Blue Robe - original watercolor portrait painting

The cobalt blue robe was so pretty on the model and showed off her porcelain complexion perfectly - a joy to paint her.  Watercolor is always so iffy for me - tough to put the paint down and leave it alone, so maybe it's good I didn't feel there was enough time to get everything finished.  Putting the paint down on the paper and not noodling with it is foreign to me but I worked hard to do that here - just lifting the brush and not going back. Whew!  On about 7 x 6" watercolor paper.  Thanks for stopping by!

Meant to be an Oil Pastel, but Stayed a Watercolor portrait sketch

I decided to do a loose underpainting with watercolor for an oil pastel - something I almost never do - but just decided to leave it as a watercolor after all.  It actually wasn't laziness - I really like the looseness of this little 7½ x 9" piece on Arches oil paper.  Thanks for stopping by!

More Fun with Watercolor - a watercolor portrait sketch

I came across this warm-colored piece of paper, about 6 x 8" and think it probably wasn't watercolor paper, although it's very sturdy and held up well without much buckling.  It seems to me that most watercolor paper is white, although I'm not a watercolorist so don't know for sure.  Anyway, I used it for this quick little sketch.  I painted it with colors from my cute Da Vinci pan set (below) and it has this little ring on the bottom for finger or thumb. 
Makes me feel like an experienced watercolor painter! 😄Much fun - thanks for visiting!

The Model in a Green Flowered Dress - original watercolor portrait painting

Every now and then I come across my Yupo and decide to fool around with watercolor.  I didn't do this one from life, but from a photo I took at a drawing group.  I really think I'm going to get brave enough to take my w/c stuff to the next group and see what I come up with - haven't done that in ages.  Actually, the background is a little bit whiter than the photo shows - done on 9 x 12" Yupo.  Thanks for stopping by!

Watercolor Portrait - w/c practice

Okay, here's another watercolor portrait - gotta get in there and try, ya know.  Although I do have some fairly successful w/c landscapes, this medium mostly eludes me in portrait work, even after studying with a fabulous w/c portrait painter, it's still a struggle - maybe because I do it so seldom. One should approach these challenges more than, say, once a year.  This one is 12 x 9" on cold press paper.  Thanks for stopping by!

Portrait of Sheila - watercolor portrait

It's always fun and unpredictable to paint on Yupo and this little portrait (about 10 x 8") was no exception!  Not really my thing, but watercolor is exciting to do every now and then.  My brush was actually a 'round' for oil or acrylic - kind of a no-no, I guess, but I had a good time.  I worked from an old drawing - one of my collection of thousands (okay, maybe just hundreds) - I spent a lot of time in my life attending drawing groups - hence my collection of drawings, which often have another life as a painting many years later.  I finally had to get rid of most of these drawings and just keep the photos of them on my computer.  How modern is that?!  Thanks for stopping by!

Dorie - original watercolor pencil portrait drawing

This model had the sweetest face - well, she still has it, but alas, I probably won't see her again.  I used an Inktense pencil from Derwent in black, along with pale blue Caran d'Ache and Daniel Smith watercolor sticks.  This was done on Yupo, about 9 x 7".  The casualness, or maybe I should say the accidental result, is what attracts me to the combination of watercolor pencils and Yupo paper.  Even though the drips from the watery colors don't generally go where I want them to, there's no stress because I don't feel the outcome has to be just so-so.  Maybe I should have done some work to make it more realistic - but I just didn't want to - that's the fun of it! Thanks for stopping by!

Small Sanguine Portrait - original watermedia portrait sketch

Here's a small sanguine Caran d'Ache Neocolor II drawing I did around Thanksgiving.  I painted it on Yupo - I can't even explain why I love this surface so much. It just allows you to be expressive without fearing you'll break rules - brush this way, brush that way, take a pen and go hog wild.  It doesn't really matter.  Whatever happens, it's good - and fun, too. Neocolor II is the water-soluble version of Caran d'Ache's wax crayon - with the addition of  a little water, it just blossoms.  Very satisfying to use.  This portrait is about 7 x 6".  Got to get some sleep now, getting up early for exercise class early in the morning - have to get those Fitbit steps going!  Thanks for stopping by!

Nelda in watercolor - original watercolor portrait sketch

Here's a little fooling around sketch done with watercolor on Yupo.  I may finish it later - or maybe not, and just move on to something else.  Am currently working on a watercolor nude and having lots of fun with that.  This sketch is about 10 x 8".  Thanks for looking!

The Mechanic as the Model - original watermedia portrait drawing/painting

This painting is one of those fun things that is quickly drawn with watercolor crayons (Caran d'Ache) and then with a very wet brush, just go a little crazy.  It's always great to have a live model, especially when you find a regular guy who can hold a pose.  The painting is done on Rapidograph paper for pens - which I think I've mentioned before is practically an antique - and it will wrinkle a little, since it doesn't like to get this wet, but after being weighted down for a day or so, it's perfectly fine.  Oh, and it's 12 x 9".  Thanks for dropping by.

On My Easel - watercolor portrait experiment

After I finished painting today, I decided to get out my pan watercolors and try painting from a drawing.  Not too experienced in watercolor, I ended up spilling the little pans all over the floor and didn't remember where each was supposed to go.  The reds and yellows were easy, but the darks - each time I dipped my brush in a dark, the color was a complete surprise.  Never did find cerulean, but I know it's there somewhere.  This is on 11 x 14" Yupo, which seems to be a lot like painting on gesso or white gouache in the lifting technique - although I didn't really do much lifting.  It was fun and I'm thinking of using it with my ink markers in dancer drawings.  Thanks so much for looking!