Another young painter

Continuing the theme of young painters, I hosted another budding artist over the weekend. Kadie, my 4-year-old niece, worked on an abstract, with an overriding need to cover every inch of white paper with paint. She had an explanation for all the painting's elements, but I admit, she lost me after a bit.

She also completed a crayon portrait, which at times alternated to a landscape, depending on what story she wanted to illustrate. Eyes became ocean, hair shifted to grass.

Isn't art the greatest means to ultimate creativity? Make it whatever you want, as long as it fulfills you as its creator. Paint with a child for a while, and your perception of art will change.

Cleaning up

The tape's off; the staples attaching the paper to the board have been removed, and I've trimmed the excess edges.

This is my first watercolor portrait. I've had a few figures in other paintings, but this is the first dedicated attempt I've made in this genre.

A word on the flesh tones. I heavily depended on MaimeriBlu's Dragon's Blood (Semitransparent, using a mixture of PBr7 andPR209). In my previous figure attempts, I had great difficulty working with flesh tones, particularly those tending toward the fair and rosy. Using W&N Permanent Rose (PV19) and Permanent Alizarin Crimson (PR206) in mixtures with Yellow Ochre (PY43), Raw Sienna (PY 42, PR 101), and a host of other yellows, never produced the look I wanted. The reds were always too strident.

By chance I had a trial 6-tube box of MaimeriBlu paints which included Dragon's Blood. It's perfect. It's bright, but not garish. It rewets beautifully (which can be said for nearly all MaimeriBlu paints), and plays well with others. The flesh tones in Kadie are a mixture of Dragon's blood, W&N Raw Sienna, and W&N Cobalt Blue (PB28).

Kadie finished

I think she's done. I'm going to pull off the tape and remove the paper from the board. If I get industrious, I'll post a picture of her with clean edges, etc.

Generally, I'm pleased. I've never done a watercolor portrait before (not many pencil portraits in my past, either). I think it pops with color and is not wishy-washy. I wanted to avoid a soft, midvalue painting that wouldn't stand up to perusal from across a room.

Kadie nearly finished

Almost there. I'm still fussing with the foreground hand, and trying to pick out additional enhancements in her hair, etc.

Kadie still developing

I removed the masking fluid from her hair, and begin to soften some of those hard edges, as well as add some warmer hues to some of the shadows within her hair.

I also began the first washes over her hand, and added a little more definition to her mouth and teeth.

With the addition of the shirt striping I think the strong visual elements are beginning to balance one another.

Kadie continues

See, now with the darker shadows developing under her chin and within her face, the reds feel more balanced. I used a lot of drybrushing on her face to smoothly blend the facial features. With children, it's very easy to make them look unnaturally older by creating harder edged lines in the face.

The addition of the green sunglasses also complements the strong reds and balances the color elements.

Here it looks like she's had a sunburn, but I wanted to warm up her face, particularly her cheeks, before adding the cooler shadow elements.


The blue in her hair is actually masking fluid. I wanted to reserve some of the highlights and wispy edges of her hair.

Painting begins

These are early steps in the painting. Forgive me for the distortion caused by my point and shoot digital camera. Some of the photos have a fisheye distortion, and all are lit poorly.

I decided to establish the darkest values first, a reverse of my normal workflow, but I wanted the image to really pop rather than fail as a wishy-washy watercolor. Getting the darks in first helped keep me aware of strong values.