Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

I always get asked how to get started painting portraits in watercolors. Easy! Grab a tube of yellow, red and blue, some water, a brush, and good paper. As you move along in the painting process you will learn more about chroma, transparency, granulation, staining properties and such. Right now, we will worry about laying down color and not making it into mud in the process. For this painting, I am using my Strathmore watercolor journal 400 series. I really like the fact that this journal is hardcover but I wish it would lay flat when you open it and get ready to paint. Step 1 - Working in ink only, I work up a quick line drawing to act as a roadmap to my painting. Be confident in your work and don't fear mistakes.  Step 2 - painting with a limited palette. This lady is of European descent so I decided to lighten up my triad by choosing gamboge nova (Holbien), cobalt blue (Cotman), Permanent Alizarin Crimson (Holbien), this painting I also added Veridian green and burnt sie

This painting practically painted its self. Using a value study as an underpainting to your watercolor is an easy way to paint any subject. This portrait used water-soluble markers to apply washes of color. by using color left on your water pen you can bounce some softer transitions this is also another way to control your hard and soft edges in a painting.  After applying the first washes of darks I went back in with a few washes of color to bring this lady to life. The best part is that the shading was already taken care of for you. I hope you take this opportunity to practice a variety of painting techniques. Hope you enjoy. Merry Christmas everyone.

One of my students have asked me to post the demo that I did for a workshop on portraits from last week. This is a 2 hour painting (including dry time) using a limited pallette of quin gold, aliz crimson, Ultramarine blue, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber.  Stage 1: Mask out any highlights or if you are really confident you can paint around them. Due to the small size of this little man I masked. Stage 2 Sunshine : Wet your paper into the hairline, background, even the whites of the eyes. Wait until the sheen is gone from the paper and start dropping in your mid mix of quin gold. I love this color for 2 reasons. 1 it lifts easy, which comes in handy when laying down your road map  and 2 it adds your sunshine.   DRY Stage 3 I added a little BS and BU just to place a few darks in the eyes and hair. DRY Then mix up a light mix of aliz crimson. This is a high power, staining color and should be used with care. It is way easier to add color then to take it away. Wet his little face again a