"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"

 

"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.

"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! 

 

 

"Smell the Roses" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10") nfs

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 The New Year's resolutions: paint often, paint better and smell the roses!

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

Time to show off the collage of the previous month's paintings!  There you go.  Lots of watercolors!  Which painting is your favorite?  By the way, I am not yet done with the watercolor fest: more peonies, irises, and roses to explore!

"Smell the Roses" (oil on stretched canvas; 8" x 10") nfs

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A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and I went to the Bon Air Memorial Rose Garden in Arlington, VA to admire roses.  It was too hot to linger, but I was able to take a few good pictures for my rose paintings.  My daughter happened to take the picture below when I was smelling roses.  I really liked it, so I decided to paint a self-portrait out of it.  What do you think of my efforts?

The reference photo

"Birthday Cake" (oil on stretched canvas; 14" x 11") nfs

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I don't know why, but I have always been shy about painting myself.  But as a practice, because only practice makes perfect and I need models, I decided to paint a self-portrait, using a photo my daughter took on my last birthday.  I am looking at a candle-lit chocolate cake.  Don't I look happy?

The hardest part was naturally the mouth, as the famous John Singer Sargent said, a portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth!  I am not sure whether it is exactly me, but it must be close enough.  All the people who saw it knew immediately that it was a self-portrait.  Below are some of the step-by-step pictures.