This watercolor portrait is my newest painting.  It is painted on Textured Claybord.

"Angelina"
Watercolor on Textured Claybord
size: 11"x14"

The  small woman head study was painted on 340 Lb coldpressed paper. I just wanted to try how this paper works. I painted already some flowers on this paper, but I really wanted to figure out how it works for faces and hair. It works - but I think it is not really my favorite. The surface is really rough and the colour is not so easy to lift as working on a smoother surface. I think I have better control when working on other surfaces. Size is 6x6 inch.

This black cat was painted on 140 Lb coldpressed paper.  Size is 5x7 inch.

"So many dreams"
medium: watercolor, 140 Lb coldpressed paper,
size: around 10"x12"
copyright: Doris Joa

I finally finished the Girl portrait painting.

You may remember the WIP in the previous post. Since this WIP I started 4 times over with this painting. There were areas which didn't work so as I wanted to have them.

A great help for me was to photograph stages of my working process. I then turned them in black/white photos in photoshop and compared it to my referenzphoto, which I also made black and white. This helps extremely to see the values.

This is the finished portrait of the beautiful young girl. I still had to do the necklace and also some colours on her body - that was it.

I am very pleased with this painting, it is excactly what I wanted to acchieve. Her mother was very impressed about the painting and the girl itself loves it, too! What can I ask for more?

I am also working on my Roses painting. I have worked more on the leaves and also on the roses and the whole look of the painting will change again when I add more of the background at the top and when the roses are finished. That is always an exciting moment to see the painting developing.

I am pleased with the painting as it is - but I am not so really happy. I wanted to have the leaves more light and yellow to create more warmth and sunshine there.  So I tried to wash the colours out but it was not possible. It looks good as it is but I am more angry about myself that I was not carefully enough. Another lesson learned. But I will go on and see how the painting develops and I hope it will be that what I am looking for with this Roses.

Deutsch: Das ist das fertige Portrait von dem jungen hübschen Mädchen. Zu malen hatte ich lediglich die Halskette und noch einige Hauttöne auf ihrem Körper. Das war alles.

Ich bin sehr zufrieden mit diesem Bild, es ist genau das was ich wollte. Die Mutter war sehr beeindruckt über das Bild und auch das Mädchen mag das Bild sehr. Was will ich mehr?

Des weiteren habe ich an meinem Rosenbild gearbeitet. Ich arbeitete mehr an den Blättern und auch an den Rosen und der ganze Look des Bildes wird sich wieder ändern, wenn ich mehr Hintergrund hinzugefügt habe und auch wenn die Rosen fertig sind. Diesen Moment finde ich immer sehr aufregend, wenn man sieht, wie sich ein Bild entwickelt.

Ich bin zufrieden mit dem Bild, so wie es bis jetzt ist - aber nicht so richtig glücklich. Ich wollte die Blätter eigentlich heller und mehr gelb haben, um mehr Wärme und Sonnenschein zu suggerieren.  Also versuchte ich die Farben wieder auszuwaschen, aber es war nicht möglich. Es sieht gut aus, so wie es jetzt ist, aber ich ärgere mich mehr über mich selber, weil ich nicht vorsichtig genug war. Wieder eine Lektion gelernt. Aber ich werde an diesem Bild weitermalen und sehen, wie es sich entwickelt und ich hoffe, es wird so sein, wie ich es mir vorstelle mit diesen Rosen.

Yesterday I did have a visit from a very dear friend, which I have not seen for several years and it was a really wonderful time with her. She also paints and so we spent a lot of time painting and talking about painting. I felt very honored that she wanted to learn something from me.
With viewing my figurative work we also came to the Theme Skin Tones and painting faces.
I think there is no really recipe for doing skin tones, because there happens so much on the skin. The skin is transparent and absorbs all what is around. A good base for starting with skin is Raw Sienna, Scarlet Lake and Winsor blue (green shade). And then add the colours which are also on your palette, which you use for your whole painting.
I would like to quote Steve Hanks here. Steve Hanks is the famous figure painter from USA and his work is fantastic. In his book: "Moving on" there was to read:

"Painting skin tones can be very tricky. If you look at your hand you can see there are many colors. You can also see that it is transparent. Notice the colors of the veins coming through it. Artists often ask me what colors I use for my skin tones, but skin is so many colors that there is no one answer. It changes by the light, the objects around it and the ligths and colors that are reflected on to it. Watercolor is also transparent and can be put down in layers, making the skin come alive. Cool tones are most important to be aware of and not left out. They are subtle but critical in giving a figure life."by Steve Hanks

Skin Tones and Painting Portraits/figures are always a challenge. When I started painting I was happy to create roses and flowers. But I wanted to be challenged and then I did my first portrait. My first portrait was of my daughter Miriam, which is now seen in many of my figurative paintings.
This is my first portrait painting:

I was very happy with my first result, but I realized that there was so much which I had to learn.

I remember (and I am still very thankful for that), that a fellow portrait artist was kind enough to give me some helpful lessons. I am still so thankful and I would like to share a bit about my "knowledge", because just with portraits it is so important to make all correct (not to speak from portrait commissions). When painting flowers we can change shapes and forms and nobody will never know this, but when doing a portrait there are so many things important and to know this, will help to figure out, why the likeness is not good or maybe why the painting looks wrong.
I think that the most watercolorists (me too) do paint from photos and also this  knowledge will help especially when there is some distortion or when the photo is not good enough to see all perfect.
There are some rules about the facial proportions which are helpful to know:
I have copied the rules from this site on about.com, because their english is much better than mine.

Size of Head: The distance from the chin to the crown is the same as from the back of the head to the front. Features take up only a small portion of the head; a lot of space is needed for the brain! The mid-point of the face, when measured from chin to crown, is at the base of the eyes or eye sockets.

Eyes: The space between the eyes is about the same width as one eye. If the width of eye is used as a unit of measurement, the head is five eyes wide.
(I also have found on another place, that the distance between the two eyes is the distance between the "Eye Whites".)

(And another important point: The inner of the eye ends in the same line as the nostrils are.)

Eyebrows: Extend beyond the eyes on both sides.

Ears: The top of the ears line up with the brow of the nose and the eyebrows, and the bottom of the ears with the tip of the nose.

Nose: The bottom of the nose is the midpoint between the eyes and the chin.

Mouth: The corners of the mouth align with the center of the eyes (if you're not smiling). The line where the two lips meet is slightly above the halfway point between the end of the nose and the chin.

Chin: The mound of the chin starts at the inner corners of the eyes

To show this better, I want to add a link http://zeichnen.gemutlichkeit.de/Portraitkurs/Portrait_Zeichenkurs/Gesicht_Proportionsregeln/markante_Punkte_Linien.html:
It goes to a german site but it is easy to understand the photos. (the second photo explains it perfect).

When knowing this we are able to see immediately what is wrong in portraits and it helps so much when we paint our own.

Once we know about this we also can more easily figure out what is going wrong in our work. Another point are often the values.
When painting from a photo I always print my ref.photo in colour AND black and white. The b/w photo helps enormously with the values. When I stuck with my portrait and when I am not happy with it I often do a photo of my painting, load it up in photoshop and make it also black and white, then I compare it to my b/w ref.pic.

For portraits I would highly recommend the book by Roberta Carter Clark: "How to paint living portraits". It is not only about how to add colour, this artist gives you the basic knowledge about proportions of head and body, values in the face and so much more.

Hope this post was helpful. On my Rosesblog I am working just on a Pink/Deep Violet Rose, so maybe you want to have a look there.

This painting was done just for fun. I loved the pose and the light and HAD to paint this immediately. Photo was done by myself and the model is my best girl friend.

It is painted with transparent watercolors on Textured Claybord (Aquabord), size is 8"x10".

I have decided for a title: "With the sunshine in her hair" fits perfect to this watercolor painting.

This is my latest head study. Size is around 7"x10,5" and I have worked on cold-pressed watercolor paper.
I am playing with skin colours. In this painting and also in my previous post "Friends" I have used Raw Sienna, Scarlet Lake and Phthalo Blue.
On my palette are also Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna, also Alizarin Crimson, Paynes Grey Bluish, Phthalo Green and Translucent Orange.
I love the Raw Sienna colour. It is a wonderful yellow, it glows and is not too strong.
Scarlet Lake and Raw Sienna are a wonderful mix for the skin, especially for kids and teens faces. Instead of Scarlet Lake you can use Brown Madder from Winsor and Newton, when you paint adults and especially men.

As you will know skin reflects all colours around, so it is not easy to give a good recipe only for the skin. This three colours are only the base (a yellow, a red and a blue) and when painting the skin you should also use the colours which you will use for other subjects around your figure/face. With this you are always on the safe side. I too try to remember all this things for my own work and with each painting it will be easier.

I love the texture of coldpressed paper, it is easy to apply your washes and also to remove colours with a sponge if neccessary.

In the past issues of International Artist magazine the artist Warren Chang has started a '7 Part Series - Pursuing an artist's life behind the easel'. Although this artist paints in oil he gives wonderful tips no matter in which medium you work.
I especially loved his explaining about "Understanding light and shadow". Warren Chang has published this article on his website, if you don't get the International artist Magazine. Please click here.
When the link doesn't work, please type the address below:

http://www.warrenchang.com/A6.html

I hope he will also publish the article of the Issue 59. He still has some other articles on his website if you want to read more from him.

'Friends'

This is my latest painting. It tells the story about a young girl and her best toy friend - a bunny.
I have painted this again on Textured Claybord. I really can recommend this Claybord, you should give it a try. Have a look at www.ampersandart.com for more infos. They have changed the name now into Aquabord.

I am playing with colours for the skin and I am just working on another head study . After this is done I will tell you more and also if I like my palette.

Time is running so fast, it is already over a week, since I have done my latest post here.
But today I can show two new paintings.

I am experimenting with paper at this time and also with my technique. For a long time I have always prefered hotpressed paper but now it is time to try out new things.
This head study is done on coldpressed Arches watercolor paper. I like to paint on this paper. The surface is not so smooth as the hotpressed paper but in many ways much easier to work on. I also like the texture. I have worked with transparent colours.

untitled

The next one is a Fuschia watercolor painting on Textured Claybord. For the pink and violets I have used colours from Daniel Smith like Carbazole Violet and Naphthamide Maroon and
Brillant Purple from Schmincke and Permanent Rose from Winsor and Newton.
As I mentioned in my previous post it is easy to work on this Claybord. The colours are drying very light so you must not be careful with pale washes. And when you have done a mistake simply remove the colour with a chisel brush, which works perfect on this Claybord.

Fuschia

I have shown the following small painting in an earlier post here .
I have changed the background to get more contrast and I think it works much better now.

Pansies