My Process: Part Seven

I further add value to Molly's hair - keeping in mind the curls and undulations. I deepen the hair color by adding a little more Winsor blue at a time. When I had it all laid in, I looked at the hair and thought that a unifying wash would help decrease the contrast and pull the look of her hair together more. Because at that point, it was very high contrast and her hair looked "piecy." When I put the final wash down, I was also able to soften the blends between the values, which helped quite a bit. I then repeated the steps I used on Molly's face when I painted Jacob's. His was much easier since his face is much smaller in the composition. Before I called it a night, I put a Burnt Sienna wash as a highlight color for Jacob's hair. Funny enough, he and my wife thought it strange for him to be a redhead. We're in the home stretch!

My Process: Part Six

At this stage, I have added more detail to the mouth. What I find tricky about mouths, even to this day, is that teeth are rarely pure white. (Same with the whites of the eyes). So I had the carefully use light, cool washes to build up the values between the teeth, and the give them some tint. Then, using the same mix I used to do the initial wash for the mouth, I built up the values there – adding Winsor blue to deepen the color. I then moved on to the hair. One of the biggest lessons I learned in art school, was that you should always treat hair as a single form – not to consider it strand by strand. I laid in a light wet-in-wet wash of Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre to establish the highlight color. Then I made a mix of Burnt Sienna and Winsor Blue to start building the values – I laid in an initial wet-to-dry application to establish highlights in the hair. Molly's hair is so curly, so there were a lot of undulations. Next time: Her hair should be done and on to Jacob!

My Process: Part Five

I have begun to work on the details on Molly's face. With some more glazes, I deepen the darks and shadows and start to define the eyes and nose. I try to cool the colors around the eyes by adding a little more Windsor blue to the skin mix. For the eyes, I eye some cool color to the "whites" to define them. Then I work on the irises. I still need to work on this part, as I think eyes are the most important aspect of a portrait. I've established a basic look – leaving the edges dark and lightening as the color goes to the center. Before I called it quits for the night, I laid in some Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Sienna in the mouth area. This will be my base/underpainting for the mouth. Until next time...

My Process: Part Four

I managed to warm up Jacob's face a little more today with a light wash of Alizarin Crimson. Then I laid similar washes for Molly's face. This area takes up almost half of the composition. So I worked with a bigger brush and worked wet-into-wet a section at a time. To avoid the demarkation lines left by watercolor as it dries next to a dry area, I wet more than what I was going to paint. Again, I kept the blue tints near her eyes and temples and added red to the cheeks, chin and nose. Once everything totally dries, I will begin adding the darks and the details of the face. (I'm resisting the use of a hair drier!!)

My Process: Part Three

At this point, I started laying washes down for the skin. I start with a yellow underpainting – establishing values and intended to give the overall color a warm tone.



Once that wash dries completely, I started working on Jacob's face. I mix a skin tone of Aurelean yellow, Alizarin Crimson and a touch of Windsor Blue. Then I lay that color in as a wash – lifting highlights out as it dries. After that dries completely, I add more value by putting in another wash – this time, adding more blue around the eyes and temples and adding more red for the cheeks and chin.



At this point, I think Jake is a bit too "gold", so I am going to let this dry and "warm" it up a little more tomorrow.

My Process: Part Two

When I paint, I will typically use frisket to mask the foreground while I lay in washes for the background. This time, I decided not to use frisket. To keep the color out of the foreground image, I used a wet-into-wet technique. First, I laid down a wash of clean water in the area I was going to paint only. Then I applied paint before the water dried. Some of the fun of wet-into-wet is watching the colors mingle on the paper. Sometimes, you can even help the process along and tilt the paper to affect the direction of the pigment. I knew I wanted the background to be just color and I wanted it to be predominantly cool. So I used a lot of Windsor blue. To make sure I didn't reactivate any of the pigment I put down on subsequent washes, I waited for each wash to dry completely before applying the new one. This method of layering color over the other is called glazing. So after the the first washes of yellow and blue dried, I went over everything with another wash of blue.



Next step, I begin working on the skin tones!

My Process: Part One

I thought I'd try something I'd never done before: I'm going to document my process as I am working on a painting. I realized that I do not have any "in progress" images of any of my work. Not to mention, this should keep me on a schedule to complete this portrait. So, to start, what I am working on is a portrait of my two children. I took a number of pictures of them, as well as sifted through numerous other ones, to find what I wanted to use. I ended up using these two photos:



I thought about explaining why I picked these particular ones, but I think I would like the final painting to speak for itself. If anyone knows my kids, I hope they can see my reasoning. Put simply, I found images that not only reflected their personalities, but also their relationship as brother and sister. From these photos, I joined them in Photoshop to work on cropping and composition:



I didn't want all the stuff in the background to take away from the composition, so I blurred it. Next, I printed it out and began a sketch:



After much fine tuning, I scan the drawing and enlarge it on the computer. Then I print it out in "tiles" and piece it all together. This portrait is larger than most of my work – about 20" x 15". Looks like it's time to break out the big brushes!



Next, I get my watercolor board and transfer the printout to the board using graphite paper. I used to use carbon paper, but that stuff's pretty permanent. The graphite paper's like using light pencil – bold enough to see, and easy to erase and lift later.



And here's where I stand now: A board that is masked on the edges with painter's tape and the drawing enlarged and transferred. Next step: the beginning washes!!