[Brenda Ellis]

Terri and Lisa,
Thanks for your kind words!
Lisa (and for those scaredy cats like me), the hardest thing was getting the skin tones in the first pass. I overworked the face and it shows! I've also learned to have a piece of "scratch paper" next to my watercolors so I can test tone, value and density before I muck up the painting! (Didn't figure this out until I had done the face.) And I learned that mixing wrong can lead to muddy colors, just as in oils.

I learned that paper really does matter. Before this, I had fiddled with watercolors painting flowers on bristol board. Bad idea. Bristol board is not good for watercolors. Took me a while to figure out that is why they make "watercolor paper"! This is done on inexpensive Strathmore watercolor paper. It makes a difference in the ability to layer in washes and that made doing the hair very easy.

The colors I used were just what I had on hand. Caput mortum, indian red, yellow ochre, cerulean blue, burnt sienna, some sort of deep red I can't remember the name of and some sort of green that I can't remember the name of either. I used tube watercolors and mixed them with amounts of water in one of those little plastic trays with six wells in it. This is a relatively small painting; the face is probably 5 inches high. Working small seems more manageable to me in watercolor.

I would suggest working fairly small to begin with and if faces scare you, try flowers. I would also suggest getting good watercolor paper. It really does help! I don't have special, nice watercolor brushes. I just had some junky brushes at work that I used. I can imagine how much easier it might be with good brushes!

Well, that's what I got from this first attempt at a head in watercolor. I liked it more than I thought I would. I plan to try some more! When I get to work (yes I did this at work, we've been slow lately so I've had time to play around) I will post a pic of the watercolor tray layout I used.