"Swedish Girl" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

 

"Swedish Girl"

 

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

The main lesson of the day was painting a sepia value study of "Swedish Girl". We used only burnt sienna (my favorite is Daniel Smith) and cobalt blue. In the value scales, the value 10 is the white of the paper (highlights). The value 3 is as dark as it gets with the mixture of these two colors. The value 0 is black. The high-key paintings crowd around highlights and mid tones; the low-key paintings lack highlights and crowd around mid tones and darks. We won't be using ten values; you can do a convincing portrait with five or six values. Beginners' paintings often lack highlights and darks and remain in the mid-tone fest!

"Grayscales"

I first painted the background with the dark mid-tone variegated wash (slightly bluer on the left side) on thoroughly wet paper. After drying the paper, I wetted it again and did the same process. You do this until you are satisfied (in the above painting, I did three layers).

Then I started painting the subject with the lightest wash on dry paper, covering the entire area of the subject, except the lightest parts (highlights: right side of the face, sliver of the neck, top of the right-side hand/arm and the palm pad and top of the left-side arm). Don't make this first layer too dark and make it more brown than blue!

In between layers, dry the paper thoroughly. We are glazing, so paper should be bone dry. At each stage, I mixed a slightly darker batch by adding a little more of each paint; mix more than you think necessary (you don't want to run out of paint in the middle of the wash!). The skin tones are at best three layers; features, four layers. By the fifth layer, I got everything done, except the pupils, for which you can use black (I didn't). The some dark bits in the hair and in the features, itty bitty details around the trims of the blouse, and the triangular shape between the forearms are the darkest.

Below is the reference photo.

"Swedish Girl" Reference

"Happy Days" (watercolor on paper; 8" x 10")

 

"Happy Days" (watercolor, 8" x 10")

  

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the ninth week of the fall term, 2021 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class.

The lesson was about painting a double portrait. I chose a reference I took when my daughter was nine. As a matter of fact, it dates from the same day in August, 2007 as the reference for "Sabrina in the Breeze". In Napa, California it was. We were attending a family wedding and decided to make a vacation out of it. We drove around in the area, soaking in the brilliant Californian light. I have created many paintings from the trip, partly thanks to the excellent light and partly because of the happy memories. I even titled the double portrait "Happy Days"

The first decision I made was to make the small background shape mid-tone instead of dark as in the reference. In a photo when something is in direct sunlight, it sometimes gets bleached out to a pure white, which you don't see in person. So I gave my daughter's pink bucket hat a very pale Winsor lemon wash, then even glazed it with pale permanent rose. 

I've noticed how cool the skin tones were in the reference, because the faces were in shadow. So, instead of cadmium red, which is my go-to red for skin tones, I used, for the most part, permanent rose, Sennelier helios purple, Holbein madder brown, permanent alizarin crimson, and quinacridone magenta. I used cadmium red and a little Winsor lemon in the initial wash in the highlight areas. 

 My daughter's right-side cheek, although in shadow, is influenced by the reflected light of her white shirt. So I introduced a little cobalt turquoise light (Winsor Newton), my go-to color to imitate the sky reflected in the skin. There are a lot of blues because of the sunny outdoors lighting. Cobalt blue was used liberally (I made sure not to use French ultramarine blue this time unlike with "Sabrina in the Breeze"). Comparing the skin tones of the two related portraits, I regret using cadmium red and ultramarine blue in my daughter's portrait. You see, we learn through our mistakes!

For my daughter's white shirt, I used cobalt turquoise light, cobalt blue and ultramarine blue to create folds.

Thank you for reading my blog. If you are interested in taking my online watercolor portrait class, the registration for the winter term is now open. Click here for the information.

"Happy Days" Reference

"Sabrina in the Breeze" (watercolor, 10" x 8")

"Birthday Girl" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 8")

 

"Birthday Girl" (watercolor, 10" x 8")

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the eighth week of the fall term, 2021 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class.

This week we worked on the portrait in warm artificial lighting. My demo was a self-portrait with the birthday cake with candles lit (the other source of lighting was the chandelier). This unusual lighting condition created unusual light/shadow patterns and overall warm temperature; even the shadows such as the chest area seem infused with warmth. The reference didn't also had strong dark shapes because my face was lit full-on by the candle light. I don't have deep-set eyes, being an East Asian, so I couldn't play with the dark inner corners of the eyes, etc.

It was time to explore the color red. As you know, my go-to color for the skin tones for all races is cadmium red. But my red purple blouse influenced the colors in the skin tones, hence cool reds had to be introduced. I like to work in a string of  colors (similar in hue or compatible, but increasingly getting darker and muted) to model a form. For instance, for my hair, I used burnt sienna, Piemontite genuine (Daniel Smith), and moonglow (Daniel Smith).

A warm red line-up is cadmium red, brown madder, and permanent alizarin crimson; add cobalt blue to brown madder, you get a gorgeous purple for shadows. A cool red line-up is permanent rose, Sennelier helios purple, quinacridone magenta, and perylene violet. You can mix some of these colors, but there is no time to mix colors when you are in the middle of painting skin tones!

"Color Red Swatches"

I talked a great deal about the edge handling. If you know how to control edges, you can paint anything! In watercolor, which dries with hard edges when painted wet on dry if you don't do anything, the awareness of hard/soft edges and the ability to create either edge will put you ahead of the crowd and, boy, the watercolor world is beyond over-crowded!

Some things such as the hair, fur, clouds and candle lights require soft edges. Other things, such as rocks and hard candies, call for hard edges. Hard edges come forward, and soft edges recede. The areas you want to emphasize, thus, require hard edges; the areas you want to de-emphasize call for soft edges.

You can create soft edges by painting wet on wet, but it's not always possible to do so. For my hair contour, I painted the background wet on wet; while the paper was still damp, I put down burnt sienna strokes next to the background shape. The brush should not be too wet; if so, the excess moisture will cause havoc in the drying background wash.

You can also soften the edges by putting down a stroke and immediately rinse the brush and soften the hard edge with the clean damp (thirsty) brush as you can see below. If your brush is too wet, you end up diffusing the stroke too much. That's how I was able to paint the candle light: paint around the pure white shape with cadmium orange, then paint around the orange with the desired dark tone. If hard edges form, just soften the edges with a lifting brush (I use a small bright oil brush for this task).

"Softening Edges and Painting a Candle"

Since I was talking a lot about colors, I also talked about burnt umber, which I used to detest. However, you mix (not overmix) it with Winsor (dioxazine) violet, you get a gorgeous warm dark brown! Speaking of browns, mix Winsor violet with cadmium orange, you have a gorgeous transparent, dark brown! There are no ugly colors; it's matter of how you use them!

 

"Color Brown Swatches"

I worked for two more hours to finish my self-portrait, "Birthday Girl". It was a tough project, but I must say I love it! 

 

 

"Sabrina in the Breeze" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 8")

 

"Sabrina in the Breeze" (watercolor; 10" x 8")

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the seventh week of the fall term, 2021 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class.

 

This week's lesson was about painting a child's portrait. First, I talked about how a child's head develops from birth until he or she reaches the young adult stage. The following images are from Burne Hogarth's "Drawing the Human Head". The adult ratio of cranial mass and facial mass is 2:1; the newborn ratio is 3 1/2:1! As a child grows the facial mass (from brow to chin) develops faster than the cranial mass (from brow to nape) until the child reaches the mature level by 14-15.

I've also shared my drawings and paintings of children to illustrate the following points:

Everything is crowded in the facial mass at birth; the neck is very short and thin. The first thing we notice is that they have huge eyes, because the eye openings are too small for the adult-sized eyeballs. That's why if you paint the subject's eyes too big, suddenly the subject looks like a child. You paint the child with too long and thick a neck, you have a football player instead of a child! Children's noses are not yet fully developed; very young children have hardly any chins. Overall, their features are soft and round with baby fat. They do have, however, all the bones and muscles, so our job as portrait painters is to look hard for the plane changes while rendering their wrinkle-free faces with as much soft edges as possible.

Child head development I

Child head development II

Child head development II

For the reference of the project, I chose the picture of my daughter taken at the age of nine. Her head is tilted although it's full-on. Her hair is blowing in the breeze creating interesting shadow patterns in the face while obscuring some features. The lighting was the full-sun natural light in northern California, hence a lot of blues bouncing about in the face and white T shirt.

Reference for "Sabrina in the Breeze"

I am not going to narrate the full painting process as you will be working on your own project. I started with the wet-on-wet gradated blue wash for the background, pulling the blues into the hair, then proceeded with painting the hat, face, hair, and the shirt. My skin tones colors were as I have explained last week; however, I didn't use any permanent sap green.

Lots of cadmium red, a little Winsor lemon in the sunny area, some permanent rose (due to the cool sky blue), a lot of cobalt blue (I even used some French ultramarine blue along with permanent alizarin crimson for the shadows; in retrospect, I should have avoided this granulating paint; instead, I could have used cobalt blue with brown madder). Many layers went in to get at the right values. Don't paint your darks as dark as you see in the photo!

As many people have brown hair, I talked about the browns. Please refer to the image below. I don't generally use the usual brown paints shown here, either in the hair or for the African-American skin tones as they tend to get muddy-looking. Browns in the shadow become near black; browns in the light are almost yellow (the bleaching effect of the warm sun) or light blue (the reflection of the sky). Experimentation is the thing!

Brown swatches

"Woman in Black" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

"A Woman in Black" (watercolor, 12" x 9")

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the sixth week of the fall term, 2021 in my "Watercolor Portraits" class.

 

This week's lesson was painting a profile portrait in full palette. My starting point for skin tones of all races is cadmium red. For the area lit by the sun, I add a yellow (in the color swatches below, you will see cadmium yellow pale, Winsor lemon, and quinacridone gold; you can also use yellow ochre by Daniel Smith).

For the area in shadow, I add cobalt blue. I never use the staining Winsor blue or the granulating French ultramarine blue. However, I may use ultramarine blue in the neck, or to mix a rich dark for the eyebrows, nostrils, etc. For the highlights in the face and neck, to suggest the sky color, I use a diluted cobalt turquoise light (Winsor Newton).

Skin tones may look all brown to you. For that, I rarely use burnt sienna (Daniel Smith) or burnt umber; instead, I mix my own brown with red and permanent sap green. When I need a cooler red, I use permanent rose or permanent alizarin crimson. A bit of cobalt blue added to crimson is useful for the shadows in the face. For the neck, I may use ultramarine blue.

The portrait painting is all about recognizing the plane changes (in the forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, lips, chin, neck, etc.) and rendering them in paints of the right hue, temperature, value and intensity. A little understanding of human head anatomy is a huge plus, but you can paint a believable portrait without knowing all the anatomical names. Observation is the thing!

The subject in this week's exercise is wearing a black outfit and hair scarf; her hair is black with silver hairs. I have two blacks on my palette: ivory black (warm black) and neutral tint by Daniel Smith (cool black). I never use blacks to deepen or darken skin tones or anything else.

I generally start the portrait with the background by wetting the negative space thoroughly and dropping the chosen colors. I used ultramarine blue on the left side and cerulean blue on the right. Always apply a variegated/graduated wash for the background (from top to bottom and/or from left to right). This rule applies to landscapes, still lifes, etc. If needed, do another layer (this technique is also called wet glazing). I pulled the background colors to the hair, scarf, and outfit to minimize the cut-out look.

I began to develop the face and neck using the above-mentioned colors, patiently adding a layer after another. As long as the paper is bone dry, you can glaze as many layers as you wish to get the right value and color.

I talked a great deal about soften the edges. In a watercolor portraiture, the mastery of edge control is paramount because if you don't do anything, watercolor painted on dry paper always dries with a hard edge. Since I don't generally paint the skin tones wet on wet, I have to do my best to soften the edges: put down a tone and immediately rinse the brush, remove the excess water in the brush on paper towel; with the damp (thirsty) brush, I soften the edge(s). If your brush is dripping wet, you are asking for trouble!

I showed you how to paint the hair, scarf, black sweater, and violet blouse by painting the entire shapes (which then becomes the highlight), let the paper dry, and go back with more paints and paint around the highlights (when necessary, softening edges). Repeat the process as many times as necessary to get the right tone. Black is the darkest tone, so you many need a few layers. Never use too much paint at one go to reduce the necessity for glazing. For the violet blouse, by the way, I used a two layers of Winsor/dioxazine violet.

"Red Hair" (watercolor pencil on paper; 11" x 8.5")

 

"Red Hair" (watercolor pencil, 11" x 8.5")

I decided to blog about my online Zoom classes with the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. This is what we did in the fifth week of the fall term, 2021 for my "Watercolor Portraits" class. 

 

The lesson was about drawing portraits in watercolor pencils. The process is similar to watercolor in that we layer from light to dark. On an accurate pencil drawing, I began the portrait by hatching colors, starting with a turquoise to indicate reflected light on the shadow side of the head. Then I hatched and cross-hatched with lightest colors (cream and pale pink) and moved onto the mid-tone colors of orange, scarlet, and red purple; then, finally the dark tones (brown, violet, indigo, and black for the upper lash lines, pupils and iris outlines). When you are hatching and cross-hatching, be consistent and mindful. Below is where I stopped before adding water.

"Red Hair" in progress

When you add water to your drawing with a brush, you will notice the colors deepen dramatically as long as you are using the artist-quality watercolor pencils such as Caran d'Ache Museum Aquarelle and Faber Castell Albrecht Durer. What you are doing is activating the pencils. That's right. We don't use watercolor pencils the way we do waxy colored pencils. On their own, watercolor pencils are anemic-looking; it's only when they are activated with water, they begin to sing. 

 

Please avoid the temptation to scrub the hatched texture to obliterate pencil strokes. If you don't like the strokes, why bother with watercolor pencils? It's time-consuming to hatch and cross-hatch and there is no point in erasing them with water. These pencil strokes add charm and the graphic texture to the finished work.

After the paper dries, you can add more tone by using watercolor pencils as if they are watercolors. How? With a clean wet brush, you pick up tone from the long lead of a pencil and apply it to the desired area. (By the way, I don't use a mechanical pencil sharpener to sharpen my pencils because it tends to eat up pencil leads and sometimes break them!) You can dip the pencil into water and draw with the wet lead (upper lash lines, upper lid folds, hair, etc) to strengthen lines.

 

You can also use a nail file to grate pencil leads onto a wet area to create texture like freckles, etc. Keep adding more tone until you are satisfied. You can of course introduce watercolor, but we didn't in this lesson.

By the way, what kind of paper works best with watercolor pencils? My favorite is Fabriano 140 lb hot press paper; I also like Moleskine watercolor sketchbook and Strathmore 500 series drawing paper pad (8" x 10" is a good size). In other words, smoother paper with less pronounced tooth than Arches 140 lb cold press paper seems to work better.

The following are the colors I find useful for skin tones in case you want to purchase a few more watercolor pencils:

Naples ochre (Museum Aquarelle or M/A), Light flesh (M/A), Medium flesh (Albrecht Durer or A/D), Salmon (A/D), Light purple pink (A/D), Burnt ochre (M/A), Pompeian red (A/D), Purplish red (M/A), Caput Mortuum (A/D), Carmine lake (M/A), Dark flesh (M/A), Violet pink (M/A), Periwinkle blue (M/A), Light malachite green (M/A), Light olive (M/A), Olive yellow (M/A).

I've played around with watercolor pencils. Here are some of the results; the last one is my self-portrait!

"Self-portrait" (watercolor pencil, 8.5" x 5")