Marion

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Janel Maples]

Celeste,

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

[Chris Saper]

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!

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Celeste McCall]

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.

[Linda Brandon]

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

[Celeste McCall]

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.