"Perplexed" A Step By Step Watercolor Portrait

'Perplexed' 10" x 10"

watercolor by Crystal Cook

Sometimes I just get an itch to paint a simple portrait. I am endlessly fascinated with expression, especially the eyes. I took this photo on a cloudy day, when me and my three boys were at the park a few years ago.  While the two oldest boys ran around the playground, my youngest and I sat under a pavillion where that soft, diffused light bounced off the cement on the ground and back onto his face. 

He was about six months old, and by this point was pretty used to me taking pictures of him a million times a day. But still, he gave me this confused sort of look. Like, why in the world are we sitting in this pavillion taking yet more pictures when we could be out sliding and swinging? Hmmmm?

Suzanne Berry asked me what moves me to paint a specific subject and I guess it's almost always those two things: lighting and expression. Lighting is something I absolutely will not compromise, it has to be inspiring to me or else I will hate the painting process and then the painting will be. . . eh, *shrug*, so-so. Which is really not what I'm going for. ;)

Suzanne also asked me what my feelings are prior to the first instant I put brush to paper. I would say, excited. Because that's when I still have a perfect image in my head of what I want this painting to be, I'm still having all those giddy feelings that prompted me to start the painting in the first place. I can't wait to get started and put all those images, thoughts, and feelings into this piece.

Step One: This is the most important step. I start out by painting the lightest values in the darkest areas. In other words, I start by painting the shadows that give the face shape and contour, but I use a very light value to do it. Here I've used burnt sienna because it has a long range of values that's easy to adjust to just about any skin tone. This is where I flesh out my line drawing and start to develop a likeness.

I go over the burnt sienna with a neutral grey color that I mix out of either burnt sienna, cobalt blue, and permanent red, or brown madder, raw sienna, and french ultramarine. So basically all I'm using to make this grey are three primary colors in varying strengths and intensities. I want this to be a neutral grey, neither warm nor cool, so that later, near the end, I can push the shadows one way or the other.

Then I block in the basic shapes of the lips, eyes, and hair, paying attention to color temperature shifts.

The two main things I'm thinking about right now are: color temperature and facial structure shapes. If I get those two things right then I've already got a head start on the two most difficult aspects of painting a portrait (at least for me).

Step Two: Once I have step one done I tend to relax and play a little bit more. This is probably my favorite part, strengthening the color and picking out areas that I want to exagerate, like the blue on the sides of his nose and between his eyes. Every color that I lay down now will show through in the end (at least to some degree) so this process is a little bit like chess, thinking ahead to my next move and how that will affect the next move and on, and on to the end.

The colors I've used for the skin tones are permanent rose, raw sienna, rose madder, pthalo red, and cobalt blue.

I like to get the eyes finished right away so that I know I've got them right. It motivates me to finish it and to pay attention so I don't mess it up!

Step Three: This is pretty much the same as step two, just taken even further. I'm darkening the values and refining the shapes. I'm being extra careful to just get in and get out when I lay my brush down. So far this has been painted wet on dry paper, softening the edges with clear water just slightly after I lay the color down.

Step Four: The finish! This part takes the most time because there are all those little things that need finishing. And because I set the painting up and step back and look at it about a hundred times to see what else it needs.

I finished the hair with some lifting (I use a stiff oil painting brush that I've cut the ends off of so that it's kind of a little stub) and then some pastel for a few highlights. The colors in the hair are brown madder, burnt sienna, cobalt blue, raw sienna, and sepia.

Something that I'm thinking is important lately is to paint quickly, confidently, and then to not go back in and fuss around. Ok, ok this is something that I've always thought is important, but working with acrylics has helped me understand this even better, and has given me the practice I need to really be able to do it.

So, while there are some things I would have liked to have turned out better I restrained myself from going back in and touching it up because I knew it would lose that sparkle and freshness and I knew that I wouldn't make it any better, possibly worse.

And I like it like this anyway. That's my baby, looking perplexed at something his strange mother is doing. :) I hope you guys aren't getting tired of seeing his portrait, because I'm not going to be stopping anytime soon.

That's my portrait painting process in a nutshell. Hope you liked it. :) 

Huzzah!! 

Failure, New Work in Progress, and Link Love

15 x 20 watercolor - untitled (for now)

This has been a pretty unproductive week for me as far as artwork goes. I started a painting last week that I planned on finishing Wednesday, but it just didn't work. I don't know what it was that I didn't like about it, but I just had this feeling that it was a failure.

This was Discouraging. With a capital D. 

Ah well, life goes on. There's always next time right?

So I put it aside and started in on this one of my oldest son doing his newfound favorite thing. Archery. I think there are few things as satisfying to a parent than seeing your child passionate about something and then work hard at it. 

And he is WAY excited to see the finished painting. He thinks it's going to be cool. Which makes me cool by association. I like that my kids are still young enough to think that their Mom is cool because she paints pictures of them being Robin Hood, or because I know all the words to the Despicable Me theme song, or because I say things like "chillax."

What? It's a word. . . kinda.

And while I was painting my "failure-of-the-week" I had a little company. Look at my sweet girl all settled down and behaving at my feet. (This is kind of a rare occurence, she is a pretty bouncy dog)

Meet Heart, our one year old Giant Schnauzer.

It's nice to have painting company. Especially when they stay silent while you're ranting about the giant blunder you just made on your latest work of art. 

And I thought it might be fun to post links to blogs or sites that I've seen throughout the week with work that inspired me or spoke to me in some way. So, here ya go. You'll for sure want to check these out. Trust me.

The Twirling Dragon Kim Kincaid posted an incredibly lovely sketch of a dog that I just fell in love with. It's a gorgeous and strong drawing.

Suzanne Berry posted this stunning portrait. I pretty much love everything about it, the palette, her expression, the way her dark hair contrasts with her fair skin. I could go on. It is beautiful.

Carrie Waller painted this stunning still life. SO much dramatic lighting and rich, deep colors. I could just die. It's gorgeous!

Sandra from Sandraws posted this lively and fresh sketch that is fabulous, but I also really admire Sandra's courage. Read her post, you'll see why. :)

Prabal Mallick painted this gorgeous piece that really struck me with the variety of neutral greys contrasted with those few, well chosen, bright spots of color. Beautiful!

I plan on doing this 'Link Love' type of post once a week, so I may just be featuring you next! :)

Well, I think I've rambled enough for one day, have a great weekend everyone!

UPCOMING WORK UPDATE: I know, I know I said I was done. But I forgot one thing. I promised you a landscape and a landscape you shall have! I think I'm done staring at it and wondering what the heck I'm going to do. Next week you will see the first stage!

And the horse drawing I posted on Tuesday is all set for an acrylic painting. But I may do a watercolor one too. It would be cool to see her in two different styles. Thanks so much for all your feedback!

Okay, now I'm really going.

Promise.

How I Choose What to Paint

"Here Be Dragons" detail, work in progress

watercolor 15 x 20

     I'm going to have a series of posts that show all the steps from first wash to finished piece. This is one I've had sketched out and the paper has been stretched and it's been sitting ready for me to start. I just realized that I have one week to finish this, for the UWS spring show, so I plan to post on it every day to show where I'm at. I will be having a lot of late nights :) I got a call from a local art organization the other day asking if I would come to one of their meetings and demonstrate my process for creating a watercolor portrait, so this is kind of a practice run for that. 

     When I'm ready to start a new painting I look through my favorite photos I've set aside for the specific purpose of painting them one day. When I choose a photo to work from the first thing I consider is the lighting. I am drawn to strong dramatic lighting, preferably outdoors and this photo had that. I also look for an emotional connection. Which is usually either the expression of the subject, interaction with someone, or just engaged in an activity. Then I think of what I'm trying to get across, which usually involves coming up with a title. Here the boy is looking at a book about dragons. He's my first son and I thought of that saying "Here be dragons" they used to put on old maps to mark uncharted territory. And I thought that's how raising a child is for me, uncharted territory, somewhere you've never been before. But full of beauty and adventure. That's the message I'm trying to get across. Sometimes I like to have the message be not so straight forward. I want to give my viewers something to think about, other than a pretty picture to look at. Sometimes, not all the time.

     So here are the steps for this painting so far:

1. Find suitable reference material. Looking for an emotional connection, good lighting and interesting subject.
2. Make an accurate drawing (this is crucial in portraiture, you can be expressive and abstract all you want but if you don't have a likeness, it's not going to be a successfull portrait.)
3. Lay down the first washes, establishing the base of the skin tones and creating a map to follow so I know I have a likeness. I so far have 2 layers of color on this painting. I usually have at least 15 sometimes more. 

     That's how I start a painting. I don't always follow this process, but most of the time I do. And when I do I tend to be more successful. Right now, I'm happy with where this painting is. I think it's going to work out well. Forgive the dark photo, I can't seem to get that right lately.

     And, later I will be handing out some blog awards I've gotten lately! Yay for all the bloggers out there! Comments as always are welcome, I love to hear them :)