Painting 33

Ref 993.- Watercolor.- Portrait with a limited palette

We all know painting a portrait is a challenge, but the idea of painting a portrait in watercolor can be downright intimidating. Watercolor is notorious for being unforgiving,

                                                 "photograph handmade by the uncle"

I did this portrait with basically 3 colors cerulean blue, raw umber and violet
When you’re first taught to paint with a limited palette, you’re usually given three primary colors—red, yellow and blue. Limiting yourself to just a few colors teaches you how to mix colors correctly, see value and temperature, and encourages thought and planning in your color choices.
You’ll also notice that colors in a limited palette can still be warmer or cooler in relation to other colors. Since the eye adjusts to what it looks at, it doesn’t feel as though any colors are missing. There are cool and warm reds, cool and warm yellows and so on.
First Drawing: I drew this piece in pencil . I always work from the general to the specific; from the flat/graphic shapes to dimensional forms. Accuracy of proportion and anatomical forms serves as the groundwork for the subtler, interesting problems associated with the sitter’s character and expression.
Underpainting: Once the drawing was established on the paper, I blocked in the general color scheme of the entire picture. At this stage I worked relatively quickly, going from dark to light and using fairly thin paint—you could also call this an “underwash.” My goal was to make a first statement in value and strat from there to indicate main features