Portraits – Pencil, Watercolour Tone & Colour

So last week all my art classes were on the topic of portraits.

On Monday at The Seasons Art Class  we studied 'Figure Drawing, the construction of a body and face’. My body drawing didn’t come out as well as my face drawing. The exercise was to draw the head shape then shade it in with pencil; then draw in the eyes and use measurements to place the nose, mouth and chin. After the final step of drawing the ears and hair, I decided my face looked like Jude Law.

On Wednesday in Wendy’s  class we painted a portrait in watercolour. I always have trouble painting in watercolour, so I painted the same subject the tutor demonstrated in class. It was a good result but wasn’t as easy as Wendy makes it seem.

On Thursday in Karen’s class we did a tonal study of a person that Karen photographed. My watercolour, of course, didn’t come out half as well as Karen’s. I was happy with it, except for the eyes, which I didn’t manage to capture properly…mainly because they were in shadow.

Painting Project No. 20 from “Ways to Learn Acrylics” - Bird's nest

The second painting, project no 20 from Chapter 3 in ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson was ‘Using hatching strokes: Bird’s nest’. The assignment was to use directional brush strokes to create the illusion of form. It was very similar to project no 19 and also harder to create than it looked. After spending way too much time on the bird's nest, I decided to stop over working it. Again the example in the book was nicer than my painting... hope this doesn't become a trend.

Painting Project No. 19 from "Ways to Learn Acrylics"

After much anticipation it’s time to start Chapter 3 in "Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson. This chapter is less about acrylic painting fundamentals and more about design principles and brushstroke techniques.

Project number 19 ‘Using contour strokes: Ball of wool’ is all about how the stroke direction can make the object look three-dimensional. This wasn't as easy to accomplish as it might seem. In hindsight, the top of the ball would probably look better if it was a little lighter; for this exercise the painting in the book was nicer.

“Expressive Portraits” by Jean Pederson

After going on about getting to Chapter 3 in ‘Ways to Learn Acrylics’, it’s kinda funny that I’m switching gears and blogging about a different book. Don’t worry, later blogs will be about acrylics from Chapter 3.

Next week in all three of my art classes we are studying portraiture, so it’s the perfect time to try exercises in “Expressive Portraits” by Jean Pederson. The artist's portraits are really wonderful; they are mixed media, painterly type portraits that use vivid colours. Her book is pretty comprehensive. It explains all the things a beginning artist would need to know about drawing/painting a portrait; it also shows you the methods Jean uses. I’ve done a few exercises to try and learn more about watercolour portraits.

One exercise ‘practice wet glazing’ I did twice; on the left the portrait was painted on textured watercolour paper 300gsm 10” x 7” inches and on the right on Khadi paper 8” x 8”. It’s funny that both paintings are of the same woman but they look totally different. They aren’t perfect but it was fun to have a go and not be too precious about the results. All my art teachers say that by experimenting you learn.

Another exercise ‘build a background of rich, varied darks' isn’t completed, but I like the way it looks without all the dark colours. It certainly doesn't look as good as Jean's first step, but I'm not that accomplished... maybe someday:)

Also, there were some pretty cool YouTube watercolour portrait painting videos. Here are two awesome ones:
Lesson 16 / Painting the Portrait by Stan Miller
Watercolor step by step how to paint portrait, demo by Zimou Tan

Painting Project No. 18 from 'Ways to Learn Acrylics' - Abstract

Project number 18 ‘Layering a simple abstract design: Yellow circles’ is the last painting before Chapter 3 in ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson.

The abstract was done on mixed media paper as in painting no 15, but this time 3 layers of gesso was used to prime the paper. The gesso made the paint glide easily across the paper. Per the instructions, circles were painted first and the blue background was added after. The results left white edges where the circles met the background.

In another painting not shown I tried a light yellow background before painting the circles…it didn’t make much difference. There were still spaces between the circles and background. There were now light yellow spaces, it was hard enough drawing circles freehand so I abandoned the painting:(.

Painting Project No. 16 & 17 from 'Ways to Learn Acrylics' - Trees

With only three more till Chapter 3, I’m posting two projects from ‘Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson.

Project number 16 ‘Layering opaque over transparent: Summer tree’ was a fun exercise…gotta love trees. The first layers looked great and I almost stopped there, but the exercise was about layering so I kept going.

Project number 17 ‘Layering over an under-painting: Tree silhouette’ was fun as well and I expect to be using this technique more. I already have a bunch of ideas for it; tried a Venice silhouette but it didn’t come out well. Will try another silhouette painting soon:)).

Painting Project No. 15 from 'Ways to Learn Acrylics'

‘Light, shadow and value outdoors: Road and grass’ was project 15 in “Little Ways to Learn Acrylics: 50 small painting projects..." by Mark Daniel Nelson. The lesson was a good one, the picture, not so nice. According to Mark, "keeping relationships consistent is the key to representing convincing light and shadow patterns in your paintings". So the shade for the shadow on the grass is darker than it is on the pavement.

Because the example in the book was so unremarkable, I painted it on less expensive mixed media paper. It was surprising how nice the paper was, much better than my acrylic paper. The acrylic paper has lines that show through paintings, even when two coats of gesso are applied. The mixed media paper works well on its own, but I’m going to try it with gesso next time.