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Paper: Canson 140lb, cold press

Pigments: Ultramarine Blue, Raw Sienna, Quinacridone Red, Cadmium Yellow, Burt Sienna.

I went to a friends studio to work from a model.  I decided to focus on the portrait and see how I could handle the skin tones.  I took the first block of time to do the pencil drawing and mark the major plane changes.  I laid in the background wash right before the break and it was nice and dry when I went back in.  This time  I used a limited palette of quinacridone red, raw sienna, and ultramarine blue to paint all of the skin tones.  I washed the entire face with the sienna, quiacridone mixture and varied the amount of red or yellow on the light side of the face.  Once that was mostly dry I covered the shadows with ultramarine blue and then charged the wash with red and yellow.  The charging was splotchy in places and I had to work over those later with clean water to smooth the edges.  Once the large value masses were in I glazed spots of color that I thought would enhance the form.  This was tough and I probably overworked it but by pushing the medium beyond its boundaries I can see (hopefully) where to cut off in the future.  What I do not want to do is approach this timidly, because then I will never realize the potential of watercolor.  All and all this was a good learning day.

What I learned,

The limited palette of quinacridone red, raw sienna, and ultramarine blue is a great combination for various skin tones.  I read about this in Mary Whytes book, Painting Portraits and Figures in Watercolor.  If you are not familiar with her work, she is an amazing watercolor artist.  Here is her website. Mary Whyte