Watercolor Class Week 3: Portraits

Our teacher likes to paint portraits, so we painted portraits today.

She first gave a lesson on creating skin tones. The basic recipe is this: a lot of cad yellow, a little cad red, a spot of cobalt (or ultramarine) and varying amounts of water.

Sometimes a bit of crimson for very pale/pinkish people or a bit of purple for darker people.

She strongly urged us not to try to paint anyone we know and love on our first attempt, so I pulled this Spanish chef out of magazine.

My husband thinks he looks a bit like Dominic West.

Some of the ladies flat out refused to try painting a portrait. They like landscapes. So that’s what they will paint, because retired ladies do what they want! I fully support this.

The teacher also introduced us to a truly amazing watercolor portrait artist named Ali Cavanaugh. Holy shit, this woman is talented.

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