Watercolor Child Portrait Process in Progress

Oops! I got so absorbed in painting today, that I forgot to take a photo during much of the process!

 

To see the earliest stages of this painting

http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-adventure-watercolor-painting.html, http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/child-watercolor-painting-process-boy.html,

http://barbararosenzweig.blogspot.com/2013/08/child-portrait-watercolor-painting.html

 

 

 

Today, I worked on layering more color on the stone to give it depth, darkened the inside of the fountain, and started the scrollwork under it. In creating the copper on the rim of the fountain, I started with a pale coppery color and will build it up later.

 

When I paint, I try not to go into an area that is still wet, since it can make what's called "blossoms." Sometimes you want this type of unpredictable pattern, but for most of my painting here, I want to control the flow of the paint. So while the paint is drying in one area, I'll work on another.

 

Now for the hair. The initial yellow was just to give me a sense of where the hair was and approximate color. What I did now was to lighten the yellow by using a moistened brush and lifting and blotting the color until it was a very pale yellow. Next, I mixed light shades of brown to start giving some texture to the hair. It is not done yet, but I will leave it for now.

 

Next, the arms. Using rose, yellow and a bit of blue, I laid in the colors at the sides of the arms to start giving a roundness to them. Not done yet.

 

Looking at the tiles, I saw that they still needed toning down so that they will not be the focal point of the painting and pull the eye away from the boy. I used a combination of colors to create a black wash that I put over the tiles, as well as darken the metal grate under the boy's feet.

 

 

 To create the folds on the boy's jeans, I focused on created the shapes of dark and light colors. That's enough for one day!

 

 

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Child Portrait Watercolor Painting Process and Techniques - Continued

Now we're well into the UGLY stage!
I keep my reference photo handy to check to see if the shapes and placements are accurate.

 

I started to put the scrollwork under the fountain and tone down the bright tiles with a wash of gray.

 

Continuing more of the stonework, I shape up the bowl of the fountain, put the right step in, and add more greens to the stone. For this, I use the technique called "scumbling." After I fill my brush with paint, I wick off excess water on a paper towel, and then hold the brush on its side as I drag it across the paper. I let the 300 lb. thick rag Arches watercolor paper do the rest. You can see the results on the stone steps.

 

 

 

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Child Watercolor Painting Process "Boy Reaching" - Continued

CAUTION !!!
You are about to see a painting in its adolescent stage! Beware! You will be seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly! View at your own risk! Hope that you enjoy seeing this daunting process.

 

 

Once I decided on the portion of the photo that would be most effective for this painting, I lightly sketched in the important details. Now I take the plunge and put paintbrush to paper.

 

I started by lightly painting in the background and the boy to get a sense of the colors I would be using. Next, I started on the tile floor. Here, I used richer colors that will eventually be toned down.

 

 

Still in the preliminary process, I start to refine the hair, shirt, pants, and sneakers, as well as lay in some turquoise for the beginning of the copper patina on the drinking fountain.



 

Here's where it starts getting UGLY! I'm laying in colors for the stone wall with its green algae.

 

As you might have guessed by now, I am very slow and deliberate in my painting process. It takes me a long time to complete a watercolor to my satisfaction. At this point, I am nowhere near being done. Once all of the colors are "in," the refining begins. There must be "dark darks" and very "light lights" to make the painting have depth. Once these "values" are established, I can attend to the most difficult and time-consuming part, adding all of the minute details.

 

Can't wait to hear from you!

 

 

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New Adventure Watercolor Painting Process "Boy Reaching"

Thanks so much for sending in photos! I can still accept a few more for this New Adventure Series.

As promised, I am using photos that were sent in to create a series of special childhood memories. The photo should show your child or grandchild looking away from the camera and into the new place they've found to play in and explore.

My end of the bargain is to share the entire process with you! There is absolutely NO obligation to buy.

Here is the first of the photos. As you can see, the little boy is absolutely adorable! Even though he is too short to take a drink from the fountain, he has fun reaching up into it!

Once I saw the potential for a painting in this series, I cropped the photo to make it a more interesting composition and focus on the child.

 

 

The next step is to start a drawing that includes all of the essential details. As you can see, the lines are very light, so that they don't show through the transparent watercolors too much.

 

 

I look forward to sharing the next stages in this process with you! If you have any questions at all about this process, I'd love to answer them.

 

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Fine Art America, IShouldBeMoppingTheFloor, BoogieboardCottage, Alphabe-Thursday, Join the Party {Linky}  Fall into Fall, and Pink Saturday, Five Days Five Ways, Friday Flair Linky Party, Friday Favs, Fancy These Friday’s, Friday Link Party, Saturday Show & Tell



 

Revision - LITTLE BOY BLUE IN THE CORNFIELD WATERCOLOR

I don't usually do this, but I've "updated" my Little Boy Blue in the Cornfield painting. I've been looking at it for a number of months and a few things just kept bothering me. I decided to rework his left arm, making is fall more to his side, darken the shadows on the back of his clothing, shoes and arms, and give the cornstalks a bit more interest for a hint of depth. It also bothered me that the string from his hat went under his lip and not his chin. This was because the little boy I "captured" kept putting it there, so that's how I initially painted it. I was able to move it to where I felt it belonged. He can't change it now!

Do you think that any of these changes improved this painting?

Little Boy Blue in the Cornfield

 

Before the Changes

 

Linked to Watercolors by Barbara Etsy Shop, Watercolors By Barbara Website, Tell Me Tuesday, Handmade Tuesdays, Alphabe-Thursday, Potpourri Friday, Pink Saturday

BEACH BABY - NEW PAINTING

BEACH BABY

This adorable baby was mesmerized by the ocean waves and had no fear as the surf rolled across the beach. This fine art reproduction of my original watercolor painting will brighten up a child's room or a home at the shore! Remember family vacations at the beach?

Linked to Potpourri Friday 2805, Fabulous Friday, Motivational Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Life as this Mommy knows It, Tell Me Tuesday, Handmade Tuesday, Share the Love Wednesday, Wow Us Wednesdays, Fall into Fall, Primp Your Stuff Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, Alphabe-Thursday

PAINTING PROCESS - LITTLE BOY BLUE in the CORNFIELD

Over the past few months, I had gotten a lot of questions from people who wanted to learn more about my painting process. So at the end of August, I posted my first demo about my “Devil's Trumpet” watercolor painting.

Now, instead of a flower, here’s a new painting that I would like to share with you.

First, I took a number of photos of an adorable child who was at the local farmers' market where I was showing my artwork. After chasing him around trying to get a good shot, he stopped for a moment, slowly looked behind him to see if I was still there, and I finally got the shot I had hoped for!

Once I had sketched the image of the boy from the photo onto heavy weight 300 lb Arches watercolor paper, I had to decide where I would have him standing in the painting. For me, the parking lot and Jeep just didn't work. In my mind, dressed as he was, the best setting would be in a cornfield.

I worked on the figure first, starting to roughly put in some details like the shirt, jeans, and shoes. I left the face only lightly filled in. For the hat, I put in jagged lines of a darker straw color to indicate its woven nature, with the suggestion of a hat band. However, before going too far, I wanted to create a sense of light and the feeling of a cornfield to help me maintain the goal that I was striving for.

I then continued to slowly work on the clothing, concentrating on the dark folds to give the shirt and jeans depth and dimension.

From there, I finished the preliminary painting and then started to fine tune it - most time-consuming part of creating an artwork.



There are many, many stages of this process that I will not be showing you because a lot of them are subtle. From the painting below, you can see that I had started defining the cornstalks, glazing (adding light washes of paint) to the clothing, and reworking the face, which I continued to do for quite some time. Although in the photo the light was actually coming from the back of the child , I wanted it to come from the front in this painting. Because of this, I had to darken the back of the child, putting shadows under his hat and lightening the front of his face and body. For the cornstalks, I added the tassels, but didn't want to make them as distinct as the child to give it a dreamy effect.

The process continued with adding shadows to the back of the hat and back of the shoes, as well as lightening the front of the shoes.

Little Boy Blue in the Cornfield

by Barbara Rosenzweig

The final steps involved a lot of tweaking. For the face, I corrected his eye and the shadows to show his rosy cheek and the light coming on it at the proper angle. It was also necessary to better define the ground the child is standing on, the corn stalks, and the dimples in his elbow. Adding more stalks farther in the background I hoped would give a sense that the cornfield might be a vast one.

So here it is, "Little Boy Blue in the Cornfield." What do you think? Do you have any questions that I haven't answered? Do you have any suggestions for other subjects that I should try?

Thanks for coming along on this painting journey with me!

Linked to Tell Me Tuesday, Handmade Tuesday, Share the Love Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, Sizzle into Summer Wednesday, Alphabe-Thursday.

NEW PAINTING - LITTLE BOY BLUE in the CORNFIELD

LITTLE BOY BLUE in the CORNFIELD

by Barbara Rosenzweig



This child is full of energy! I caught a rare tranquil pose for the split second he stopped running around and slyly turned to see if I was still behind him. For my original watercolor painting, I worked from his photo, since there was not a chance that he would remain still long enough for me to paint him!

This fine art reproduction is a charming portrait of a young child raised in a farming family.


Linked to Alphabe-Thursday as X-perience little farmer, Fabulous Friday, Share the Love Wednesday, Stuff and Nonsense, Mellow Yellow Monday.

BOY INTO THE SURF

Boy into the Surf

by Barbara Rosenzweig

 My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore! This is the perfect companion piece to "Girl into the Surf!"

Girl into the Surf

Time Does Fly When You're Past Young
 "A great collection of life. Time does fly for all of us when you're past young," says Curator Anne Quinn from hatsbyanne1942.



Acceptable happiness

The Curator from MindAndHandsTogether hopes that you will enjoy her creative collection!

BOY INTO THE SURF WATERCOLOR

Boy into the Surf

by Barbara Rosenzweig

My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore! This is the perfect companion piece to "Girl into the Surf!"

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.
Curator Stephanie from BlackbearyMountain created a wonderful collection of great items that will put a smile on your face!

BOY into the SURF PAINTING

"Boy into the Surf"

Watercolor Fine Art Reproduction

by Barbara Rosenzweig

DESCRIPTION: My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore! This is the perfect companion piece to "Girl into the Surf!"

Fun in the Water
"Some of my favorite times have been in water! Learning to Swim in pools, Cooling off after long hikes in lakes, playing in splashpads, wading in water fountains and creeks, playing in the cold ocean....," says Curator Angelina from bellalena. I'm happy to have my "Boy into the Surf" included here!

BOY INTO THE SURF!

"Boy into the Surf"

Limited Edition Fine Art Reproduction

by Barbara Rosenzweig

My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore! This is the perfect companion piece to "Girl into the Surf!" or "Beach Children Feeding the Birds"

Summer Vacation Memories
Curators Adrienne and Dave Zavalick of ZavalickDesigns created this stunning collection of handmade and  fine art items from the EtsyLush team. I'm honored that my "Boy into the Surf" painting was included here!

Blue and Green Patterns

I love the great colors in Rustika's visually beautiful Etsy Treasury. My "Boy into the Surf" is in excellent company!

SUMMER FUN!

"Boy into the Surf"

Watercolor - Limited Edition Art Print

By Artist Barbara Rosenzweig

My exuberant scene shows the pure childish delight at being on the beach. I tried to capture his sense of freedom and absolute joy! It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore!

My life's a beach.... everyday ends with a beautiful sunset

"I am lucky enough to live near the most beautiful beach on the planet, every summer day is heaven here," says Curator of Fun2designs.  So glad that she included my "Boy into the Surf" in this lively collection!

At The Beach!

"I love going to the beach...so many free treasures to behold. Going soon, can't wait!" says Curator Aunt Sue of auntsuesoldnewlovely. Check out this great beach collection!

VACA!!!

"Boy Into the Surf" Watercolor

 Limited Edition Fine Art Reproduction

By Artist Barbara Rosenzweig

My exuberant scene shows the wonderful vitality of a child excited to be at the beach. It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore!

"I am leaving for vacation soon and it's all I can think about! Here are some great items for your vacation, no matter where you're going! I just ordered my mammy pack from PPP and I can't wait to be one stylish tourist!!!" says Curator Coley Arnold of ellensera.  

NO MORE PENCILS, NO MORE BOOKS... SUMMER FUN!

"Into the Surf"

Watercolor Sea Shore Limited Edition Fine Art Print

By Artist Barbara Rosenzweig

8x10 print in a 11x14 mat - $27 (shipping included)

My exuberant scene shows the wonderful vitality of a child excited to be at the beach. It will brighten up any child's room or a home at the shore!

My little guy is one popular kid!! He's been featured in 5 terrific Etsy Treasuries in the past few days! I guess that his exuberance makes us all just want to rush into the surf with him!

BEACH DAY!

The talented Debbie Shirley, curator of ShirleyArt, is "Celebrating Fine Art Friday at the beach!!" with my little surf boy painting joining in the fun!

CHILDREN ON BOARD

Curator Vince of TellTaleCreations writes about this adorable collection of children's items, "A magical time." He said of my "Boy in the Surf" painting, that it "fit perfectly" into his treasury and that he loved my shop! How kind!

NO MORE PENCILS, NO MORE BOOKS...
Curator Amy G of cuteasasilverbotton of this great collection said, "It's SUMMER (in Philadelphia)! Yes, and with temperatures in the 90's, we're ready for summertime FUN, like in my painting of the little boy heading exuberantly into the surf!

LET'S GO OUTSIDE & PLAY!
The curator of this playful Treasury is from cegibbon. Lots to look at (although one of the items is already sold!) here. Enjoy!
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YOU ARE MY VERY FAVORITE
I love the hot pinks of this collection curated by the owner of PetCollage. The items here make me smile!

OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY, WORDISH WEDNESDAY, ALPHABE-THURSDAY!

Here's my contribution to Outdoor Wednesday and Alphabe-Thursday, an exuberant child running into the surf showing the UNLIMITED fun a child has at the beach! Enjoy!

  "Into the Surf" matted Limited Edition Watercolor
           by Artist Barbara Rosenzweig
          8x10 print in a 11x14 mat - $24

Check out the March Madness sale on selected items in my Etsy Shop.

Please join Susan for more Outdoor Wednesday.