Here is the watercolorist known on flickr as bblond or Barb. Barb is a pretty woman but her reference photo seemed rather unremarkable, in terms of the lighting, so I did not know how to approach it. Since her features are fairly subtle, her complexion fair and hair blonde, I chose to add definition by drawing with a sepia ink, instead of using the fine pencil I depend on for most of my watercolors. The pen was a bit dry, and I worked on Nujabi hand made texture watercolor paper, so I got a light but distinctive line. I used the same Daniel Smith palette I’ve been enjoying lately.

The paper scans a bit gray, so I did heighten the contrast in this image, so the paper goes white.

I’m happy with the result.

Unlike doing a portrait where I generally feel I must keep features in their proper places, with a landscape like this I have freedom and, I’m finding, some fear of losing my way.

I’d like to try a more abstract version.

My paint colors are my new Daniel Smith watercolors:
Bronzite, Verdana Blue, French Ocre, Sodalite (or Lunar Violet?) and Serpentine. I used a candle for wax resist in places.

This watercolor is of a German artist who does mostly line art, known on flickr as Kai. This is as straightforward a watercolor portrait as I think I have done. Six months ago, when I started doing these, I thought that watercolor might not be a good medium for portraits. But now I feel like I’m getting the hang of it.

For this piece I worked mainly in Holbein “irodori” paints, which seem like a cross between watercolors and gouache.  I also used a rich Daniel Smith green, I believe it is green apatite.

I love British artist Pat Bell’s work.

And I’m loving doing portraits in gouache! The colors are great, and after working for so long in watercolor, gouache seems easier, more light-hearted and free.

My technique seems like a cross between watercolor and gouache technique. While I would like to try to do some work that is completely made of opaque gouache layers, what I have done here seems to work for a piece like this.

This is a portrait of Rachel Boldt, known on flickr by the words painted on her portrait.

I’m trying something entirely new to me, gouache.  And influenced by an artist and illustrator whose light-hearted illustration I’ve been admiring, Shinichi Imanaka, I decided to paint Rachel straight on.  Unlike my other portraits where I basically copy the angle of the photo, here I had to imagine Rachel turned in space, not perhaps my strongest point.  Also, inspired by Shinichi’s work, I decided to try keeping this bright, graphic and light-hearted.  It was a lot of fun to do.

I love the boldness and freshness of this approach. The comparative clunkiness of gouache compared to watercolor, actually helps me to keep this simple and graphic.