Hi everyone!
I’m excited to share that my brand-new Skillshare class launches this Sunday, February 1st. This one will be a building upon my latest class, Watercolor Portraits for Everyone, so make sure you take it before the start of the challenge.

It’s a 5 WEEK watercolor portrait challenge where we’ll paint 5 new colorful portraits—one per week. Each Sunday, I’ll upload a new set of lessons (planning + sketching + color mixing + the full portrait demo), so you can paint along with me at your own pace.

Along the way, we’ll also build a versatile portrait palette together: we’ll start with the 4-color palette from Watercolor Portraits for Everyone, and then add one new color each week, finishing with a workable 8-color palette that you’ll truly understand and know how to mix.

Upload Schedule (Sundays)

Class is LIVE & Week 1 DEMO: Sun, Feb 1
Week 2 DEMO: Sun, Feb 8, 2026
Week 3 DEMO: Sun, Feb 15, 2026
Week 4 DEMO: Sun, Feb 22, 2026
Week 5 DEMO: Sun, Mar 1, 2026

What to Prepare (Materials List)

Paper

Watercolor paper, 300 gsm, cold pressed, ideally cotton (any brand is fine). I paint on 12 x 16" blocks (30 x 40 cm)
(I’ll be using Winsor & Newton Professional watercolor paper.)

Brushes

2 round brushes, ideally soft sable (I use Winsor & Newton Series 7, sizes 5 and 7)
Optional: calligraphy brushes for hair textures (not required—round brushes are enough)
1 large soft brush for big washes (I use Winsor & Newton Pure Squirrel / Petit Gris Pur, No. 6 — a hake brush works too)
Synthetic brushes for cleanups/corrections (I like flat)
(I use Princeton Aqua Elite Round + Stroke 1/4")

Paints

Yellow Orange / alternatively Cadmium orange or cad-free orange (any brand)
Permanent Red / alternatively Cadmium red or cad-free red (any brand)
Cobalt Blue
Cobalt Turquoise
French Ultramarine
Cadmium Yellow Medium (any warmer yellow will do)
Permanent Carmine / alternatively alizarin crimson from any brand

Bloodstone Genuine (Daniel Smith) / this is a dark, granular color

NOTE - (All my paints besides Bloodstone are now Schmincke Horadam, this brand was kind enough to send me many of their paints to test and I built my palette from their range. This doesn't mean you cannot search for alternatives from other brands, just try to get close to the original shade)

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REQUESTED PIGMENT NUMBERS & things to consider when choosing pigments:

Essential colors (try to match closely):

Yellow orange (Schmincke Horadam) - PY110

Permanent red (Schmincke Horadam) - PR242,PO62

Cobalt Blue light (Schmincke Horadam) - PB28

French Ultramarine (Schmincke Horadam) - PB29

Cobalt Turquoise (Schmincke Horadam) - PG50

Most important pigments are your orange, red, cobalt blue and ultramarine. Best orange & red are simple cadmium orange and cadmium red from any brand. BUT I stopped working with them, cadmium is mildly toxic and I have health issues, therefore I researched pigments more closely. Winsor & Newton professional watercolor paints have best cadmium-free options (cadmium-free red and orange) BUT they do not disclose the pigment number anywhere (I am assuming on purpose, these look almost EXACTLY like cadmium pigments), so get those if you can. My Schmincke cad-free versions (yellow orange and permanent red) are both gorgeous and non toxic, but this red (PR242+PO62) is slightly darker than cadmium red and the mixes are slightly off.

Cobalt blue and French Ultramarine will be easy to match across brands, as well as cobalt turquoise - always the same pigments.

Less essential colors (just find something that LOOKS similar and you'll be fine):

Permanent Carmine (Schmincke Horadam) - PV19 (alternative is Alizarin crimson, but careful because the PR83 is very fugitive, opt out for something like PR179, look for names like "Permanent alizarin crimson, madder lake, carmine)

Cadmium Yellow Medium (Schmincke Horadam) - PY35 (!!! this is still a cadmium color, but I dont have alternative right now. In the future I will swap for nontoxic watercolor paint, just to stop being paranoid. This won't stay on my palette permanently. OPTIONS - any warm yellow, like Azo yellow (Daniel Smith) or Primary Yellow (Sennelier). Also, cad-free alternative from Schmincke is on the way to my studio but didn't arrive yet in time for the filming of the class.

Bloodstone Genuine (Daniel Smith) - genuine mineral color, non toxic, gorgeous, cannot substitute from other brands, just find similar dark granular color - optional is Mars Black (either Schmincke Horadam or Winsor & Newton), optional without granulation is Payne's grey or Neutral tint (painting will have less texture but you can still achieve sufficient darkness)

PLEASE NOTE!!! Don't just try to match pigments, you have to match the hue. Some paints can contain same pigment but have totally different shade, this depends on the processing of the pigment what it looks like in the end. For example PV19 can both be Permanent Rose and also Permanent Magenta (Winsor & Newton), so often you do better if you look for similar shade - at least of nonessential colors. Thanks :)

Drawing tools

Mechanical pencil with 2B lead (Pentel is my favorite)
Optional: Blackwing pencil (Dark)
Erasers: kneaded + dust-free (Faber-Castell) + precision eraser pencil (Koh-i-noor)

Helpful extras (optional)
White colored pencil (Caran d’Ache Luminance 001 Titanium White), scalpel, spatula, sponge, paper towels, hair dryer.
I’ll also use a sketchbook and some watercolor paper scraps for testing—scraps alone are totally enough.

I’m really looking forward to these five intense portrait weeks—if you join in, you’ll level up a lot, I’m sure.

Who’s joining? Let me know in the comments!

Jane

Jane-Beata Watercolor

Watercolor artist & teacher

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