Step by Step Portraits
5 Hair is almost always painted wet into wet. Wet the hair and start with the highlights. For example, a brown haired
person would start with Quinacridone gold, then Quinacridone burnt orange and the QBO mixed with cobalt
1 Using a permanent pen on a transparency, draw your for the dark highlights. A blond haired person would start with Winsor yellow, then Quinacridone gold and then
subject and the shapes. When you go to trace your Quinacridone gold mixed with permanent magenta for the darks. Have a ½ inch flat brush ready to light the highlights
drawing on the watecolor paper with pencil make sure from the hair while it is still wet.
6
that the head is not in reverse! Reference your photograph to
be sure. Eye are best if the dark centers are painted in first and allowed to dry. Then a layer of the eye color is added. The
2
final trick is to snap out a small highlight with a razor to catch the white light bouncing on the eye.
Draw subject on 300# Arches Hot Press paper using
7
an HB pencil on a quarter sheet (11”x15”) size paper.
Lips and cheeks often need more color. Simply add the color on the dry paper and have your brush clean and ready
Be sure you are on the front of the paper. Tape to a
to soften the edges.
support board. Study the shapes and shadows and draw in
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lines. Keep the head size to about 7” from the chin to the
The background should
top of the head. A good equation for enlarging your photo is
complement the subject.
to measure the head, let’s say it’s 3 inches, then take 7 (what
Plan to add darks against
you want it to be) divided by 3 (what it is) and you get a 2.34
the lights and lights against the
or a 234% enlargement.
darks.
3 Prepare a mother wash of skin tone. Colors I like
for a Caucasian person are New Gamboges or
Aureolin yellow or raw sienna for the yellow choice.
Quinacridone coral or permanent rose for the red choice.
9 The final darks are the
“crevice darks”. These are
the darks in the eyes, the
lip line, the corners of the lip,
Mix a red and yellow into an orange tone. Wet the paper
the nose holes, etc. QBO and
and tone all the skin areas with this skin tone, including the
cobalt blue are a perfect crevice
eyes and teeth. Add more yellow on the sun side and more
dark. When dry, these colors
red on the shadow side. Use synthetic brushes to lift out
will lift easily with a stiff brush
the color. Lift out color, using the thirsty brush technique,
if too dark.
on areas that need to be white. Continue to lift out until the
paper remains stable. Add warm colors in the background
on the sun side and cool colors on the shadow side. Allow to
dry.
4 Mix a shadow color that is 40 % darker than your skin
tone. This shadow color will identify all the shadows.
Edge control is very important. I like burnt sienna or
quinacridone burnt orange mixed with Cadmium Red-Light.
This mixture will be used to make the shadows. The color is
applied to dry paper. Select only a small area or shadow, like
one eye. Add the color and then immediately wash out your
brush, take out most of the moisture and keeping the brush
at right angles, soften the areas that are lost edges. When
you identify a crisp edge, keep that edge crisp. Continue
until all the shadows have been identified. You may go over
shadow areas that need a second coat to make them darker.
Charge in additional color if you feel it needs it. Sometimes
I add red in a cheek or cobalt blue in the eye shadow on the
shadow side of the head.
Karlyn’s Kits • © 2011 Karlyn Holman • No lesson materials may be reproduced without permission. No images may be entered in shows. Finished painting may be sold and reproduced.
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