Suzanna Winton: Step by Step Watercolor Portraits

A Clip from Suzanna's DVD, Step by Step Watercolor Portraits

Now a lot of time you'll see a very strong color around the hairline. This time I'm going to mix scarlet lake and aqua together and put that right on the hairline there. And again I'm going to soften this color on this side.
Now I also see that strong color in here. Let me put a little over here.
Just trying to intensify my colors, it will allow me to lay in my features.
And also I see on this side of the nose is darker than this side. I need to get that in there so I can separate her nose from her cheek area. This is very important and helps it look more 3 dimensional.
There's a little bit of background here that I can put in now. Little background color here next to her head and I'm just going in with a little Windsor Newton yellow and the manganese blue there. It's very important to establish your lights and your darks. Which side of her nose is darker. Is it darker on her nose side or the cheek side. In this case it's darker on the cheek side. Is this darker or is this darker. If you can get your darks in and know where your edges are light and dark you're going to get a stronger, nicer painting.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• painting
• art instruction