becomes clear which area is warm and which area is cool.

"Screen Shot II"

In a light-skin-toned subject, the painting goes fast. I started the second layer, going bolder. I also started painting the features. There are so many things I covered that I am not going to detail them here. Please rewatch the recording.

"Screen Shot III"

Next, I finished the female portrait in full palette. I showed you how to deepen the hair without losing the feeling of softness that was established in the first wash last week. I emphasize the importance of soft texture of any hair. Avoid the liney hair with many fussy strokes and instead focus on the light/dark shapes.

How to create the soft, fuzzy texture in watercolor? Paint with water, i.e., as soon as you put down a linear stroke, rinse your brush, remove the excess water on clean paper towel, and stroke it down one or both sides of the previous stroke. Keep repeating the process until you are satisfied with the hair.

I painted the white blouse by painting pale shadow shapes. I used a variety of colors although the shapes are not very big. You can't paint colorful paintings with just few colors. Get into the habit of dipping into a different color each time you reach out to reload your brush. A wet stroke of Color A, then another wet stroke of Color B, and so on. As long as you control the moisture level of your brush, you will still see color variations in your shapes.

But more than anything else, the big picture of the left side of the white blouse being in light and the right side being in shadow has to be emphasized! Do you see the difference of the left and right sides in the finished portrait?

The skin tones needed to be strengthened a bit and the dark shadows of the neck introduced, so that what I did next. The subject with a fair skin tones doesn't require too many layers of glazing, but it doesn't mean you don't have to deny her colors!

After the break, I talked about how to approach painting the subject with glasses/shades. Less is more! Suggest the frames instead of accentuating them. Remember the frames, no matter how thin, have volumes; sometimes it's necessary to paint planes (especially if the subject is in three-quarters view. If you can't see the subject's eyes, don't invent them. If you see the reflections of interesting shapes, paint them. If the glasses/shades cast strong shadows, paint them.

 

This is an independent project, so I won't discuss my demo in details. I am painting "Sabrina at Dean Village, Edinburgh". I finished the sky, the background architecture and stream, and her hair before the class and focused on the skin tones for the demo. 

"Sabrina at Dean Village, Edinburgh"

In the image above , you can see the first layer of skin tones. It's very pale, but still gives the impressions of three dimensionality with the adroit use of the highlights (cobalt turquoise light and cadmium yellow pale with a bit of cadmium red) and warm red (cadmium red)/cool red (Helios purple). Something to think about!