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

Ref 992 Watercolor; Zooming in on the use of photographs

             "Friendship is not a big thing; it´s a million Little things"

 

Photography is asubjective médium, The camera´s eye and the human´s eye do not see reality the same way.- Some painters reject the camera, saying it is a hindrence to their creativity, others regards the camera as a valuable reference tool.

I´m making paintings from photographs, altough I want my work to give the illusion of great accuracy, the painting is always quite different from the photograph refference, simplifying the work by removing details, like clothing, patterns or blemishes and créate just a few textures clarifying the piece by making lines and forms more pronounced, removing out of focus fuzziness and add detail where it may be washed I want the viewer to imagine that there is more happening outside the frame but focusing in a still time fraction of it

Ref 991 Pastel /.-  Creating unstatic figures

Loose lines gives the figure a vigorous feeling, the loose scribled marks enliven flat areas

Ref 990 Blotting Watercolor

This is the result of this process: (over cold press paper)

                       "Happines has been occasionally to blow bubbles"

I know three easy ways to lift out color;
With a clean moist brush
Scrub out color with a stiff brush
Bkot up color with a tissue

I did for this particular painting  mainly the last way, is an easy way to lighten the value of an área just painted, how much watercolor is lifted depends in how wet or damp your wash is or the amount of pressure applied with your tissue
Take a dry tissue and crumple it in your hand, this break up the sitifness, but if you are looking for texture, crumple it more, if the tissue is also wet can lighten even more

Ref 989.- Mixed media.- Watercolor and color pencil

Colored pencil can be a useful addition to other media, adding texture as well as be using to define and clarify a drawing previously worked, you might try a different  methods such as I´m working here, the eyes are the main part and focus attention so as I did time ago with the raven in wich I focus the attention into the eye with watercolor pencil and colored pencil, this time I´m doing just with colored pencil.- Both colored pencil and graphite lines have been used playing and important role that otherwise soft-focus watercolor rendering
This painting has been worked it out over hot press paper

                       "The parrot of the Clown"

Ref 988  Watercolor Lifting out painting dragging it out

Lifting out method; laying a loose wash in determined wet área and lifting out paint by pressing with a paper towel, different amounts of color can be removed by variying the pressure; finally add touch of definition to the foreground working wet on dry

 
        "The words, gone with the wind, but the painting experience will remain"

       
           

 

Ref 987;.- Watercolor; Pouring paint in most of the process

This is the result of my particular process;

"Evanescence on stage singing IMAGINARY"

           ~ In my field of paper flooowers
                    and candy clouds of lullaaaaaby
                           I lie inside myself for hooours
                               and watch my purple sky fly over meeee.........~

The following painting is one of my first pouring painting try, onto wet paper, manipulating it slightly and allowing it to dry, then go back into the painting to finish it into an image you want to.
I start by selectively wet the paper according my sketch while the paper is drying to a light sheen, I select the tubes of watercolor paint I wish to use.  Generally using two or three colors is enough, Choose colors you love, keeping in mind what they do when they mix together. (i.e., mixing complementary colors usually creates mud)
In a small cup I mix about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch squirt of paint directly from the tuve. Then add water.  I squirt it in with a spray bottle, a little at a time.  You want the paint to be fluid, but not watery...like milk or cream.
I mix all of the paint cups before pouring.  So, if the paper has become a bit dry (lost it's sheen), I may mist it lightly with my fine mister bottle, then begin the pouring process.
As you begin the pour, you must be thinking about design principles.  Often the cruciform is the best pattern.  Some people pour with a subject in mind. If you move your hand while pouring, you can get the paint to move out into a line and fill the page more easily.
I usually use all the paint from each cup.  I choose the darkest color first, adding the lighter ones on top.  Doesn't always work that way, depending on the pigment.  You have to experiment.
As I add the next colors, I am following the first pattern laid down by the first color. Overlapping some, but mostly keeping them close to one another
To FINISH you simply allow the images to appear to you.  Turn the paper around to look from different directions (maybe you poured it horizontally, but it makes a really lovely vertical).  Let the piece speak to you to see what it wants to be.  If you use more paint, USUALLY it is advisable to stick with the same colors you used to pour, not to introduce more colors,
I completely with a few brush lines to indicate and represent what I intended to reflect, this painting is not 100% pouring paint I had to raise paint and define forms but I guess 70% was made with pouring intent

Bonus Painting
Ref 986 I was trying to mix opaque and transparent painting over light colored paper this particular experiment didn´t work at all but anyway here is the result

                                                 "The mad woman is mad again"