Here is the current progress on Zachary's portrait.

The first WIP (Work In Progress) was a photo; this one is a scan. The photo is weaker in color than the original and this one is a bit dark in the shadows and a bit harsh in the skin tones. We have had a scanner change in just the last few days (printer portion of our last scanner/printer died) and I am trying to learn the new software. I got so lost in it that I ended up using Melody's computer to access our old scanner to do this one. LOL. I will dig in tomorrow and try to get that new software mastered at least well enough to use it for a quick WIP scan.

For those who are intrigued with watercolor technique, the painting is done by individual layers (washes) of color straight from the tube with lots of water added to dilute it. The colors are mixed optically on the paper as opposed to in the pan. My favorite colors for fleshtones are:

reds -

** cool red: alizarin crimson. A lovely color that makes excellent washes. Use this where skintones look pinkish or purplish

** warm red: cadmium red. You have to be careful with the cadmiums because they are sedimentary in nature. The slight graininess of their textures will build up with many glazes and reduce the amount of light that bounces back off of the paper surface from under the paint. In other words - go too heavy and your painting will lose its luminosity. Use this where the skin tones lean to the true reds.

 

Shadow colors:

For the shadows of the face, I usually use glazes of ultramarine blue that is very diluted with water. You can also use burnt umber is the shadows seem to be a warmer than blue. These glazes are in addition to layers identical to the mid-tones of the face.

 

This particular painting - limitted use:

I don't generally use cadmium orange much because it is sedimentary, but I did use it some in this painting because the midtones on the side away from the sun is filled with a very warm reflected light that the cad orange was terrific in capturing. Typically I would have used Winsor yellow and alizarin crimson to get a very nice mid-saturation orange. I also used some burnt sienna. I love the warm, rich brown of burnt sienna.

 

The blue jean overalls:

The painting is at the phase where I am using just pure color glazes - Winsor blue alone. The scan shows a very intense blue at the moment. I will continue adding glazes of Winsor blue until the value is nearly there, then work to desaturate the intensity of the blue a bit by bringing in a few glazes of a compliment to blue such as burnt sienna. Dark shadows will need the addition of ultramarine blue and burnt umber becuase Winsor doesn't have a deep enough value range. I plan on bringing in a few subtle hints of purple in among the blue just to give the material a tad more 'interestingness'. The effect may not show up in a photo or scan, but will be visible when looked at directly.

 

I will post more soon on this painting and on the pencil that I am working on.