Marion

Celeste McCall · 09-23-2004, 08:05 PM

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 · 09-23-2004, 08:24 PM

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 · 09-23-2004, 08:51 PM

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 · 09-23-2004, 09:01 PM

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 · 09-23-2004, 10:56 PM

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 · 09-23-2004, 11:34 PM

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!