Pale Orange #7 • Yellow Ochre #15 • Burnt Sienna #12 • Vandyke Brown # 17 • Prussian Blue #43 • Ultramarine #38 • Carmine #19 • Deep Green #30 • Purple #24 • Ivory Black #49 • Lemon Yellow #2
Brushes used: Winsor & Newton 1 round & Artise Monogram #2... Brushes were small and I could be wrong on the type and number... i've used these for so long the lettering is gone. I know you should keep brushes new, but man, when I break a brush in and get good results with it, I hate to find a new one lol.
Time it took: I have no clue really. I wanted to time myself. But with water color I'll do a wash... work in the color, then step away to let it dry. I usually worked on it before bed letting it dry over night. This reduces the paper wrinkles. Maybe I'll time it next time.
Of course the first step is to get your drawing on your water color paper. After I did this I then masked off any areas I wanted to leave completely white till the end. This included the white dot reflections in the eyes. Hair high lights on the left subject, and reflections on the glasses on the right subject.
I then painted the back ground with a bigger flat brush for scrubbing with water color. I wet the area I wanted to paint first.... wait a few seconds then added lemon yellow at the top and then deep green at the bottom areas... then I loosely just merged them into one another. I didn't really want a nice blend of the two... but wanted some over lapping lines as well.
After that you can see I used the Purple to lightly pain the shows in the face. At this point I don't touch the eyes... I don't paint the eyes till it really bothers me to see it without them. We lay down the purple as an under coat. The effect you want is the purple will keep the other washes darker in these areas, but not be purple. So you want to do this very lightly. You'll see how I started to go to dark with it on the subject on the right.
Next I added a wash of Pale Orange... it didn't do much, but just did it for my own mind I guess. After that dried I then did some washes of Burnt Sienna. Burnt Sienna worked really well with caucasian skin tone... but we'll have to add other colors to get it perfect. I guess the technique I use is known as wet on dry? Not good with terms. I basically don't wet the water color paper like you some people would. I first start at the dark shadows and once I take it to where the shadow ends, I will then clean my brush... get my brush a little wet. Make sure to dab it in the paper towel so it's not too much water... then I begin to blend back toward the shadow. Make sure you periodically clean your brush so the color doesn't stay in the brush and mess up the part you want lighter.
You can also see I started laying the under coat for the hair and I put in purple dots for the black pupils.
At this point I couldn't handle not having the eyes... so I did the eyes. For her light brown eyes I with a wash of yellow ochre I believe. Once that dried I then used burnt sienna for the ring of dark color on the edge of the eye. I also dab a dot for the pupil. Once it's down I'll completely clean my brush and pick up some of the color at the bottom of the eye to give it a reflection look.
I also did the eye lashes in Vandyke Brown and darkened the shadows of the face. I used a wash of Carmine(red) into the face. I then used more burnt sienna to darken the shadows. I also used vandyke brown on the hair and began adding some black. I never go straight black. I always want some kind of warm or cool color under the black. It gives it a better look. I also did an under coat of purple on the shirt and a wash of black once the purple dried.
Now I put a lot of black in the hair, but still leaving some of the brown showing. At the end you'll see why. I also added some prussian blue to the shirt to give it some color. At this point you can really see the liquid mask showing. I also did a light wash of Lemon Yellow to the face, as it need it because it was looking to red. I also did the lips using Carmine(red) and burnt sienna if it got to red / pink. I also used vandyke brown over some burnt sienna for the corners of the mouth.
I also began to put the undercoat on the right subject.
After a wash of pale orange and a light wash of burnt sienna, you can see that I kinda went dark with the purple. I got kind of carried away trying to match the tone with the purple.
So I worked with it doing washes of burnt sienna, Carmine(red), & Lemon Yellow so it didn't look as purple and red. I also got carried away and didn't take as much step by step pictures. But you can see I did her eyes in the same manner as the left subject but with blues. I also started the shadows of the glasses. And you'll notice in her hair I did very very light washes of prussian blue to give me the shadows in her hair. At this point I also used very light carmine(red) in the lips. I also added burnt sienna if it was too red / pink looking.
And here is the finish. I very very lightly used black... making sure my puddle was more watered down so it was grey and worked the hair. I also put in the shirt, but tried to not be as detailed with it. I saved the left subjects hair for last. I took off all the liquid mask I put on there. The white high lights on the eyes really make them pop. I also put more black in the hair and going over the highlights I left so they were bright white. I did the same for the dots on the shirt. I also saved doing her eye lashes and eye brows for the end.
Over all I like what I did... given it's my very first water color portrait and it's only 5 x 7. The client is placing the painting above her poem she wrote to the lady on the right. The lady on the left took care of the lady on the right until the one on the left move... get it? lol.
Let me know if you have any questions or if I missed something. Hope this helps you out and you enjoyed it.
