Marion
 

This is a watercolor portrait...my 5th one...I'm new to watercolors so it was challenging but fun.

I will show it step by step.

This was done on a 8"x10" Clayboard textured.

There are some things that I would do differently looking at it now...especially the chin, but it turned out ok for a beginner watercolor portrait.

First, I drew it on with the water dissolving pencil (Prismacolor) because I don't like the lines of the pencils to show through the watercolors. And you can move the line with this one by pushing the line with a wet brush (not too wet , though).

The next step was to wet the face and start with the undercolor for the shadows. I mixed a greenish color.

Then, in the next two, I finished the face and blocked in the hat.

With the Clayboard textured it is easy to lift the paint if a mistake is made.

In the next steps, I started lifting the strand of hair with a chisel brush. A short stiff acrylic brush. This is lifted with the brush wet and goes at about the rate of 1/2 at a time before cleaning the brush again. This part was fun.

This is a picture of the hair being lifted out of the background with the chisel brush.

I began to finish the coat with glazes and add the lines to indicate the material on the hat and the coat.

The hair is almost finished.

Here are the final steps and also the step by step on how I do the hair.

I'm sure that my next few watercolor portraits will be better than this one. But I was pretty satisfied with it and thought that it might help someone get encouraged to paint a watercolor portrait. It was fun and I painted it in 3 days.

This was much easier and a shorter amount of time than painting porcelain portraits.

Celeste,

Thank you for posting your progress and congratulations on a fine looking first attempt. I'm impressed. I really like the rich colors .

Dear Celeste,

Thank you for such an excellent post! Your portrait is beautifully executed, and has a story to tell.

I am not sure there is anyone out there who appreciates more than I how incredibly difficult watercolor portraits are (unless of course, they can do them!), but it takes a certain temperament. How is it that the pigment can be lifted from clayboard more readily than paper? Does it have to do with the pigments you use?

Do more!

Dear Janet,
Thank you for taking the time to look at the painting and thanks for the post. :)

Dear Chris,
Yes, the pigment does have to do with the lifting ability but all can be pretty successfully lifted on the Clayboard. The transparent watercolors lift much easier. If the red was lifted (over the hat) it tended to leave a pink color. I then added cad yellow to those areas of hair and after that dried I could lift back to almost white. Don't know why that was possible, but it worked great.
The watercolor portrait was one of the easiest experiences with portraits that I've had in any media of portraits because of the Clayboard textured. It is so forgiving....sort of like the china.

This was much quicker and easier than porcelain portraits. Now THAT is hard...but fun and forgiving as well. You just never know what the kiln gremlins will do during the phases of firing.

I'm trying to get good enough with these watercolor portraits because a lady has given me some ivory pieces that she bought many years ago at the Vatican with the silver miniature frames that go with them. What a treasure! But a stiff challenge to be able to honor the pieces. So I'll work away with the watercolor until I get better.

Thanks for the post, Chris. :)

Also, I have washed back the upper left forhead because it did not bend enough. And added some more shadows on the coat. I probably did not leave enough negative space around the portrait, but will do better on future ones.

Celeste, this is so luminous and I love the colors. I really enjoyed seeing this develop. Thank you!

Thanks Linda. I really appreciate it when artists take their time to post a message. I learn so much from others and want to share my knowledge as well. Again, thank you, Linda.

This is lovely. I do not usually care for watercolor portraits, but you got some rich color here.

Thank you very much Kim. :)

I really value your input here. It was nice to talk to you back in May. Stephanie sure has one great shop there in Uvalde. What a wonderful area of the world that you live in.

Thanks again Kim.

Celeste,

What a lovely and thoughtful presentation. Watercolor is my Waterloo, it is very difficult to do well.

You painting reminds me of the English Pre-Raphaelites, especially Burne-Jones and Millais.

Beautiful job, especially considering you're experimenting with a brand new medium. I can't wait to see what you'll do once you actually get the hang of watercolor. I'm impressed.

Dear Sharon,

Thank you so much for the post. :) You are too kind.

I think that the watercolors make me really work, but it is very satisfying. It is very similar to what I paint on porcelain so it is perhaps easier for me, and yet, it dries very quickly here in Texas, so I have to learn to deal with that. A good mister, and lots of fluffy strokes working from the light back toward the darks and adding water to keep the edges from forming helps a lot in the skin work. Thank you again, Sharon.

Dear Marvin,

Thank you for the post. I hope that you know that I think that you are one of the greatest artists that there is today. Your portraits look real. One day I do hope to retire (in 2007) and then get the honor of taking a class or watching a demo of yours. Thanks again, Marvin.

Thanks Celeste, you're far too kind. I may be coming to Houston to do a workshop this May or June. Maybe you can take a temporary early one week retirement?

I would, for sure, like to take that workshop, but I have previous committments for 6 of the 8 weeks during that time (first 2 weeks of May is Kerrville/Concan, and last week of May and first 3 weeks of June is Indiana and Cazenovia, New York).

I sure would like to have your 2006 schedule. It is possible that I would still be able to move some of the 2006 dates around on my workshops. The location of your workshop doesn't matter as much as the date.

What a treat that will be one day. I have a friend that is equally avid to take a class of yours too. So perhaps, with good planning, we could come and take one of your workshops in 2006.