Caroline demonstrated how to use and get the most out of watercolour pencils.
She picked quite a colourful portrait of an older lady. Looking carefully she decided which colour pencils were needed for the face, red being a strong colour and yellow a weaker one. Starting with the dark areas, she began to ‘layer’ the colours red green and yellow ochre. When the water was added the colours blended together. She said to avoid using white as the luminosity would disappear. it could give a chalky look
For the nose, a pale yellow with a peach on top was used. The highlights as with all watercolour are the white paper areas which are kept clean to give the brightness.
Purple and browns were added to the really dark areas trying to get as much pigment on as possible. Hatching or crisscrossing will disappear once water is brushed on. Warm reds over the purple helps to build up the picture. She put pinks over brown. The cheeks were built up with yellow, orange and red.
The Lips were red with purple darker areas. These needed plenty of pigment as they are the focal point. She put lighter red for the bottom lip.
The glasses should be thought of as part of the face with the eyes within them. Carefully look for the white areas of the eyes and add the pupil. She painted green around the eye then added red to warm it up. Brown, yellow and black was used to really emphasise the eye. Keep checking the tonal values. The hair was brown and dark purple with added brown to the shadows.
It’s a good idea to squint so you can really see which areas need more tonal value.
Make sure everywhere is dark as you want before adding water. Staring with the lips. use the brush as if you were painting very gentle strokes. It was wonderful to see the colours merge as the water activates them. If something is wrong, it is still possible to wipe the area clean as with water colour paints, but the area must be wet. Try to avoid re using the pencils to give extra colour once the water has been used as many papers will loose their surface. You might get away with small amounts of colour adjustments.
It was great fun to do!
