"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).

"Self-portrait in Suede Jacket" (watercolor on paper; 10" x 8")

 

"Self-portrait in Suede Jacket"

 

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

I talked a great deal about various things, including my favorite watercolor portrait painter, Mary Whyte. Her book, "Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor", should be on every watercolor portrait artist's bookshelf. Her greatest strengths, I believe, are her ability to control hard/soft edges and her incredible sense of design. Her handling of details is also breath-taking. Don't just say she has talent. No, it's the prodigious amount of work she has put into her art that got her to her level today!

This week we are working on a self-portrait. I have chosen a rather challenging project of painting various different textures (felt, suede and straight hair), a complicated geometric pattern, and a pair of glasses, which I wear all the time. You don't have to naturally and do whatever you can.

Many past masters have painted themselves. Rembrandt and Vincent van Gogh come to mind as they painted themselves repeatedly, for the lack of money to hire models but, of course, for self-observation and contemplation of their lives. If you have never done it before, you may feel awkward. I myself used to dislike the whole self-portrait business, but as part of this class assignments, I have done it a few times and I am finally getting over my reluctance and actually beginning to enjoy it. One tends to have self-delusions and it's good to be honest with oneself once in a while.

The painting process is the same whether you are painting yourself or someone else. I always start with the "background" in wet-on-wet variegated wash. The goal is to create an ambience for the subject to sit comfortably and breathe the air. If your "background" is a dull gray or not in harmony with the rest of the portrait, you kind of lost the game even before you start painting the subject. Let's work on this issue further in the spring.

I painted the felt hat and suede jacket using mainly granulating paints such as Piemontite genuine, Moonglow, and ultrarine violet to emulate the soft texture.

Painting the complicated pattern, such as my rain jacket, takes patience, but if you do it well, you can create lovely folds and gain the viewer's admiration. Remember that white in shadow is not white!

My hair is, of course, very different from any of yours. I have straight hair and it's probably easier than painting, let's say, curly hair? Either way, the goal is softness and preserving highlights and going dark enough in the dark shapes. I showed you how using the right (warm) temperature in the mid-tones made the hair look real. Again, I like to use granulating paints for hair. You can use whatever colors.

The skin tones are always the hardest thing in a portrait. You ruin the skin tones, you ruin the portrait, no matter how well you have painted the rest. There is no secret. The goal is likeness and even if you have traced the image, you may have traced inaccurately or lost the drawing of features in the process of painting. Then redraw. There are no excuses for the misplaced mouth or missing nostril.

Map out your highlights/mid-tones/darks accurately. I almost always start out with the highlights, giving them a very pale wash of cobalt turquoise light (Winsor Newton). Human skin tones, except the dead, are warm. This initial, barely visible cobalt turquoise layer and blues and violets you will introduce later will counterbalance the relentless ruddiness of the skin tones.

Yes, I use blue (cobalt blue) and violet (ultramarine violet) in the face. The reds vary depending on the subject. For the self-portrait, I used cadmium red and Sennelier helios purple (there is no substitute for this color; I really don't know why you are so reluctant to include this lovely, indispensable color on your palette). For the dark reds, I used madder brown, perylene maroon, perylene violet, and Piemontite genuine (in shadows).

The glasses went in last. One has to be utterly careful in handling the glasses. The portrait is about many things, but never about the glasses. It's there, but it's mostly suggested.

By the way, I don't necessarily tell you what colors to use in your independent projects as we have to learn to see the colors and come up with the right paints to render them through trial and error.