A Different Approach for Watercolor Portrait Painting

For a specific project, the process and techniques chose based on the story and feelings needed to be delivered through the painting. The subject, its angle and unique lighting contributed to the challenges. We will go through the drawing study, technique exercises and the final painting step by step:

• Drawing Study: This is a drawing study for a watercolor lesson.
• First round of wash, I started the painting with some big washes for the background and the face and everywhere, then use lifting-off technique to create the light shapes for the hair.
• After the painting is dried, I started adjustments, refining transitions and edges using lifting-off, then gradually adding new colors.
• Moving forward to adding smaller shapes and finishing the details for the focal-point area.
• I have been ignoring the eye glasses until this step. I will add the suggestions for the eye glasses. Techniques used in this task include the glazing, lifting-off and dry-scratching.

Run-time: 3 hour 1 minute. Reference image file and suggesting material list is included.