Challenge 3 - Watercolour Portrait

[Susan Harrison-Tustain]

Hi Diane
Welcome! Lovely to have you aboard!

Your painting is really lovely. The eyes are gorgeous!

I agree with the other comments. One of the things I find I am often suggesting is that we need to keep our lines (features) softer. Take a l look at eyes as well as mouths. Look in the mirror and notice how our mouths have a lovely soft uneven edge. Lipstick will give a more sharp edge. But a natural mouth edge is soft and blurred. The more soft you make it - the softer the personality will seem. The eyes are similar. When we want to paint a face that has make up - we make the eyes and the mouth less soft - more defined. But in the case of natural eyes - and especially those of a baby - we make them a little less defined.

Someone may have suggested this previously - but if you want to reshape Imogen's left shoulder - then simply go darker or change the colour of your background. Of course avoiding the shoulder. Then you would need to soften the edge of course.

I learned a great lesson some time ago when I painted a wooden deck. I hadnt created enough colour underneath before I applied my Paynes Grey Bluish. So the deck looked raw and out of keeping of the rest of the painting. I simply layed in a wash of one of the staining colors such as Thalo Blue. It lifted the color beautifully. BUT if I were to do it now - I would begin with a wash of Aureolin over my raw PGB wash that dissatisfied me - as this yellow would give substance to the deck. THEN I would lay in my PGB. I might find it could look a little green if my yellow was a little too strong.

If this were the case in your painting - what color wash would you use next to soften the effect of green just a little?

I am sure you have guessed it - I would use a touch of Alizarin Crimson. Or maybe Scarlet Red. Red will dull the green and if you used just a small amount - it wouldnt grey it off too much. Experiment. Try a wash or two on your background until you get the colour you want. But do a test on scrap paper first.

Your painting is lovely Diane.
Well done!

I am sure you will love the forum. It is a great community of very helpful and caring artists.

Susan

[Susan Harrison-Tustain]

Hello Maylon

The final changes look fabulous! The fine-tuning stages are so important and make all the difference in the world dont they! So much to learn from these stages. You must be so pleased with this gorgeous and evocative painting! The wonderful thing is that everyone can continue to learn from these challenges too. Thank you all for your participation and comments. I love the notion that this will be a brilliant resource for many years to come. I look forward to seeing you all in future challenges!

Doris is a wonderful teacher and isnt she doing so well with the rose study. I am thrilled to see so many of you participating. Your roses are superb!

Happy painting everyone!
Susan

[Susan Harrison-Tustain]

Hi again Diane
If you would like a high resolution image - just email us through the contact form on my website. It is a beautiful photograph - not that I am biased of course!

Cheers Susan

[Maylon]

Hi Susan Thanks for the comment, I was pleased with the out come. Thanks to you . I am learning more and more that the fine tuning and knowing when the painting is actually finished is one of the hardest things. I am going to do one of my own grandson, soon, hope I can come even close to that. I personally will be reading these pages over and over again, so it is a very valuable tool for anyone wanting to do a portrait.

I agree that photo of Imogen was amazing, getting that quality of photo is not easy at all. The one of my grandson has much more light in it, so it might be harder to read, but I am going to give it a go anyway.
Maylon

[dianecty]

Susan, thank you for the tips and suggestions!  I'm glad you liked the eyes.  I will try to contact you as you suggested to get the high resolution picture of cute Imogen.

Thanks again!

Diane

[dianecty]

Hi everyone!  I used the same picture and everything and of course, my second Imogen came out totally different from my first!  The picture does not show the left shoulder for some reason but she does have one.  It is an overworked painting, especially the nose and the right eye but it is not so obvious in the right eye.  I actually scraped off some paper by accident and so I didn't want to touch it anymore.  After I scanned this painting, I softened and lines of the mouth and the left eye.  I so wanted this to look like the real Imogen but I was no successful.  It does look like a baby though.

Should I go through and make the background dark? 

Diane

[marylka]

Hi Diane,
You have certainly captured the look of Imogene lovely and soft, it does look a baby.It is up to you with the b/g  ,I kept mine light I wanted a gentle feel to it I felt that it complemented my painting, you are doing well.
Marylka

[Renee]

Sometimes the computer uploads don't pick up every detail. Thats OK. This paint is lovely. Gorgeous eyes so baby soft and tender. Love it!

[Maylon]

Gorgeous Dianne, the likeness is very good as well
Maylon

[Kathy B.]

Simply Beautiful Diane !
Kathy