UA-20248021-6

Thursday, August 22, 2013

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
 
 
 
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!

 
 
 

1 comment:

  1. This is really neat... I love when I am so into a project that I forget to document the steps...

    I can not wait to see the finished product but watching your use of watercolor is awesome!

    Thanks for sharing this nifty project for the letter "N"!

    Nicely done!

    A+

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by! I'd be just delighted if you left me a comment!