Portrait Painting in Watercolor 2019 DAI Mar-Apr Complete

Supply List for this class:

Class was held March 7, 14, 21, 28, Apr 4th. Thursdays, 10am-1pm at the Duluth Art Institute’s Lincoln Building in the West end. DuluthArtInstitute.org    The Fee was $100 ($120 non-DAI-member)

Short description:
Portrait Painting in Watercolor. This is not a class on actually drawing portraits. Rather, understanding washes, getting the drawing on the paper, mixing fresh flesh colors, doing soft transparent washes, then building up the shape of the face using thin layers of pigment.

Full Description:
I will first discuss washes and layering using charcoal.  I will demo and the students will draw practice/sample faces on sketch paper to see how layering values of charcoal is like layering washes in watercolor. (charcoal and paper provided)

Learning Flesh: Before painting begins we will play with the primary colors to learn “what color is flesh”. You probably have enough colors but please see the ‘Supply List’ linked above.  We will spread out on our pallets yellows-warm reds-cool reds and blues and make colors to match the back of your hand!

Some of you might say you can’t draw! This workshop is not about you drawing it is about you rendering a drawing with watercolor. Because this is not a drawing class I will cover ways for you to get accurate drawings from your photo references onto your WC paper and still look fresh and not stiff & lifeless! We will use some classic methods and I will introduce some newer methods. Yes, some may call these methods cheating. I understand that, you can decide. You can read two articles I wrote on getting images onto your paper on my Tips and Tricks page. 1.”Using a printer to enlarge reference photos for large paintings” and 2.”Drawing Tracing Aids”.
Now we have a drawing and some fresh colors! Let’s start painting. We will do the first washes to layout base colors (local color). We will use some thin blues and greens (skin tone complements) on the skin in the first wash! Additional washes will follow to form the face with thin layers of fresh color.

Additional topics will include: Techniques to paint hair and fabric;
discussion on distortion in photos; picking your reference images; and what makes an interesting versus boring reference (photos)?