Watercolor Portraits

I've done portraits in graphite, charcoal, and chalk pastels. I've painted landscapes and flowers with watercolors. But I haven't done portraits in watercolor before, so I tried it out for the first time this past week! I also usually do my portraits using photographs as references and had only done a live portrait once or twice, so I used this as a time to practice some live portraits as well.

I had no idea how they would turn out, both with the watercolor and the live-sketching. I expected some proportions or shapes to be off, and I also wasn't sure how shading with skin tones would go since I hadn't tried it before.

For the first one, I painted my ceramics teacher as she worked on one of her projects.

I started by sketching her onto the watercolor paper, and then I erased any stray marks and lightened up some of the darker strokes so that they wouldn't show through the watercolor.

Then for the watercolors, I started by painting a base layer for her skin. I found that a mix of brown, yellow, and red worked well when spread in a light coat. Then I added some layers, with more brown, to the darker or more shadowed areas. I painted the mask with a mix of blue and green, and I used gray for the folds. Then I used black with a smaller brush for her eyes, and a mix of black and brown for her hair. I painted her apron and shirt with grays and a more orange version of the skin.

I was very pleased with how it turned out and that it looks like her! One of the hard parts was the shadows around the eye. It was hard to find the right color for the darker shade to make it look natural from the light rather than just a dark spot. I think I could have also added a little more pink to the skin in some areas to give it more warmth.

Next, I did a watercolor self-portrait using a mirror. I had drawn myself in graphite using a mirror a couple times before, so I decided to try a different angle to change things up for an extra challenge. It was more of a 3/4 view. I started with a sketch again, and I could tell from here that my perspective was a little bit off.

I started with the skin again, with the same mix of colors. I added a thicker layer of brown and red to the darker areas, such as the ear. Then I painted the glasses with a purple-ish red, and the lips with red and a little bit of orange. For the outline of the eyes and the eyelids, I used a dark brown. For the eyes themselves, I mixed blue, green, and gray. Then for the hair, I used a reddish-brown, with strokes and areas of darker brown. Down towards the bottom, the braid was a little darker, so I used more dark brown and some black.

It mostly looks like me, though the size and angle of the eye on the left is a little off, and the left side of the cheek is a slightly too round. The hair could also have been a little browner, especially at the top.

Overall, I was surprised and pleased with how these turned out and that I was able to achieve a likeness. There's a lot of room to practice and improve, both in live-sketching to get the right sizes, angles, and proportions, as well as in getting accurate colors and shadows with the watercolors. I really enjoyed these though, and I love the look of watercolor portraits, so I hope to keep trying them out and improving!