Whimsical Faces: Paint a Beautiful Watercolor Portrait

1. 01 Welcome: Have you ever wanted to paint a beautiful, whimsical portrait in a loose and free style? Well, I'm here to help you do just that. Hi, I'm Jessica Sanders. Welcome to my channel. Painting a portrait isn't easy unless you keep it super simple. And that's where I come in. I'll walk you through painting a beautiful Wins, a cool water cooler portrait, step by step, layer by layer. I'm a professional artist, teacher and designer. I've designed art tutorial on projects. Companies like Ranger Inc. Camilion Pins. I know how to simplify a project and going to share that with me today. First, we'll start with the warmer. We're going to use three colors for this painting and Val is it. And in order to use Onley three colors, we need to understand those colors. So the warm up it's going to be a very important part of the Scots. Next we'll do a simplified drawing. Once we have basic outline of our face, will begin layering water color washes. We're going to use a Siris of light washes to build up color and create a beautiful, whimsical portrait. It's going to be lovely and free and loose on but it's still going to have the qualities of a beautiful portrait throughout the glass. I'm going to remind you to keep it super simple. That's an approach I used to stay focused on the process rather than in result which helps you enjoy painting. I've presented this class and your time so that you can have a real understanding of how long it takes to create a painting like this and all of the steps in the process. This cost is designed for intermediate level students, but if you're a beginner, don't be afraid to try it. Lots of my beginning students have been able to paint things that they never expected to be able to paint. So what are you waiting for? Let's get started. I'll see you in class. 2. 02 Supplies: for this class will be using watercolor paper. I have £140 slash 300 GSM cotton watercolor paper. We will also use a variety of brushes. I have a large a small and a very small brush that I use in. This painting also will be using a pencil. Ah, white paint pin and water colors. I happened tohave Ingraham, but you can use the kind of paints that you have. Next will also be using a spray bottle and a jar of clear water. And that's it. Very simple. Let's move on to our lessons. 3. 03 KISS: So what exactly is the kiss approach to painting? Well, let me tell you, Kiss means keep it super simple. It's an acronym, K I s s Let's face it, there's nothing simple about painting your portrait. In fact, it's one of the most challenging things that you can paint. But Michael is just simple by the process, for you and for me and to make it doable fund and unintimidating. That's where Kiss comes in. We're going to keep it super simple as much as possible. And I'm going to help you focus on what's most important and let go of perfection. So here are five ways to keep this process super simple. First, we're going to use a simplified drawing. No details. Second, we're going to paint with a limited color palette. We're only going to be using three colors for this painting. Number three will use a limited number of values will only focus on light, medium and dark. Just looking. My watercolor basics Class number four will focus on one layer at a time, building up beautiful water color washes, and number five will focus on embracing the process that means, rather than focusing on the result will focus on how we feel accepting the ups and downs of painting, knowing sometimes we make bad paintings and being present. As we work along the way, I'll remind you to breathe deeply to be present and to embrace the process. Those gentle reminders will help you to keep it super simple and complete this beautiful portrait. So let's get started with her warming them. 4. 04 Warm up Exercise: breathe deeply, be president, embrace the process of creating and keep it super simple. So let's do warm up with their colors. One of the ways were trying to keep this super simple is by using Onley three colors with our painting. And so I've I've chosen for this painting macro down Violet Quinn, aka Don Rose and Ultra Marine Blue. But I'll probably just call them Violet, Rose and Blue as I go along, teaching you today. As I mentioned in the supply video, I'm using Ingraham watercolors thes coming tubes. And then I put them into pans and let them dry. You can use the colors and the paints that you have. So this particular exercise, this warm up, is a way for media to know my paints and you to get to know your paints and how they're going to behave when you're doing the painting. So don't skip this. This is super helpful. I know looks. Maybe it looks a little tedious, but actually it's pretty fun, and you learn so much about your color, so embraced the process and let's get going. I have two different brushes as an option to use one that holds more water. And when the holds less water, I'm going to start with this one. But I may switch over to less water, depending on how the whole process goes. We'll see. They also have my clean water and wedding. My brush first, and I have spritz my paint palette with water. It's just to get those colors going now because I've made this watch card. I know exactly where my paints are. I know that this is the violet. This is the Rose, See their and then that the 2nd 1 is the ultra Marine blue going to start with the Rosa's my first color just because And I went my breath and as I said, It's Prewett. So Oh, look at that color. That is just amazing. So I've mixed a nice fit color. I'm going to do this for each of the colors, and I'm going to start with a swatch and lay down that color, and I'm not worried about being precise here. This is fun and exploration, so I'm going to dip my brush, which has the color and events Florida into the water just a little so that I can add more water here and get a more watery swatch. This way I can see how it looks as it gets lighter. Now I have a lot of water there that's from not tapping off my brush. Don't do that. I'm going to rinse my brush thoroughly. Now top it off in more water. So now I have a nice color swatch and just isn't that gorgeous. That is just one gorgeous color. So that nice, soft pink is what you're looking for for this particular painting. If that's what you like, that's what I used. Now I'll go with the violet again. Beautiful, luscious. This violet leans toward the red side. It's a warmer. I think it's a warmer violet looks beautiful, nice and thick mixture. Pick up a little bit that not too much and go for color. Number two. Now I'll write these colors in, probably later, who want a darker. So I went straight into my pan and picked that up, and now I will. Let's watch it out, picked up a little more water, but not much, so I think that really light and then in the end, now you can use two jars of water. These colors are very work very well together. So I already know I can just use one water and I'm okay with that. But if you want your super clean water, then by all means kids get two jars of water so that the nice great aunt there's starting with heavy color and working out the light. So this also shows me the values that I have available for each individual color. Okay, let's go to that ultra marine blue now again, the mixture taking up quite a bit of pigment, a smaller mixing space here, and that's fine. I actually don't use as much of this blue. So smaller. Mixing space works perfectly in this case. Nice, thick, ultra marine blue that. And here we go lay down that color, don't get that beautiful beautiful went back into the pan, pick up a little more concentrated color, adding a little more water, still have paint in the brush and then cleaning the brush. Oh, I did dropped a few drips in there because I'm going over my paper. It's actually better to have your water to the site, but for my camera set up, sometimes I need it in a different place. So I added more water. Tap it off and look at that. Nice. Also, if you notice as I was doing this, every one of these colors have a nice flow to them. Now you're the flow of your paints. Maybe a little bit different. That's okay. It the type of paper, the type of paint all matter in that they flow differently. The main point is that you get to know your paints. So this is a great way to do it. No, I have done here, layer and I have color. 123 color. 123 What I'm going to do in this area is create stripes. Now, I could have done this as I was putting color here and probably should have when I had that color on my brush. But I did it, so I'll just go do that now. Color one. I'm just going to create a stripe right there. I'm not worried about its value right now. Colored too. Another stripe. Not a lot of water here. Just mostly, mostly the paint. I'm not trying to create blooms or special effects or anything like that. I would just want to create some stripes. Now I want this to dry before I do the other part of the strike. So I'm going to let those dry and I'm going to move over here. Well, that's trying to my color will. Now, my first color, second color and third color are here, here and here. I'm not worried about filling up these sections. I just took a circle divided into six because I was using three colors and I want to see how they work together. I'm not worried about filling up the entire space. I just want to put the color in its appropriate space. So here is the blue. While I have that on my brush, I'll do that and I'll do the same thing in add water as I go there. Okay, I'll go to color one now, which is the roads I'm picking up from the same puddle that I already created. Simple that way. Laying in the color again. I am not worried about perfection. This is exploration. This is fun. If it bothers you, do not go all the way to the line. Syn bio means go all the way to the lines to what works for you so clean my brush again and I'll go to that. The second color, which is Violet and play that in there. I've got an overlap. Does that matter? No, not at all. This color spread really nicely. Okay, well, I have the violet on here. I want to see how it mixes with throws. So I'll just go ahead and take the violet and continue over this way. I don't want it to be like, highly mixed. I just want to see how they work together in this case. So now I'm picking up the rose and I'll do same here and just with them touch each other. I think the rose I added quite a bit more, so I'll pick up the violent and I'll add more of that in here. Like I said, the purpose of this is to see how they look and work together. I could create a complete mixture separately and see how that goes. It's up to you how you want to do this sort of color will where your colors air mixing. But I want to see, in this case how they mix on the paper rather than how they makes in my palette. Now I have that rose. Well, I have that Rose. I'll go ahead and put some here and we'll see how it mixes with the blue. As you can see, I'm not being perfect. I'm just exploring giving myself permission debris to relax and to enjoy the process, to just play with my pants. So, having quite a bit of that blue, I'll go back to the roads on more of that in. I'll tell them together a little bit. Let's see how they makes while we get a really dark dark there. We'll do a little more mixing of these colors down the bottom in a minute. That's where we are right now. This is a very thick mixture of the blue. If you notice I used Mawr actually pigment in paint here than in Swatch. So let's continue with the blue. I have it on my brush and let's see how it works with the violent Now there are lots of ways to do this. This is just one way. I think it's a fun way to do it, and I love seeing how the colors will mix together or not mixed together, depending on how it works. This is still a little bit wet, so I'm going to leave it there just a little longer. Look at that color. I mean, that is just singing. It is going to try lighter. If you notice this is starting to dry, it is lighter than this lighter. This gives you a great way to see how your colors work together and how they look when they're when they're wet and when they're dry. It's a great color study tool. Now let's do all of the colors together. I'm going to start with this lightest color with the color number one again and just going to make a puddle right here. Quite a bit of paint in there. Then I'm going to switch over to the violet once again. Pick that up and I'll make a puddle next to that with quite a bit of paint in there. Now, if you notice the pink pushed into the violet, that's important to know the violet didn't push into the pink. A pink in tooth violet, the rose pushed into the violence that is a characteristic of the colors and how they work together said That's important. I know which one is going to push into which now, at the bottom at the blue. And now I'm going to connect that there going to see how they all work together because said there are lots of ways to do this now if I just completely makes the violin the blue Here, look, I'm going to get Let's see if I add that rose and there I think I can get a really dark color this way. So I'm picking up the different colors and mixing them in there. Yeah, I look that is that gorgeous corgis. So I get very interesting violet color that's more blue while the other violence is more red. So what I said earlier that this was more red. I don't know which when I said earlier, but basically, now I can see Oh, this is much more blue when I mixed it, of course, with the blue and with the rose, then this one is more toward the red side. This blues also toward the red side. So these are all warm colors. Okay, So have destroyed. I think they're pretty dry, so I could finish my stripes now. And what this is going to tell me is how they lay or over one another. This is all about mixing. This is about layering, which we're going to be using a lot in our painting, so I'll start with the rose colored number one and just make us watch straight across. Then I'll go to color number two, which is the violet in this case and think this watched across. Now I'm using a lot of paint here, so they're not as transparent. Rather, they're They're very dark, is what I'm trying to say. So we were layering in light layers. It's going to look a little different, but you can see what colors show through what? When you're creating this, you don't want to paint over and over again because you can lift your other colors that are already dry. Okay, that is our beautiful color Warmups. Watch. It's dry. It's going to look a little different when it dries. I encourage you. Really. I encourage you to do this kind of exercise toe. Learn about your colors, how they move, how they work Together. We learned a lot by this. We can see dark toe light values. We can see how they would mix on the paper. We can see what happens when we put all three of them together and how dark of a color we can get. We saw that the pink would push into the violet. It looks like the blue pushes into the pink a little bit. So this vile this violet is maybe the least aggressive or moves the least out of the three of these when they're together. And then we can see how they layer over one another and what the colors look like when we do that again. This is a dark SWAT. You could do more water. Swatch if you want to see how they look when they're lighter. Okay, let's move on to the next lesson. 5. 05 Simplified Drawing: So let's talk the face. Now remember, we're trying to keep it simple. I don't want to add a lot of details here. I just want to draw sort of a basic outlines of where the features will be. I started with the straight line down the middle and added the nose first. Now, sometimes this is a very good jumping off point for me, and I like to kind of start there when I'm doing a sketch sometimes. Not always. Yes, I'm holding my pencil near the top, not at the bottom. I want to keep my lines loose and light. I know you barely see the sketch. I want you to understand that this is a very light sketch and it's really not going to show up and are finished painting. No, I added a little bit of shadow around the nose, and I placed one I so far idea of where one a place the second I remember, we're drawing for fun here. It's not a super realistic portrait, but we do want to proportions to be at least cloves. So we know that between the two eyes there's approximately one I with, So I use my pencil to measure how big my first I waas and then I use that same measurement to place the corner of my second I and drew my second. Now I'm sort of rethinking that knows a little bit. I feel like it's a little bit too long, and so I'm going to just just change it up just a little bit by bringing that shadow up. And I want to race a little bit the center line that would show on my painting, and I don't really want that, So I'm taking that out right now. Now I'm adding the eyebrows. Want him to eyebrow theater? The eyebrow connects with the tip of the nose. So I'm thinking about that as I'm drawing and thinking also about how it lives up with the guy and getting my nose straight, because sometimes my nose is could be really crooked. I don't know why, but that's just the thing that I have my own personal work and I have to work on it as I go now, I'm starting to think about the placement of my lips just below the nose, added the little shadow under the nose and topless and the edge of the bottom lip and a line for them. It no, I'm always thinking of my proportions here, and lining up the corners of the mouth can line up with the edge of the iris. Sometimes on the eye, depending on which way person is looking were turned forward facing so it can line up with the edge of the pupil or part of the iris really just depends on the person. So do what works for your drawing. I'm sort of placing the edges of the face based on the width of the I in different proportions. So there's 1/2 space, 1/2 of a ny approximately between the edge of an eye and the edge of your face. And so I use that measurement to place sort of just the light lines of where the edge of the face might be, and then your nose is halfway between your eyes and your chin. So I used that proportion to determine how far down to make the chin for the neck. I sort of used the outside edge of the I to determine about where the neck would go, and then I curved it. Next, I'm measuring to see were to put the top of the head. It's about the eyes are about halfway in the middle of the head. So I use that measurement from my chin, didn't eyes and then use that to do the top of the head. How the hairline is just below that some distance and your hair can, of course, be fluffy. Er, been your head. So going to a little bit about that if you want to sort of an idea of here, there. So that's basically it for this very minimal drawing that we're doing for our painting. We only just need some idea of where to place our features and the proportions we have for the face. That's all we need. We're going to start their next with color. 6. 06 Layer 1: remember, breathes deeply be present. Embrace the process of creating and keep it super simple. San Gunned It started with the quinacrine own violent use. A purple that you have a purple is a great shadow color it receives. It goes away from you in the painting and it creates a lot of depth. Sir. Want to start with just the lightest value of the purple or the violet that we can get notice? I'm starting also with my big brush, but I'm making small marks with my big brush. And I can do that because it has a nice find tip, and I can use really light pressure to do that. I also tapped off the point of the brush so that didn't have that drop of water on it before I started painting. Now I'm starting with the eyes. I laid down a little bit of paint. Now I'm cleaning my brush, getting the water off on my towel, and now I'm going to invite that color to flow and just moves the pain around a little bit . My brushes on Lee Damn, it's not thirsty, but it's it's down, and I can use it to add a lot of life, too, that paint and spread that around and create just a really sort of glowing effect in the eyes. Right now, I wanted to be nice and soft, So now I'm going to soften the edges of those lines and bring that color out. I want to pull that color out and just have everything sort of all connected in the end. So I'm pulling the color from the I actually out to the edge of the face, through the cheek and everywhere that I would see a shadow. That's where I'm putting these purple right now. You notice it's very light. It's very watery, doesn't have much pigment in. So I'm just giving the idea of where I want those shadows to go. So while I am using a watery mix of paint, my paintbrush is not dripping with water. It's wet, but I've tapped off the body image of the brush so that it's not just dripping with water. I don't want puddles of water. I just want to move the paint around. I want to flow, but I don't want to leave a big puddle on my paper right now. So soft on the edge of the eyes around the top of the eyelid line, and I'm pulling that color out around to where I imagine the hairline to be, because there's going to be a little shadow underneath the edge of the hair and pulling that down again over the side of the cheek, down on to the neck, underneath the chin, every bear were their shadows. Basically, now you hear me dipping my brush in, and I may or may not pick up paint and may just with my brush again when I need to. But now I wanted to add in a little more shadow so you can see. I picked up the paint and I brought it over to my painting, and I'm dropping it in the edge That's already wet. So now you were working wet on dry, but now we're working. When I'm wet, dropping in a little bit more color, it's still going to dry really light because there's went on what technique always drives lighter and because we're color dry slider, I don't want there to be any harsh lines there on the cheek. So I've cleaned my brush really well, and it's dry, lightly damp just like the damp, very little water, and I'm using it to soften the edges where I've laid in that color. Now I know I'm going to need a stronger shadow around the eyes and around beside the nose, but I don't want that to be too hard. So again I'm softening. My brush is lightly damp, and I'm able to pick up some of the edge of that color and move it around a little and make it really nice and soft and shadowy. I don't mind going outside the edge of where I drew the face, because this color it's so light and is creating that depth. It's not going to matter in the end, except it will add maybe a little more interest and a little more death to where the hair is. So don't worry if you go over the line a little bit, it's OK. Watercolors may be more forgiving than you actually think that it is noticed. I drive my brush really well. It's clean and quite dry, and I'm picking up the edge. I want to pick up some of the paint that I have there on the nose. It's kind of too much over to top of the nose. So I wanted to pick that up a little bit, and I actually just kind of moved it over by where the eye is by once it was in my brush, I was able to just take my brush over and go over there, and now I have a really soft purple on the whole side of the face. When I'm thinking about my lighting, that means that side of the face is going to be more in shadow than the other side of the face. Now I'm adding shadow to the other. I want to add some more depth there. Right now. It's just stark in white. I haven't covered that area yet, and so one ad that show in. But I want to be very soft, and I want that brow to be higher and that shadow to indicate that nose is coming out of the face. The brow is further out than the eye, so that's what I'm working on now. Now, if you need to feel free to speed up this video, some of this may be somewhat repetitious, and I wanted to keep it a real time for you because I want you to know how long it actually takes to paint a painting like this. So now moving onto this gorgeous Conakry down Rose, I love Discover and going to start dropping in some interesting places. I want to put it on the lips, but I'm also going to put it in other areas to deepen the shadows. You may notice that I'm leaving a little bit of white space on the lips. I want there to be highlight. Now, before this is over, I'm a cover that up. I don't know. Also, you may notice I'm having to clean up a little bit because I didn't wait until the paint around the mouth lis dry before painting the lips and it bled into the other paint. But guess what? I cleaned it up. I fix it. It's all good. Part of staying in the flow of things is to not let those things upset you, but to recognize Oh, these things they're going toe happen like that. They're going to be mistakes. They're going to be hopes is and whole nose. But then you just say, Okay, this happens and I will work on it or I'll fix it later and you move on and you keep that flow that take that deep breath and continue enjoying the process of painting. Because what else are we here, really? I know we want to make beautiful pictures but really well here to enjoy the process. Now I've added in some pink underneath the nose, in the corners of the eye, on the eyelids and even brought that peak out to the edge of the face because I want a unified painting when I'm finished. And one way to do that is to make sure that I'm using my colors sort of everywhere. And I always want to do that when I paint. It's something I enjoy doing, and I feel like it makes a really nice, cohesive artwork. Now I'm going to be something that technically you're not supposed to do. I'm going to splatter right now on the first layer. Now, honestly, you might wanna wait until the end to do this, but I just love splattering so much. I was just enjoying the process of painting and I just sort of went for that splattering and I don't mind. In the end, it's going to be there. It's going to be muted and light and an interest. And but, like I said, feel free to wait to the end for any splattering if you want Teoh. Okay, so now we're going to let this layer dry and then we'll move on to the next layer. 7. 07 Layer 2: breathes deeply, be present, embrace the process of creating and keep it super simple for the next layer. I'm going to sort of repeat what I did before. I'm going to start with the purple or with the quinacrine violet and reinforce shadows and deep in them a little bit. My paint mixture is a little bit thicker, a little bit less watery, though it's still quite watering so well, it's still at watering mix. It's still going to deepen or dark in the value a little because we're layering over what's already there and because of the transparency of watercolor because we can see through it, the color that's underneath will show through. It happens to be the same color, or at least a similar color. If it's the pink, we will show through and make a darker color. Now you'll see me moving back and forth between colors more for this later than I did for the other layer sort of work intuitively. That way I want to add a little bit more of shadow purple. I want to add a little bit more of the pink, and I work back and forth to get the desired result so you being the painter will also need to find what works best for you will be better for you to go ahead and add all the shadows in or what you like to go ahead and add color of cheeks. Will that make you happy? You could see it didn't take me very long to move back over to the pink for this layer added on the cheeks. I'm adding it on the lips, and then I'm going to soften it everywhere because I don't want those harsh lines. Remember, The way to soften is to use a damp brush and touch it lightly to the edge of the paint, where you want to take that up and soften that edge. I also took the opportunity to reshape the lips a little bit. Uh, remember, the color had run out a little bit before, so this time I just reinforce the shape of the lips a little bit with the pink, adding a bit more shadow to knows just underneath it and around across the top of the sides of the nostrils and then spreading that pink, which has not dried yet around on the lips. I want the darkest area of pink to be at the top of the lip and at the bottom of the lift and where the lips part now. Originally, I think I was going to keep the eyes completely violet, but I just decided I wanted to add pink in there. Do so I just went for it. You can decide what colors you want to use. I don't feel like for my ones oval portrait that the eye color has to be realistic. I know that in real life, people don't have purple and pink eyes, but I love the way they look in art. And so that's why my girl is going have purple and pink eyes. I've really sticking up. The color here has less water, more pigment, and I put that darker, deeper value mixture there of paint. But then I go back in and I'm lightning it up and I'm moving it around with this. This really light, damp brush and spreading it out across paper, reinforcing what I have already done or making small corrections. As I go, I'm continuing to add little bits of the violet, the purple to darken up certain areas. I want the edges of the irises to be darker. I want his certain areas in the eyes to be darker and adding more shadow on the lips underneath the neck. Again, I'm really reinforcing where I've already decided the shadows should go in my first layer, as I mentioned in the first layer. Please feel free to speed up this video if you feel like you need to. Phil's repetitive to you. But I just want you to see how long it actually takes to paint a painting like this. Because I'm leaving in real time and living, you see the entire process. No, I'm going to loosen up a little bit. I've been pretty calm, pretty methodical about putting in those shadows and things. But now I want to start kicking it up a little bit. I want to add some splatters. I want to add some loose marks because the idea of this whimsical girl is sort of like maybe she has some flowers cider in her hair on both sides, and I want to add the idea of that while it not being exactly a flower. So that's what the splatters and dark area is on the side of the face there. Now I'm reinforcing the shadows around underneath the bottom lip around the chin. Now you could always go bolder with your color. Go for a less watery mix, more pigment and make sort of a boulder transition from the dark from the light to the dark . But what I'm trying to do is build up my layers slowly, so I want to have a guess. In a way, it gives me a little bit more control time that interested in control. But this sort of helps a little bit. Helps you control your water color if you start with these light washes and you build it up in layers. So that's what I'm doing here again if you want to go bold. Hey, I said, Go for it. You can try it. Do what seems to work for you. But this is just my process and my myth, particularly when it comes to painting portrait, it's I'm going to continue working back and forth between the pink and the violet for a little bit, so I will turn on some music for you, and then I'll come back when I switched to our third color. Okay, so now moving on to the ultra marine blue. It's a nice purple lee bullet who oh, what I consider to be a warm and blue, and I'm going to start adding that in. And it's sort of that medium value mixture, not too much water, not too much pigment. It's that just right, if you take in my class about about water ratios, so I am going to just move in with this blue color and let it blend in with what's already there and doing a wet on wet technique here, adding in some of that blue. And it does turn toward the purple because we already have pink in a violent on the paper. So I'm just adding that in as a shadow color, remember cool colors received. That means visually. When you look at them, they look further away than a one color, so they move away from you when you look at them. It's a strange concept to get your head around, but it really is true. And so adding the blue in even that more blue blue is going to make those shadows and the depth of this painting even more strong, something you may have noticed so long away during our drawing process, were during I pranking processes that this lady has no ears. We can't see her ears, but in adding in the blue shadow color in some areas, I'm actually going to sort of create the shape or the idea that an ear is there in without actually painting year now addict on some really strong color. But in order to get that color to flow down the paper, I'm really having to tap my paper because, as you know, with watercolor paint on, Lee goes where there's water and there's not water all over my papers on basically forcing the water to run down the paper by tapping it on my desk. I'm bringing that color all the way out. We're the flower that's in the hair is going to blend with the background of the painting. It's all going to be tied together. It's already got some splatters of the violet and pink in it, and so this is my way of sort of tying that part with the face and also a negative shape painting around the hair. Now the hair is not gonna be like some fancy hair the hair is going to be the idea of hair . I'm just continuing to bring that blew over from the flower area onto the face again. The idea is that there's a continuity between everything in this painting, and one way to do that is just this overlapping of colors. Now I'm spattering in even more color. I just loves battery, and I almost can't help myself, which may or may not be a good thing. But that's what I'm doing here and splattering that in and where I got. Maybe if I get a drop on the face or something, I could just top it off with a paper towel. So don't freak out. If you do this flattery and then you find out Oh, no, I have a spot of my face. It's OK. Just use a tissue or paper towel and blot it off. Now I'm going in with a very dark value of our violet, just on the very edge of the face. To really kick up the depth, make that area receipt and go away from us and keeping those edges very soft. Now I just want to start bringing that color out again, loosening up moving the color around, getting ready to add in sort of that flower to the edge. Now add the flour I'm doing, sort of ah, almost a dry brush effect. So I don't have a lot of water in my brush, and I'm pushing my brush against the paper, the body of my brush, the side of my brush to create the texture of the edge of the Fowler. So push away from the face as you're painting with a very almost dry brush. I did it lightly first, and now I'm adding, in that deeper, richer, thicker color, I decided with the second flower sort of almost overlapping her. I it was just an in the moment choice. I really wanna balance out the composition, and I have them also, if you noticed on the right side that the flowers more toward the bottom and below the eye , and on the other side it's toward top and above. Okay, I have a bit of a harsh line. There's I'm working on getting that out with damp brush, kind of scrubbing it into the paper and removing some of that paint. And then I decided, Hey, while working on adding some eyebrows. So added the sort of the idea that there's an eyebrow there, a little bit of a shadow, but nothing definite yet now more splattering with the violet along the edge of the flower and tapping my breast very gently because I don't want the pain to go all over the painting . I want to go just by the edge of the flowers, so it actually sort of becomes part of the flower that's in her hair, so that would upset this layer. Well, let's let it dry and then we'll come back and we'll do the next. 8. 08 Layer 3: Now I'm taking my smaller brush and let's work on adding some detail to the eyes. So I'm just gonna add a stroke of color, that heavier mixture of color picker. Make sure across the where the eyelid is the edge of the top of the eyes and the people. Next I cleaned my brush, and so it just has a little bit of water on it Now. I cleaned it. I drive a little, and I'm using it to move that paint around and soften the edges. And I'm leaving some hard lines. But I want to soften a lot of the lines. So you see, right now there's a least a couple of hard lines across the I. And then I softened around the top of the island and pulled the color out into our flower area. Now, with a light touch and loaded brush, I'm adding a little more shadowed to the actual I into the iris, and you see where I'm with the paper Color is slowing out perfect. That's exactly what we want. Now I'm going to repeat the same process for the other. I I always like to work back and forth between the two eyes. I feel like it makes them more cohesive and work together better. That's just the way I like to do it. If you want to complete one I before working on the other, you continue that. But it just doesn't work well for me personally. I'm going to add some curved marks around the iris now that are going to show up in the finished painting. Because what's going to happen? Is it as that texture to the eyes? Because eyes were not flat color, they're not all one color. They're bouncing light around in them, and they have actually all these texture, this beautiful texture in the actual pupil of the eye. So when I capture a little bit of that, so added those lines, and I'm adding a little bit of shadow around the bottom lid. So just keep going back and forth, light and shadow darkened like softening and continuing to work until it comes to a point where I'm happy with the way it looks, you may notice on the bottom lid. I didn't make a solid of a line as I did across the top, so on the top I made a complete line all the way across the lid, and then I softened it. But for the bottom, I tend to leave spaces without lines. They're less focused, their less prominent. They're not a stark, and so I have little skits in the shadows and in the white on the bottom edge of lid. So always want to add shadow underneath the top lid so you'll see. There is some pink and purple on the at white of the eye because the white of the eye never actually looks completely white. When you look at it now, I'll continue by adding color to the lips and above the lips to add a shadow. So I'm doing a lot of work on the shadows right now. It's very subtle, but in the end it really makes a difference. So the nose tends to make a triangle shaped shadow. But the top of the triangle is kind of curved, a little bit around the roundness of knows. So I like to add that shadow. Take a little bit over the top of the nostrils toe add shadow there. It's not going to be a bright as the tip of the nose, which is probably the brightest point on your face. Most of the time. I like for the shadows to be nice and soft on the bottom edge and the outer edge. I don't want any hard lines here, so I'm softening. My brush doesn't have very much pain in it or very much water so amusing, almost a dry brush. It's not quite because I'm picking up the paint, but it's close to dry brush because I don't want to add a lot of water at this point. And I love the little shadow that's just above the ball of the nose. I don't know. It just makes the nose supercute. If you'll put like almost a little smile just above the top of the nose, add that touch of shadow that just it just makes it more door. I apologize for being a little bit off camera here. I'm just adding a little bit of more shadow right underneath the chin, some continuing to move all around the face in all of the shadow areas, reinforcing and adding small touches of shadow. Every time I add a little more shadow, it adds a little more like because any time light it's next to dark. It makes darker darks and lighter lights. So I'm continuing toe work and build up contrast as I go to just create the depth that I want in this face, and I'm doing it so gradually. I realize this may seem like a slow process, and as I said, you can go bolder if you choose, but I just tend to do it more carefully, especially if you're a beginner, because it's hard to take the color away. It's easier to add it. Move, you may notice at the edges of the face. I I always feel free to go, even bolder, so the eyes, the front of the face, the eyes are going to be really the main focal point. So if you make a mistake there or have a problem there, it shows up a lot more. But the edges, I want them to move away. I want them to be quite a bit darker in the front of the face, so I always feel like I can go bolder faster around the edges of the head. Now I'm using a bit of a dry brush effect here to pick up the texture of the paper That doesn't mean that my brushes dry. What it means is I don't have a lot of water and paint. My brushes still wept, but just not wet enough to add a lot of water to the paper. And this helps me add some texture and now adding the idea that, hey, this person has some hair again. I apologize for being off camera there at the very top. When I'm doing dry brush, I tend to use quick strokes and drag my brushed the side of my brush across the paper, so I'm dragging it across. It doesn't have much water or paint, and I'm using quick strokes. You notice I'm actually moving quite fast. This is really time, and my strokes are very sketchy, so I don't want to paint hair. I don't want to paint every strand of hair. I joined the idea of hair, and that's it. Nothing more. Just a suggestion. And like the hair, I want to suggest an eyebrow. So I'm doing your very light version of an eyebrow that I can easily move lift. I tend to struggle a little bit with eyebrows myself, so this is one way to make it easier on yourself. You see, I have that weird stroke there that goes up on the head like Guang I don't know, but just happened sometimes. So I use really like color and I want to soften it very much and keep the lines that I like and sort of get rid of the ones that I don't like So my eyebrow just looks sort of like a shadow now, and I can define it more later. I often have difficulty matching it up on both sides, so I'm trying to be pretty careful about doing that as well. So I laid down the color and lifting. I'm spreading it around. I'm softening it, basically making it a shadow until it gets to kind of be where I wanted to be and maybe smoothing it out a little bit. I tend to, like, be come up like I'm not a super smooth painter because I always actually paint kind of fast , so I don't always make the straightest lying street confession here, But that's okay, you know, everyone's different. This is sort of part of my style. Now I'm back to adding more shadows or on the ice, so I'll work a little bit, let one area dry, then move to another area and then go back to the area I was working on before. Once it's dry and add a little bit more and a little bit more and keep building up the layers. Now it's time to add a little bit of depth and texture to the lips. So I'm getting out this beautiful quinacrine on Rose. This is a very bright pink. It goes really well with the deeper violet, and it goes with the ultra marine blue as well. So I'm keeping it nice and bright for the lips again. You can use the colors you have. Just be sure. Do the test exercise to see how they all work together. So now I'm reinforcing the darkest parts of a whip, which is the top part of the lib where the lips meet the bottom part of the lips, and I'm adding some lines of texture to create the volume that you want and a lip. Then I go back with with water on my brush and soften those areas and pulled the color out a little bit to make it more smooth and beautiful. I'm also reshaping my lips a little bit. I noticed there a little bit small, so I want to bring them out just a little bit more. And that's the beauty of being working in these layers like this is because you can make those small changes and it's so easy. While I'm working this color, I'm adding it in areas where we're shadow, right? So it's going to really bring the painting together in the end, because I'm using layers of all the same colors, so it looks really nice in the corners of the eyes and adding it also to the shadow around the nose around the eye. You can do that. It's a really light, watery mixture. It's not going to have a like a huge impact, but it really in the end, it pulls everything together to work with the shadows. That way, I'm even adding it to the hair with more dry brush strokes notice. I'm keeping my brush strokes very loose, very sketchy, and that's part of what I like to do when I'm painting, because again, I'm not going for the hyper realism. I'm going for an abstract kind of vibe to my semi realistic face here and now I'm adding some texture with the splatters. I got a little bit on the face. So you see, I can easily pick that up with a clean, Russia thirsty brush. So next we're going to start adding more blue to our painting. 9. 09 Layer 4: breathe deeply, be president. Embrace the process of creating and keep it super simple. Now we're going to add in more ultra Marine please. I am this blue in really adds depth to her painting. Blue colors recede. Cool colors move away from you visually, so it makes you feel like there's something further away and further in the background. So I'm just adding some stroke, some splatters being very loose here and enjoying the process of doing that. Some of them were a little dark, so I picked them up a little bit with my brush or added a little bit more water to them in some places. No, I still want my painting to be very cohesive and all work together so you'll see that I'm going to use this plume in the shadow areas here around the neck and other areas on the face. I'm overlapping on the cheek area to blend those colors together very softly, and the Karen it creates a shadow color. The purple the violent is going to show through the blue. It just makes a really nice color, but I got a little too far out on my face, so I picked that up. Now it's back to the pink to add a little more color to my cheeks. Again, I wanted to be very solved, so I'm using that lightly damp brush notice. I'm using the tip toward the edge of the face, toward the edge of where the paintings, so that I can soften that edge nicely, more reinforcing shadows with the violet While that pink is wet, I could add the violet to it a little blunt nicely with that watercolor magic. So you may notice that in spite of all these layers we've been doing, everything is still not very defined. Don't worry, we're going to get there just doing it very gradually. Now I'm suggesting that there's an ear there by the side of her head. Notice is just a small amount of line. Nothing very definite that is on purpose arrived. Let's define the flowers a little bit war, just using that light flicking motion with the big brush loaded with lots of violet colored paint continuing on the other side next to the eye, but not quite this dark and not quite as prominent as on the other side of the face. Continuing to work back and forth, adding more pink. That's all still very wet, so it's going to flow and move and blend with each other. Like I said in that beautiful, magical, watercolor way, I'm not concerned about going off the side of the edge of the head or anything like that with the color. Because of this loose and abstract, impressionistic style of painting, it's just really doesn't hurt anything if you go past those edges. In fact, I kind of like it better that way. It makes a lost edge, So in their painting, we're going to have lost and found edges. Some edges are going to be hard, some are going to be soft and some are going to blend with the background and some are going to stand out and that to be mixed painting Very interesting. I'm switching again to my small brush and working on the lips and more re layer that we put on. This painting dries a little bit liar than it looks when it's wet, especially because we have more water, the more water in our paint, Then the lighter will drive because there's less gnant mixed in. But that is again by design. We want to add these light layers and build them up as we go. I'm always thinking about where the light is hitting the face, so this is a front lit face. So the lip, the bottom lip is going to have highlights along with the nose, the forehead so marries around the eyes. And of course, the eyes will when we're finished, reflecting that light. But I'm continuing to keep those transitions between the highlights and the darker areas soft. For now, let's add that little line just below the nose filter, and to that looked a little funny to me again. I'm going for the softest making where can change things as I go. And so I just softened that line up a little bit in the next lesson, will continue to work on building up these layers 10. 10 Layer 5: Okay, Now we're going to move on to an even smaller brush. This is a size zero ground. We're going to start adding some details to the eyes, so I'm using a thick mixture of paint, not a lot of water and a very small brush. So the more detailed you get the tip, the smaller your brush tends to be. I don't often use this small of a brush, but for these eyes, you really need really helps make it simpler to have a small brush. If you don't have a small brush, that's okay. You couldn't use a very a light touch with the tip of your larger brush, so work back and forth between the eyes again. Adding some details. I added more, more dark color to the lid. I added the pupil that I left the space where I want to think about putting the highlight, and I added lines to die iris toe, add more of that texture to color. I'm also working a little bit on the bottom lid, a little bit all minnows and continuing to work all around the painting, keeping it nice and cohesive. This area on the nose was too big, too dark. I didn't like it, so I picked up by quote larger brush. It's still small brush and it's damp, and I'm trying to just let the color a little bit and soften it and take some of that away . So I'm really going dark now. So while that eyes so wet and adding even more of the dark violet color and constantly looking and checking and paying attention to the details now, while I'm working with the dark paint, I'll add in the nostrils in the shadow just below the bottom of the list. So let's move on to the second. I I'm going to repeat the process of adding nice, fine line to the lid, adding the people adding lines to the iris. And on this side, I added a few strokes to indicate some eyelashes on the other. I the flower is basically taking over that area, and I don't really need to at that right now, So I just added it on this. I I think now we can begin to see some more definition coming into the eyes. They're more defined. They are starting to stand out more, and it's looking pretty nice Often our paintings will go through a stage where we question , man, is this working out? This doesn't look nice at all, is sometimes called a glee stage, and that happens almost in every painting. You sort of hit this sort of roadblocks, but then, if you just continue, you just accept. Hey, this is part of the process. Keep that simplicity, simplicity, mind set going and realize. I'm just going to keep adding these layers and keep going, and we'll see how it works out in the end, rather than getting frustrated because it doesn't look good right now. Then you'll see when you get to the end, it's often amazing how it really tends to work out. That doesn't mean that every painting you do is going to be perfect or masterpiece. The truth is, there is one thing that every single artists ever does, and that is make bad. Paintings, make bad drawings, make bad art. But all those pieces we learn from and we grew up, So this is not my first attempt at doing a face. I can guarantee you have made some kind of crazy ones and just don't let that stop you because you're on a journey and it's taking you someplace magical. So that knows that starting the look kind of cute got the nostrils going there, trying to make him nice and soft and dark. That's a very dark part of the news. I don't want them to be a big round circle. I just want a slight line there. That's the idea that there's a nostril. It's looking pretty cool and adding a little bit of shadow where the chicken is. So while I have this class broken down into layers 1234 etcetera. The truth is there are quite a few more layers than are listed in the lessons because each layer has most polar hares in a way, so as you can see, we're darkening the again. It's a process of looking at your painting. You sort of step back, take a look. Does this mean more contrast? This this needs to be darker? Does this need to be lighter? Is this standing out? Is this very well defined? So all of these kinds of questions you ask yourself as you go, you have to take time to observe your painting so you can figure out what you're painting needs, and it can speak to you and say, Hey, I need this. I need more definition in the eyes. I need more life. More shadow, etcetera. Very little paint. Well, I have dork pain, but I don't have a lot of water and paint on my brush. It's sort of a dry brush right now, adding in some texture and depth to the eyes and trying to make them look at least similar toe. One. I'm going to continue working on adding the shadows and reinforcing these little shadows and details as I go. And I think I'll turn some music on for you and I'll come back when it's needed. Okay, let's add some eyebrows. I'm going, doctor, this time a little bit more brave, because I already have an idea of where we want them to go. But I'm still using this small brush to write brush like I did with the hair. I just sort of like that effect. That's catchy effect you can make them were solid, with more paint and more of a wet brush if you want to do. And while I'm working on the eyebrows, I always think of that shadow that goes just under the eyebrow and down by the nose between the and then lose, and I'm going to go strong with the paint. This time you can see because that is a dork area of the face. And I've been sort of being really light intimate, which is perfectly fine building up the layers. But now I'm feeling confident that this area is ready to go more dark and deep. I like to have a gradual shadow there at the bridge of the nose, so I'm going to continue to soften that until it gets to the point where I'm happy with it and it's nice and soft on the edge. I want that area to be even darker, so I'm dropping in stronger color in the wet area again. That magical are color blending that went in, went I'm also adding the shadow with the brow bone meets the eye, which is that dark area, but I left a little bit of a highlight just along the eyelid in the corner of the eye. If you notice I'm moving on to the other side of the face and adding shadow there, but it's not a strong as the one we just worked on, so I'm looking at the brightest areas of the cheeks Right now. I'm realizing I don't want them to be quite a Sprite as they are, So I'm adding a really light, watery violet to those cheeks and toning down that really white bright. It's drawing too much attention to itself, so I need to tone it down a little bit. - As I was working on the Shadowed that's below the lip, I realized I had this really sort of hard line of pencil mark there, and I often don't mind if my pencil marks show. But in this instance it was detracting from my painting, and so I arrested. - OK , now it's time to move on to our next layer. 11. 11 Layer 6: breathe deeply, be president, embrace the process of creating and keep it super simple. Okay, we're getting so close to the Internet, and it's getting exciting. We're gonna do a little bit of refining a little bit of pencil and with our white paint pin or white help in whatever you happen to have. So we're finding the edge of the cheek a little bit, adding that ideas that there's an ear there and sort of strengthening just a few of the lines along the cheek, along with neck and underneath the chin. So I want to zoom out now so that I can show you the whole face. But a lot of this work with the refining, its done around the eyes, so want to whiten. The area that's close is very close to the iris, not lightning whole entire corner. And keep in mind, I'm using an acrylic tank pin. That means that it's not going to be easily painted over, but I know I don't want to paint over it, really, so it works out perfectly fine, so I'll fill in with the paper, and then I'll tap it to smudge it. I'll top it with my finger to sort of smudge that out, and it's translucent that way. And I like that on the iris. It's now adding some highlights to the eyes to the people's. We really need that catch light that's there so beautiful will bring so much life and adding some highlights along the bottom of the lids. Now this makes the I look more wet and more sparkling, So I add a little bit of a line and some dots also in the corners of the eyes. I want the tip of the nose to be really white and berate, So I'm adding that paint to that. And then the eyelids will also need some highlights. There I have it all colored in, but I wasn't worried about that because I knew I was going to be able to come back and add the highlights with my pin. I like to have multiple catch lights or I shines as you might call them around the people of the eye. And so I have two or three dots there, and it works out really nice. It had such a nice sparkle, and then sometimes I'll make a stroke across it. A curved stroke which will adds even more sparkle. I like to add small short strokes at the top of the lips and along the edge. It's not a solid line as before with the bottom eyelid. I just want to catch the light here and there. So it's just this few small and then quite large highlights on the bottom lip and a few little dots here and there, which are, and it makes really nice. If they're shiny. I'll have a few more strokes of white here and there, one on the side of the neck. They're on your lobe just to bring that out a little bit. Not too much, but I'm smudging that a lot, and I may end up going back over that with paint. It is a little bit right, the little highlights below the nose and a little more on the lips there, I said I'd also like to add white eyelashes. Just one or two are few, because what it really does is that it will bring out the other woods when we're finished. As that contrast that you need, we're about to finish up with their last layer 12. 12 Final Layer: So now we've added some highlights. It's time to darken up those shadows one last time, to really give this painting some punch. So starting with the lips right along the lip line, I just added another layer of that paint. Just at that, it needed to be a little bit darker. I'm going to add more splatters around where the flowers are on the edges. Just add more interest to the background. And because, of course it's fun. I feel the shadows, and then it need to be darkened up some. So I'm using the violet to do that and just adding a light layer with a small brush. And then I switched to my big brush to soften that and spread that out more. And while I have that paint on my brush, I'm going to just take it out into the background there, just creating again more interests in the background. We're movement in less white space. Now I'm going to add more contrast to the cheek area and to flower by adding more of violet color. I'm using thick, dark version of the paint. This is getting down to the very end at any point in time as you're doing your painting. If you feel it's finished, please stop. You don't have to continue into all of the same layers and refining that I do. You let your painting speak Tiu. Observe it and decide what it needs. I'll put on some music for you and continue to work with the shadows a little bit more, and I'll come back when it's needed. - So I want to work on the flower a little bit more, gonna add some deep dark color. And I'm going to use now more of a dry brush effect with the paintbrush, because I want to add that texture and some more hard lines left soft line so you'll hear sort of the scratching sound of the paper. Yes, that is. And that's because I'm using the dry brush technique. Now I'm adding more shadow around the eyes, and if you notice I'm leaving a little bit of white space just around the corner of the eye , that's very important because it adds a lot of depth to your painting. When you do that, you need that little bit white curved line there, or light colored at least lighter color than the shadow around it to just add a sense of depth to the area of the eye. And it also sort of add some life to the I. - So the tip of the nose is a little too much brightness. I need to add a little bit more shadow there. So I added really a kind of strong shadow over that, and then I'm softening it. It's just to add more of a gradual change to knows, rather than that sort of kind of harsh line that was there. All things I'm doing now or sort of fussy details, they may not even need to be done. It's just that I'm sort compelled to keep painting. Sometimes it's just hard to stop painting, so you have to decide wouldn't stop for you to stop painting. And remember, we're painting doesn't have to be perfect. And if you're just beginning, it does take practice that I currently to keep on trying because it is so much fun and joy just to experience that creative process. Okay, this painting is wrapped up, and I hope you have enjoyed seeing the process. Now let's go talk about your project 13. 13 Project and Thank You: For the first part of your project, I would like you to complete the color warm up. I can't stress how important this is because it will help you choose your colors and know how they work together so that your results will be pleasing to you. So don't forget to do the warm up and share it in the project section For the second part of your project, I would love for you to paint the whimsical face You can start by drawing. Or you can use the drawing that I provided for you to give you a jump start and just use the colors you've chosen and paint in those wonderful beautiful layers. Don't forget that Part of the purpose of this class is toe learn to keep things simple by breathing by being present by embracing the creative process and keeping that wonderful attitude that will help you enjoy the painting because we're repainting Anyway. We want to create something beautiful. But really it's because of the joy it brings us when we do the work. So thank you so much for taking my class. I hope you enjoyed it. I can't wait to see your projects in the project section below. And don't forget if you enjoyed this class and you haven't followed me please follow me here on skill share and leave a review in the review section. I appreciate you so much. Thank you. I'll see you soon. 14. 14 Bonus Timelapse: