Stephanie Butler Watercolour Portrait Demo 4th August 2016
Last Thursday the club arranged a demonstration by Stephanie, using watercolour for portraiture, which was very well attended. Stephanie advises using a palette of 6-7 basic colours, listed below:
Aureolin, permanent rose, cerulean, cobalt, ultramarine, burnt sienna, permanent rose.
Stephanie starts with a very faint drawing of the subject. First, put masking fluid on the eye highlights, using a straight paperclip. Using a mop brush, wash the basic shadow areas with water. Then mix one of the blues with permanent rose for a mauve and drop randomly in the wet shaded areas. On the light side of the face, mix aureolin yellow and permanent rose for flesh tones. Only paint as much as you can control. Eyes will get the most work, so vary tones by using a darker mauve for the pupils and eye edges. Remove the masking fluid and soften the eye whites.
Dark skin subjects: mix burnt sienna with permanent rose for skin tones, and use shades of mauve for shaded areas. Use violet rose for a stronger mouth colour. Blend hair with the background colour to unify the image.
Stephanie brought a delightful selection of cards and prints for sale, and there is a video of her painting on YouTube, for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AroSL73Ks5o
Some tips:
To make black, mix indigo and cadmium red.
Washes: don’t look for the wet parts, just drop the paint in.
Hair: don’t try and copy each hair, use lowlights.
Paper clip: good for hairs and whiskers.
Preferred Materials:
Artists paper 300 grams. Fabiano
Winsor & Newton Artist’s grade water colours
Rosemary & Co: No 12 Da Vinci mop brush and rigger