Today is the first day in the apocalypse, and our assignment today was portrait studies using whatever medium we want. I wanted to try getting a hand on color, so I used watercolor. I don’t have a model at the moment since my mom is at work and my brother is taking his Zoom classes, so I decided to use a photo of my mom on my phone.
I first sketched out the face. Then I tried adding the larger areas of shadow in a cool color. Up to this point was fine, but then I made the mistake of not waiting long enough for the paint to dry. All the colors began to mix. Using a wet sponge, I fixed up a lot of the spots, but everything took a lot longer than it should have.
After I got control over the mess, I went back in to do the details for the eyes and lips.
Next time, I might try waiting longer between layers or using more absorbent paper. Also, before jumping straight into color, I might try to do some monochrome portrait studies again.
I love the watercolor, you did a really great job creating dimension and tone. I also think you did a really great job with the eyes. You mentioned this in your post, but waiting for the water to fully dry will help with the really dark colors from bleeding as much. I really like this though and I hope you post more watercolor in the coming weeks!!
I love how you used water color. There also seems to be great lightness in this piece. I am impressed by your shading, especially with water color. Maybe there is opportunity in widening the neck and t-shirt.
I really like your use of watercolor! It feels very effortless yet still adds dimension to the figure. Maybe try adding some sort of background even if it is just a wash of color.
I love your use of watercolor! Adding different layers of color really gives a sense of dimension to your drawing. I also love that you didn’t add color to certain places in order to emphasize highlights. It’s interesting that you drew your figure coming in at an angle instead of just vertical.