Portrait Painting in Watercolor

PORTRAIT
.PAINTING IN
WATERCOLOR
Charles Reid
$27.50
PORTRAIT
PIIHTINO Ill
WATERCOLOR
Charles Raid
!
I
In this book, Charles Reid guideS the reader through a

complete,step-by-steptourofthewatercotorrnaterialsand
methOds needed to eteale exp18SSiYe, rna9terful portraits.
He beginswith the baSiCS, including which paintS to use:
how to chooSe your bruSheS: which pap8f8 are best for
sketching;and hoW to set up and positiOn your drawing
bOard.Reid then presents 25 informatiVe, beaUtifully illus
trated demonstrations that incorporate suchtecl\nlques
as mixing washes and over-washes , wet-in-wet ,dry
brush,
lifting out,and using more than one value.
He goes on to show the reader how to paint the
basic head form: the eyes,nose. mouth,and ears;tight
hair and dark hair:hands in general and hands In de
tall.In following these demonstration$. the reader will
team how to use simple tight and dark washes to lndl
cate the shadows and highlights that describe the
features :where to look for these light and dark areas
when the head Is In three-quarter ,side,front, back,
and rim lighting situations;and how to use scratching,
feathering,and hard and soft edges to create textures.
By the time he reaches the complete,full-color
por trait demonstrations-show ing how to paint
children, young men and women,and older men
and women the reader has mastered the basic
techniques of the medium,and Is ready to
incorporate them Into suc cessful portrait painting
Inwatercolor .
160 pages. 11 X av.Over 150black and white illustra
tions.42 Color Plates.Index.
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS
PORTRAIT
PAINTING IN
WATERCOLOR
PORTRAIT
PAINTING IN
WATERCOLOR
Charles Reid
WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS / NEW YORK
This book is for Judy and Peggy

and for my father,
who wanted me to be an artist.
First published 1973 in the United States and Canada by Watson-Guptill Publicat ons,
a division of Billboard Publications, Inc.
1515 Broadway, New York. N.Y. 10036
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Reid,Charles, 1937Portrait painting in

watercolor. Bibliography: p.
1. Portraits. 2. Water-color
painting Technique. I. Title.
ND2200.R44 751.4'22 72-13569
ISBN 0-8230-4192-1
Distributed in the United Kingdom by Phaidon Press Ltd.,
Musterlin House. Jordan Hill Road,Oxford OX2 SOP
All rights reserved. No part olthis publication
may be reproduced or used inany form or by any means-graphic,
electronic, or mechanical, ncluding photocopying,recording,
taping, or informat on storage and retrievalsystems-without
written permission of the publ shers.
Manufactured in Japan
First Printing. 1973
3 4 5 6 7 8/99 98 97 96 95 94
Acknowledgments
If this book is good,it's due to the efforts of

my edi tor Lois Miller and the desigrners of
the book, James Craig and Robert Fillie.
I'd also like to thank Don Holden f or his contin
ued help and encouragement.
Content
Introduction, 10
Materials, 12
The Hands
13.
14.
Basic Hands,94
Hands in Detail, 98
The Head
1.
Head in Three-Quarter Lighting, 16
Portraits in Black and White

2
3.
4.
5.
6.
Head in Side Lighting, 20
Head in Front Lighting, 24

Head in Back Lighting,30
Head in Rim Lighting, 34
Basic Head Form,38
15. Child. 104

16.
17.
18.
19.
The Features
Quick Sketch. 12"x12" ,Fabriano
paper. Thisis a very quick

sketch, and Imade no attempt
whatsoever to develop any
detail. Irelied on light sections in
the hair, nose and forehead to
carry the picture. Ileft the white
shirt untouched in certain
sections and allowed the shadow
areas and the areas of similar
value to blendtogether.This type
of sketch isvery goodexercise
and f un to do, and Ifinished it in
about three minutes. I never
worry whether somethinglike this
will come off or not. I do it and
put it aside and start
again.Later,if
tlooksgood,Ikeepit. If it's a
failure Ijust turnit over and work
on the other side.
Occas onally,Ithink it's good for
any artist to work this way. It
helps you avoid treasuring your
work and feeling that it's too
precious.And I thinkit's good to
avoid judging a pictureright
away. Do a paintingand put it
aside. Your eye will be much
fresher later.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Eyes, 44
Nose. 50
Mouth, 56
Ears. 60
The Hair
11. Light
Hair,82
12. Dark
Hair,86
YoungWoman, 109
Young Man. 115
Older Man with Beard,
121
Dark Complexion. 126
Portraits in Color
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
Selecting Color, 134

Mixing Color, 136
Girl with Headband, 138
Oriental Child, 141
Bearded Lobsterman,
144
Child in Sunlight, 147
Full Figure, 150
Bibliography, 153
Index, 155
Introduction
10 PORTRAIT PAJNTING INWATERCOLOR
For me.watercolor isa spontaneous and

sugges tive medium. and Ifind using it an
excitingadven ture.
I've heard several "myths" about painting
with
watercolor. andIdisagree with them all.For ex
ample. I've heard it said that you can't make
any corrections or changes with this mediumthat you haveto be ''right"the first time.This
just isn'ttrue! I'vefound thatmy corrections and
changes often "make" a painting.and Ihope
you'll see for your self what Imean as you
follow the demonstrations in this book.
Another misconcept ion about this medium is
that it's much harder to paint people than to
paint other subjects with watercolor .Again.
Idisagree! Watercolor is ideal for spontaneous,
informal por traits. and it's certainly possible to
paint highly "finished" portraits with waterco
lor. I'd rather go to oil or acrylic for my
"formal"portraits. but this is a very personal
preference.Isimply find it helpful and interesting
to switch back and forth between watercolor
and oil.
Ican't stress enough theimportance of
knowing
how to draw before youlearn how topaint por

traits. Drawing is beyond the scope or this
book. but in the Bibliography I've listed several
fine books on drawing heads. hands. and
figures, which you might want tostudy if you
have doubts about your drawing.
For the demonstrations inthisbook.
I'vepainted each step ona separate sheet of
paper-to make the "lessons" as clear as
possible-so you'll prob ably f ind minor
variations as you progress from one illustration
to the next. Ithink these slight dif ferences from
one step to another should actually behelpful to
you.They'll show you that watercolor 1s
anything but an exact science, and that each
paintingis a new experience! Iplanmycomposi
tions carefully .and Ibeginwith accurate
drawings. but Idon't use any exact system
once Istart to paint. Ilike things to just happen.
For me. this approach creates the excitement
and adventure that are so much a part of
painting with watercolor.Inthe
followingdemonstrat ions,I hope you'll share
this sense of adventure with me.
Sketch Class, 8"x14 "', Fabriano paper. This 1s

JUSt a very quick noteol one ollhe men whowas
working in our sketch group.There are mistakes

and poorly done areas.but Ithink a painting such as
this 15 valuable in developing an ability to put down
what you see directly and spontaneously. Even if
the painting doesn't come off as awhole. there
might be one or two sectrons thai do work .
Materials
About the only unpleasant aspect of

paintingwith watercolor isgoing out tothe art
store to buy the necessary materials. Good
watercolo r brushes, paper, and colors are very
expensive. The only thing Ican say about thisis
that good materials are an excellent
investment. Try to steel yourself against the
expense, knowing that you jus t can't do your
best work if you use poor materials.
Brushes
There are two main types of brushes,oxhair

and sable.
Oxhair brushes don't form the fine point that's
necessary todo the important detail work in
paint ing a head, for example.On the other
hand,an ox hair brush would be fine for the
early demonstra tions in this book,while you're
just becoming familiar withthe general
techniques of watercolor painting.
Sable brushes are the best. but they come
in varying qualities. You should buy as good a
brush as you can possibly afford. The three
sable brushes Isuggest are a 1" flat,a
Number 10 round,and a small,Number3or
Number 4 round. The numbering of brushes
seems to differ from one manufacturer to
another. For example. the Winsor & Newton
Number 8 is approximately the same size as
the Grumbacher Number 10;the smaller sizes
differ correspondingly. Investigate the
differences yourself ,and choose the brushes
you feel most comfortable with.
It's very difficult to do a good painting with a
brush that's become tired and soggy ,so you
shouldalwaystry to use one that comes to a
good point.Save your old brushes for
background areas and use your good brushes
for precision work.
12
PORTRAIT PAINTINGIN WATERCOLOR
Paper
Ithink good watercolor paper isvery important.

By "good,"Imeana paper that's fairly soft and
ab sorbent. Cheaper papers tend to be
hard,often re pelthe paint, andsometimes
seem to have an oily
f ilm that doesn't really take the color well. But
again, you can certainly use a cheaper paper
until
you have a good idea of how watercolor works.
When you use expensive paper,you may
hnd that you'reafraid of It-that you don't want
to ruin it-andthis may make for very tentative
and timid efforts. Try to accept the fact that you
are going to nuin some very good paper and
that it's just part of
learningto paint! Whenever you can. work on
both
sides or a sheet of watercolor paper
(apparently there is a right and a wrong side,
but I've never found out which is which) .
Watercolor paper comesinvarious weights
and textures. The textures run from very
smooth , called hot-pressed,to rougher
textures, called cold-pressed (moderately
irregular) and rough (which means really
rough). I'd suggest that you usea fairly smooth
texture like hot-pressed,al though later on you
should experiment with both rough and smooth
paper and see which you really like best.
Hot-pressed. cold-pressed,and rough papers
come inweights running from the very light 72
lb. to the mediumweight 140 lb. to the very
heavy 300 lb.The weight of a particular paper
means the number of pounds that a ream (500
sheets)of that paper weighs. The paperis
normally the standard Imperial size-22" x 30".
The 72 lb. paper isreally too thin and light for
watercolor work ,unless you don't plan to
makeany mistakes.The heavier pa per,such as
140 lb.or-even better-300 lb.takes
more punishment .The 300 lb. paper

isespecially good to use. You'll f indyou can
make all the cor rections you want on it without
fear of its buck ling-becoming wavy.
Paintbox and PaleUe
Since you'll probably do most of your

watercolor work indoors, it doesn't really matter
what you carry your paintsand brushes in.
However,a fish erman's tackle box or a
carpenter's tool box makes a very handy
container for all of your equip ment.Bothtypes of
boxes have smallcompart ments that are
excellent lor holding paint tubes and brushes,
and the large compartment beneath is agood
place for your palette and water con tainer.I'd
suggest that you buy a plastic tool box
because it won't rust. You'll probably find a good
one at your local discount house.
Iuse an enamelbutcher's tray when Iwork in
my studio and a folding metal palette when
Iwork away from mystudio.The butcher's tray
makes an excellent studio palette.Ithas alarge
area for mix ingwashes. andit lasts forever . If
you buy a folding palette,be sure it has a large
enough mixing area and plenty of room for
your colors around the edge. Don't buy a
palette that has ready made cakes of dry
color onit-buy one that's meant f or tube
colors. And don't buy a plastic one.They don't
last and it's difficult to mix pigment and water
on them.
Easels
I've never used an easelfor my watercolo r

paint ing,because Ifindth.em more trouble than
they're worth.An easel isjust one more thing to
carry and,
when I'm carting arounda drawing board,

paper, and a paintbox, Ialready have plenty to
carry. In my studio, Iuse two folding chairs as
my easel.Isit onone,set the other opposite
me. prop my draw ing boardagainst the back
of it,and use the seat to hold my palette,
brushes and water jar. When I work outside,
Iusually prop my board against a handy rock
or simply set it on the ground and kneel in
front of it.
Some artists prefer to sit in a chair and
place
their paperand board on the f loor in front of
them. The advantage of painting in this
position-so f ar from the paper-is that you
can't really "tighten up" on your work ; you've
got to swing your arm and y01,1 tend to t;le
muchf reer with your painting.
If you're working in a studio,I'd suggest that
you use an adjustable drawingtable-one that
you can fix ina horizontal position when you
want to paint standing upand adjust all the way
to vertical when you want to sit and paint.
Try to f ind the place and the painting
position
most comfortable for you.As you become
more in volved with watercolor painting,you'll
certainly de velop your own method of placing
your drawing board and paper.
Colors
I'll go into a complete discussion of color in

the chapters on Selecting Color and Mixing
Color. For the black and white projects in this
book,you should buy either ivory black or
Payne's gray. When you buy these-and all of
your colors-! suggest that you buy tube
paints, rather than dry cakes of color. Perhaps
this also falls into the realmof
personalpreference-it may be quite pos sible
to do excellent paintings with cake colors-
Texture. 4"x6", Bristol paper. I took advantage of

the hard surface of the Bristol paper tocreate
somespecial effects here. For example, not ce the
very high-keyed cast shadow under the nose. This
was originally much darker, but Idropped some
water into the shadow and, asthe areadried,
thewater left a rather etched effect. Instead of
describing the nose with the usual dark value,
Iindicated its presence by leaving the hard
boundaries around thecast shadow .While the hair
was still wet, I blotted it with a tissue to create
texture. I suggested the sweater and. as the area
dried, 1 scratched out some texture with my f
ingernail. Ialso used my finger to blot the mouth
and create a very effective texture.
MATERIALS
13
bullthink you'll find it much easier to put the

rigl1t amount of color on your palette when you
use soft tube color. And be sure that you buy
transparent watercolor paints,not gouache.
Gouache is opaque watercolor, and it can't be
used tor trans parent watercolor painting.
Miscellaneous
Your drawing board should be fairly steady and
should provide a good, solid surface to paint on.
As Imentioned earlier. Iofle{l work wllh my board
ina verttcal position. although I'veheard thatthts
1s considered very unusual. Wet washes run
when the board isvertical, andIthink you'll see
many of these "runs" in the illustrations in
thisbook. Idon't lind"running" bothersome. but
perhaps you will, and it might be better tor you
to work with your board 1n a horizontal or
diagonal position.
When Igo to a sketchclass or work inmy
house,
Icarry a fairly small drawingboard-either a
stand ard. commercial pine drawing board or a
piece of Masonite orplywood-about 16"x 20".
Pushpins don't penetrate Masonite . but you
cancarry a role of maskingtape to attach your
paper to the board.
Ialways 11ave a kneaded eraser,pencils, and a
razor blade in my box.An eraser should be
used very carefully. Never use a hard, office type
eraser and,even when you use a soft eraser
such as a kneaded, becareful not tooverdo your
corrections. Ityou scrape the surface of the
paper. 11wtll be come rough, it won't hold the
paint as well as it should, and the rough texture
of the erased area will show through your paint.
Usea 28office pencil. It'sfairly soft, but not
too
soft.Hardpencils tend todig upthe paper and, al-
14 PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR
though they make very nice lighllines. Ithink

you'll lind yourself bearing down as you try to
develop your drawings.Very soft pencils,such
as 48 or 68, tend to leave very dark lines that
become both ersome at the painting stage.
Razor blades arevery useful lor scratching out
light areas when a painting is dry.You can also
use razor blades to scratch out when your
painting is wet, but be careful not to dig upthe
paper.lt'salso possibleto overuse razor blades
and ruina patnt ing.Just a few highlights are
necessary in any painting, and too much
scratching out will create a very unpleasant.
"too busy" effect.
Ialso use the tip of my brush handle and my
fin gernail to scratchout light lineswhile washes
are still wet. Ithink you'll notice that I've used
both these methods to scratch out strands of
hair in some of the demonstrations .
Forwater containers, Iuse plastic tars-the kind
that margarine comes in. They ht nicely into my
paintbox and they don't break. An Army canteen
anda matching cup also make a very good
water carrier and container.
Iuse pushpinsto attach my paper to my
drawing board-unless I'm using a Masonite
board.In that case, Ikeep a roll of 1" masking
tape handy to fas ten my paper to the board.
Finally, Ialways carry a box ot facial tissues.
They're extremely helpful in many ways.
They're excellent for blotting brushes and for
blotting areas of paintings that are too wet and
are getting out of control. Ialso use them to
scrub out mis takes and to soften edges that
have become too hard. Ithink facial tissues are
a necessity in any watercolor kit,but you may
find that paper towels work just as well.
The Head
Standing Girl. 4"x8".

Bristolpaper. Asyoucansee
here.it"s possible to paint a
portrait without really showing
the f ace. You can simply capture
the subject's particular attitude.
I'm sure you've seen someone
walking down the street and
known who that person was
before you could really see any
features. Att itude isa
veryimportant part of a
portrait,andyou should try to
capture this as wellas the
specific features.
Head in
Three-Quarter
Lighting
Inthe five demonstrations that follow. you'll

beus ing just two values-one light and one
darker-to represent lightsand shadows on a
highly simpli
fied head form. Naturally,you won't always
have such simple value problems: many of the
heads you paint will be infairly complicated and
diffused lighting situations. Even in these simple
exercises, however. remember that the headisa
solid. egg shaped form. and besure that all of
your shadows indicate th s.
Later on. inthe sixth demonstration. we'll intro
duce a thirdvalue. or halftone. But. in the begin
ning.remember that simple shadow shapes can
be your best friends and, whenever possible.
pose your model under a single. fairly definite
light source.A single light source will develop
the simple shadow shapes I'll be talking about.
Inthisdemonstration.we'll assume that the
light
is coming from the left. so the shadow will be
on the right side of the lace.For our purposes.
the ''right" side of the face will always mean
your right.and "left"will always mean your
left.As you sketch outlines inpencil.remember
that the pencil lines are just ageneral guide.
Get used to working broadly and freely with
your brushstrokes, and don't try to till in the
outline carefully.
As you prepare your washes. squeeze agener
oussupply of black paint on!o your palette.
Don't be stingy-give yourself enough pa'nt Co
do many practice heads.If the paint dries
between ses
sions. you can dampen it with water to make

i1 workableagain.Tomakeyour pigment
lighter,dip your brushinto the water supply
and shake it to get r dof the excess water.
Then dip the brush into tine edge of the pile of
pigment on your palette and draw some of the
paint out onto thework ing area
or the pateue. Work the dampened brush and
the pigment together to make a "puddle." If this
puddle is s1ill too dark,dipyour brush back into
the water supply. shake it.and workit into the
puddl-e again.
For this exercise. you'll needa good sable wa
tercolor brush that points" well;a Number 8 or
Number9 will be f ine. You'll also needa
palette,a water jar .a tube of ivory black. an
HB.2A. or 28 pencil. adrawing board.and
pushpins. For paper. use a good quality hotpressed watercolor paper with not too much
texture.The size ot the paper isn't very
important. You can cut a full sheet into eight
pieces. and you can use both sidesif it's fairly
heavy-at least 140 lbs.Remember to wait until
the first attemptisdry before you work on the
other side.
When you're ready to begin Step t. pin your
pa per toyour board. place a pushpin ineach
corner. andset your palette and water supply in
a conven ient place.You can work standing. with
the board held horizontally, or you can sit.
with your board held at an angle.
Three-quarter L ghting:Step 1.Woth your pencil,

sketchinasimple oval, about 4" or 5" high.Don't
labor over it.Next.sqeeze some black paintonto
your pa lelle. and, as I've already described. make
a fairly light wash thars still noticeably darker than
the white paper. Then. with a loaded brush. make
broad strokes within
the oval. Don't worry if some strokes go outside the
pencil outline.
Three-quarter Lighting:Step 2.Allow the hrst wash

to dry.Then dipyour brush inthewater jar. gove It a
shake. and go back to your pile of black pigment.
This time, makea muchdarkerpuddle than the value
you used in Step t .but use enoughwater to keepit
from being pure black. With one or two good,
dehnote strokes, paint a strip about t" wide down
the entire right (your right) side of the face.
Three-quarter Lighting:Step 3. Now lor a very

simple indication ol lhe eye on the shadow side ol
the face. Theshadow stripyou madeinStep 2
should still bewet. Loadthe brushwith the same
dark value and, starting about a third of the way
down the dark strip, make a horizontal jog out
into the "lace," stopping when you're almost to the
middle. You have now indicated the shadow under
the eyebrow.
I'> IN THREE-QUARTER LIGHTING 17
II
Three-quarter Lighting:Step 4. Next is the

shadow side of the nose.You probably have enough
paint on your brush,soreloadingshouldn'Ibe
necessary. Start ingwhere you left oft with the eye
indication,make a downward stroke that slants
slightly toward the right. The nose becomes broader
toward the tip, and the shadow should widen here
to reflect this.All noses dif fer. but let's make this
one about one-third the length of the face.
18
PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR
Three-quarter Lighting:Step 5. Reload your brush

with the same value.Give it a shake to remov_e
excess paint before you go back to the paper.Froro
the end
of your last stroke,make a very short jog downward
and to the lett. This indicates the bottom plane of
the nose. Now make a diagonal. downward
stroke to the right. to connect the bottom plane
with
lhe main shadow stroke you made in Step 2.
Three-quarter Lighting: Step 6. The mouth is just

short ol halfway between lhe nose and me
chin,closer to the nose.Startingwhere the
connecling stroke you just made meets the main
shadow.make a horizontal stroke to the left.
Thelength of this stroke depends on
howwideyouwant to make the mouth.At the end of
the stroke, press down on your brush to make the
stroke wider.Then lift your brush directly off the
paper.
Three-quarter Lighting: Step 7. Now comes the

shadow under the lip. Starting back at the main
shadow,below the mouthon the right, make
asepa rate. curving stroke toindicate the
underside of the lowerlip.Ths strokeis not aslong
as the mouth indica tion, but it should be a bit
wider.
Three-quarter Lighting:Step 8. To wrap this up,

indi cate the second eye formwithashort, full
stroke on the left side of the face,opposite the first
eye shadow . Makethis avery simple short
stroke.not an attempt at theactual eyelids,
etc.Inthis illustration,I've added the
ears,to make the head more complete. You can
block inthe ear on the left sideof the face withone
stroke of your first light wash. As the finishing
touch, you can make one or two shadow
indications lor the darker right ear form,and we're
done!
HEAD IN THREE-QUARTER LIGHTING 19
2
1n
Head
Side
Lighting
Our first demonstration was concerned with the

most common lighting situation. Most
commercial portrait artists use threeQuarter
lighting. This doesn't mean, however, that
three.quarter is the best and most desirable
lighting situation . Each lightingSituation has
itsown particular merits. and we'll explore these
as we get deeper into the sub ject ot painting
portraits.
Step t .You might also find it helpf ul to mark

very lightly. with a Number 2 pencil.lhe
positionot the eyes. nose tip,and mouth.
Remember that your pencil sketches should be
only the roughest guide for the brush. Since you
are not painting shadows ooaparticular head. it
doesn't matter if you make thenose toolong or
the chin too short .You'll cer tainly make pencil
sketches in the more advanced
In thisdemonstration we'll deal with side light

ing.
the
easiest
of
au
the
various
lightingsituations to represent. Side lighting
creates fewer shadow shapes than threequarter lighting and doesn't re quire the rather
subtle value changes that are nec
essary in front , back , and rim
lighting.
For thisexercise.you'll need the same
materials that you used in the first
demonstration. including the fairly smooth,
good quality watercolor paper. Pina pieceot
paper to your board. (Inthe previous
demonstration. I suggested cutting a full sheet
ot paper into eight parts. so this piece should
be roughly 6" x 8".)
If you teet more confident with a pencil
guide.
rough in an oval about 5" high before
beginning
exercises.but here. with very simple ovals. they

aren't really necessary.
To begin. prepare a light wash from the ivory
black andwater.lf you have a pileof dried paint
on your palette. let the palette sit in water for a
few minutes,with the paint at least partially sub
merged.This should soften it up nicely and
make it workable .Otherwise. squeeze out a
fresh pile of paint. Remember .you can't judge t
he value ot the wash onyour palette until you
are quite experi enced. soit'sa goodidea to
have a separate piece ot paper handy to test
your washes.Keep in mind also that your wash
will dry lighter-so don't make your puddle too
light.
20 PORTRAIT PAINTINGINWATERCOLOR
'
S deLighting: Step 1.Allermoxing the paont andwater

onto atairty light value.loadyour brush from the puddle
andgive itagood shake Brushinanoval. usongbroad.
free strokes.Don'tworry of the wash isn't evensome areas may bedarker than others. but it doesn't
matter. (Atthis point. you canat so indicateboth
ears.with two simple strokes.) Let the wash dry.
Side Lighting: Step 2.Now,prepare a shadow

wash thai'smuchdarker than the light wash;use a
bit more pogment and a bit less water.Next. take a
well-loaded brush, give it a good shake. and start
blocking on the forehead area on the right wolh a
downward, diagonal stroke that goes about a third
of the way down the length of the face and covers
about one-third of its width.Then. makea very
short jogto the left todescribe the general
construction of the nose bridge where it meets the
eyebrow.
Side Lighting:Step 3.Now comes the

nose.Reload your brush,and.from the nose
bridge.makeadoagonal stroke to the right about
one-third the length of the head. At thetip.make
another very short diagonal jog in theopposite
direction.To describe the bottom plane of the
nose. use this darker value toindicate the ear in
shadow on the right side of the face.
HEAD IN SIDE LIGHTING

21
,'
Side Ughling:Step 4.Now for the area above the
mouth Startingat the bottonplaneof the nose.
make a diagonal stroke to the right.fUSIasyov drd
tor the nose and the forehead; but,this time. make
rt very short say.about half a noselength.You're
now at the mouth. andaveryshort JOQtoward
yourteft will indrcate the un derside of the upper
lip.Netice that I've used my shadowwash to
tenghthen tne shadow along the right srde of the
lace.
Side Ughting: Step 5.The tower hp comes next. II

mrght well be catching some hght, so cut back
your blushto the right from the undersideof the
upper tip to leavea light area.Then make ashadow
under the tower lrp with a short diagonal stroke to
your left.Finally, make a simple stroke that curves
outward to the right and back downaround the
bulge of the chin.
S de Ughllng:Step 6. For your lrnishrng touches.

show theshadow areas inthe lett ear and eye. the
left portron of the nose. and the left corner ol the
mouth. Notethat thesesmallshadow areas arehtlle
more lhan largedots. Makenoattempt to beaccurate
withthese shapes.All youwant at thispoint is a
generalrzation. to grve an idea ot a simple,solidlooking head.
Side Lighting. 8"x10".Fabriano paper. This

started outas asketch of my daughter,but the
likeness isway ott.Alt hough itwas afailurein
terms of likeness, 1was interestedin thelight
coming from either side of 111e subject, and Iwas
intrigued by the very sculptural quality that a
head inthis kind oflightingcan have. It's possible
to develop the greatest amount of form with
thiskindof lighting.We see the darkest sectionsinthe
frontplanes of the face.white the side planes
catchthe light in varyingdegrees.
Head
1n
Front
Lightin
g
Front lighting is di1ficult to represent,

because it does not create simple
shadow shapes to clearly show the
construction of head. Instead of relying
on simple shadow shapes, we must
describe the head with small shadow
shapes and halftones, or thevalues which
liebetween lightsand shadows. Halftones
require much more subtle treatment than
the simple statements of light and
shadow which you made in the first two
demonstrations.
However,since we' re still dealing with
very basic head forms, we'll rely as much
as possible on the small shadow shapes
and keep our use of halftones to a
minimum. Later, when we're in volved
with more "finished" heads, halftones will
play a much larger part; but, for now,
we'll stay with basics and develop a
simpLe, solid headwith small shadow
shapes.
For this exercise, stick with 1he the
materials you've been using. You'll also
needa box of tis sues.Pinanew pieceof
paper to your board. We'll assume that
the light is coming from the front and
slightly above the head,so
there'llbeshadows on both theright and
left side planes.as well as under the
features.
Front Ughtlng: Step 1. By now you should
be more adept at painting simple ovals, so a

pencil guide shouldn'l really be necessary.
Squeeze out asmall amount of the black
pigment, mia puddle ol fairny light wash,and
make a simple oval shape about 5" high.Al
lowit to dry.
24
Front Lighting: Step 2. Mix your shadow washwith morepigment.less water thistime-and block
in the left side plane. Notice how the contours ol
the shadow lot low the shape of
theforehead.Work broadly, but keep in mind the
placement and shapes of the forehead, eyes,
cheeks, and chin as you work in those areas.
Front Lighting:Step 3.Now, repeat the same

proce dure on the right sideof the head. For
now.stick with the same shadow shapes on both
sides of the head. Later.you'llsee that heside
planes of the f ace usually differ f rom eachother
andare rarely bothindicated with the same shadow
shapes.
Front Lighting: Step4.Now come the bottom

planes of the eyebrows.nose, and mouth. These
are not as prominent infront lightingasthey are in
overheadlight ing,but they'restillquite definite.
Starting one-third of the way down either side
shadow (I've started on the left), make ahorizontal
stroke directly across the face.
stop just short of the hallway point, and make a
short
jog downward.
HEADIN FRONT LIGHTING 25
Front Lighting:Step 5. Rinseout your brush and

giveit agoodshake.Pass the damp brushdownward
through thestroke youmadeinStep 4 to indicate the
side ol the eye.
Front Lighting: Step 6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5.

starting
lromthe shadow on tt1e other side ol the face.Ob
viously, the eyes are much more complcated than
this; but you've made a good start inindicating
thestructure of the eyeball and socket.
Front Ughtlng: Step 7. With one stroke.make a

simple.dark,triangular shape about two-thirds ol
the way down thecenter of the lace.Thisindicates
the bot tom plane olthe nose.
Front Lighting: Step 8. The upper lip has a del

nite shape and can't really be shown with a simple
line across the face.To indicate the mouth, start a
fairly broad stroke inthe middleofit. As you move
toone side andthen tothe other,make the stroke
narrowerimme diately,and put less pressureon the
brush.At the cor ners of the mouth. press the
brush down andliflit directly off the paper.
Front lighting: Step 9.Quickly blot the whole

center section of the mouth with a tissue to
lighten it.
Front Lighting:Step 10.To finish, makea short

stroke under the mouth.
HEAD IN FRONT LIGHTING 27
Joe. (left) IO"xl0", Fabriano paper. This isa

painting olavery goOd friend.!was
particularlyintrigued by the verystrong overhead
light and Ireally went overboard in al owing my
shadows to become blurred and lost, relying on
the tew light-struck areas to carry the picture.
Ileft theinitial wash.which I usually use to
describemy light areas.very highinkey. Iwanted
the slightly wast1ed-out. cold effect that the strong
lluorescent lights produced.
Standing Figure. (Right) 8''x10". Fabriano paper. In
!lois case, the head didn't interest mQ as much as

the pattern ttmt the light created when it struck
the girl's sl1oulder blade and the front of her
shoulder. Most of 1Mfigure and bacKground are in
shadow ,and you can seejust thebarest indication
of lght as itskims around
some olthe same colors. I enjoy experime nting with
thehead anddescribes the boundary of forehead.nos<O

and mouth.Although the valuesinthisbackground are
rnuch darker than the values in the figure, I otten use
the same valuein both areas. and I occasionally use
values.I'm never sure just how I'llpaint a subject until
I experiment .WhenIwork inoil Iconstantly change
my values. When Iwork in watercolor. Isometimes
make three or four studies such as this.
experimenting with darK values in one and light
values in another.Each timeyouchange avalue.you
create a diff erent eflect. II 111admade the
background darker inthis painting,the feelng would
be totally different.
l1
Head 1n
Back
Lighting
A. This shad<m pattern occurs whenthe light

is at the right side and only slightly behind
the head.
30
PORTRAIT PAINnNG INWATERCOLOR
When the light source is somewhere behind

the head,the situation iscalled back lighting.
With the light at the right side, and only slightly
behind the head, the shadow pat1ern is similar
to that in Sketch A.If thP.IiQht i!l:: lmost directly
bP.hind the head but slightly off to the right,the
head looks something like Sketch B.When the
light is directly behind the head. thereis a
simple,dark silhouette, with little or no rimlight
showing, as inSketch C. (We'll discuss rim
lighting in the next exercise.)
For this exercise,we'll assume that the head
is lighted as in Sketch A, with the light on the
right side and only slightly behindthe head.ln
this back lighting situation,most of the face
remains in shadow; these shadow shapes are
quite descrip tive of the head as welt as rather
simple to paint.
B. When the light is almost directly behind

the head, but slightly off to the right,the
shadows look like this.
As you mix a lightwash. and then a much

darker shadow wash tor this
exercise.remember to check your values on
another piece of paper. This way , you won't
overwork the washes on your painting by m!
ltatino v::lues_ Also. remember to dip your
brush in your watsr supply and give it a shake
be fore you load it with a new value-in this
case, your shadow value, Make your strokes
decisive and broad and block in your shadows
fairly quickly, so that you'll be able to soften
and "grade" certain areas. You'll see what
Imean as we go along.
Again,you'll use your ivory black. a Number 8
brush, a jar of clean water ,your sheets of
good quality, fair ly smooth watercolor paper,a
palette, pushpins and drawing board,and a
Number 2 of fice pencil.
C.Here, thelight isdirectly behind the head. ar

a simple,dark silh:Juette is created.
Back Lighting:Step 1.Paint a fairlylight oval. about

6" high, including one stroke foreach ear.Allow it
to dry. Then, with your pencil, make a line across
the f ace about one-third of the way down. This is
the line of the eyes. Directly underit.draw a
triangular shape for the nose.Note that the sides of
this triangle are made up of two curving lines, and
that the bottom is about two thirds of the way
downthe face.Indicate the mouthwith a line halfway
between the bottom of the tnangle and the bottom
of the head form.
Back L ghting:Step2.W1th a dark shadow

wash.start block ngintheshadow shapas.
(Iusuallystart blocking about two-thirds ot the way
across the forehead, on the right.or lighter, side
olthe f ace.) After you block inthe shadow on the
forehead, continue the stroke down on the right.
mak nga dark shape bes1de the nose toindi cate
that part of the eye socket on this side is in shadow.
The top plane of the cheek is probably catch ing
some light. so narrow your stroke in toward the
nose andleave this area untouched byshadow
wash.
Broadenagain for the bottom plane of the cheek.
Then
narrowyour Strokeand curveit to the right for the
area above the upper lip-around the rounded
thrust of the teeth-which is probably also
catching light. Curve your stroke inwardand
downward towardthe chinin a single,broad line.
Back Lighting:Step3.Block in the shadows in the

left centersection, leaving a light strip about W' wide
along the left boundary of thef ace.Work quickly and
mass in theshadows, startingwith the f orehead and
the topof thenose. Fillin the left side of the nose.
working down toward the tip, and make a small jog
to the rightwhen you get there. Then, roughly
indicate the contours of the upper and tower lipsand
the curve of the chin. Don't worry if these contours
aren't correct. This should be just a lacsimile of a
face.
HEAD IN BACK LIGHTING 3t
Back Lighting;Step 4.Now draw the shadow wash

out turther toward the lett side olthe head.You
should have enough paint and water in your brush
to do this without going back to the paint supply on
your palette. Draw this shadow right out to the edge
of the head and indicate the contour ol the ear.
32 PORTRAIT PAINTINGIN WATERCOLOR
Back Lighting;Step 5.Now to suggest reflected light

within the shadow. The shadow should still be wet
lor this step. Rinse your brush in your water supply
and give it severalgood shakes to make it just
damp. Then start a downward zigzag stroke at the
top of the light stripon the outer lett side of the
head.(See the sketch
at the right on this page.) Allow the shadow wash to
llow out in a slightly lighter value along thes
strip.This lighterarea suggests reflected tight and
gives the head a feeling of bulk and threedimensional form.You might haveto repeatthis
process several times, and thearea of reflected light
will become lighter and lighter with eachof your
strokes. Rememberthat you're using your brush as
a sponge:you're no longer putting paint on. you're
taking paint oft.
To suggest reflected light within the shadow. place a

damp brush at the top ot the light strip at the left, and
draw the brush downward in a zigzag stroke.
Back Lighting.(Right) 8"x 1O", Fabriano paper.This
model was sitting in front of awindow and most
ofthe light was coming from behind. However. the
light was sostrong that there was agreat deal ot
reflected light in the room,and Ishowed this with
very high-keyed shadows.Only the cheekbone and
the side ot the eye wereaflected bythe light,but
Icheated a bit and added some light-struck sections
on the nose and above the mouthtomake the form
more interesting. There's also
a very tiny spot ol light on the lower lip.Although
I
indicatedthe very subtle darkening in the mouth
area, it's these light-struck sections ot the mouth
thai actually show that it's there.
Head 1
Rim n
Lighting
34 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
The differences between back lighting and rim

lighting are very subtle, and the effects of both
lightingsituations are quite similar. When there is
at least one light behind the head and a
secondary light coming from one or both sides
of the head, we see a definite rimof light around
the border of the dark shadow. This secondary
light brings out subtle value changes in the front
of the face, and
the problem of shadows becomes more compli
cated. Inthe sketch below, notice how much
form we seewhen there are two lights behind
and one on either side of the head.
Inthis case-and whenever you're trying to
de
terminethe overall, or "big" shadow value-squint
as you look at the subject. When you use this
trick, the complicated small forms disappear and
you seethe big,simpleshape of a dark silhouette
with a light rimaround it.One of the greatest
problems students have isseeing too
much,rather than too little. Perhaps Icould say
that a student sees too many of the "wrong"
things-too many of the unimportant details.
For this exercise,we' ll usethe rim lightingsitu
ation in the sketch-with two lights behind, and
oneon either side of the head. Don't worry about
all the small forms you might see in the shadow
that covers the front of the face. You'll need the
same materials you've been using: ivory black,
a Number 8 watercolor brush, piecesof good
qual ity,fairly smooth watercolor paper, water jar
and water, pushpins and drawing board.
When there is at least one lght behind the

head, and a secondary light coming f rom
one or both sides of the head, we see a rim
lighting pattern similar to this.
Rim Lighting: Step 1.You should be able to paint

the first,light-valued ovalwithOut an
outline.sopencilwork isn't necessary before you
start painting. Mix a fairly lightwash onyour palette
and paint a simpleoval about 5" high. Now. make
two short. diagonalstrokes about a thirdof theway
down the head to indicate the ears.AI low this
wash to dry.
Rim Lighting: Step 2.Mix up a darker wash on

your palette,using more of the black pigment.this
time with less water Give your brush a good shake
after cleaning it inthe water supply, and shake it
againatter loadingit
f romthe darker puddle.AsI've already discussed.
most of the face is asimple darkvalue,so, beginning
about '/.i" f rom the top of the light oval, start
blocking in the shadows . Work broadly, making
bold strokes, first downwardinthe center.then
branchingoff to the sides.
Rim lighting:Step3. Try to visualizeand roughly

indi cate the construction of the eye sockets and
cheek bonesas youblock inthis area.As youwork
out toward the side boundariesof theshadow.
remember that they are the boundaries of the
front plane of the face and roughly indicate those
contours Next, block in the shadow sections of
both ears.leavinga rimof light. You shouldnow
have a rim of light completely surrounding the
face.
HEADIN RIM LIGHTING
35
Rim Lighting:Step4. While this front plane shadow

is stillwet,rinseout your brush.give it agood
shake.and start softening some of the boundaries
between the shadow and the light rim with zigzag
strokes. Where you soften an edge really depends
on the particular headand theexact postion of the
lights behindand be side it. Inthis
demonstration,I've softened all the bot tomandside
planes but this is only an arbitrary deci sion When
you're painting an actual head,observe where the
shadows on these forms seem to soften and

where they appear harder .
36
PORTRA IT PA INTING IN WATERCOLOR
Rim Lighting: Step 5.To finish your head,soften

the lower boundary of the chin.The neck stops the
light fromreachingthis area, leavingit inshadow.
Remem ber that the areas yousoften betweenthe
shadow and the t ight rimshould actually appear
lighter thanthe light rim itself. You can make them
lighter by blotting-them with a tissue, or by mopping
them wih a clean, damp brush.As a finaltouch, blot
the side planesof the nose witha brush that's
justdamp, not really wet. Make this just a subtle
indication-we don't want to complicate the facel
Blue Head. (Right) 12"x 12", Fabr ano paper. This
subject had very delicate and lovely

skintones.and I spent most of my time just
mixing up the right complexionvalues onmy
patette.ldid paint the entire head with atight
washfirst andallowed itto dry bef ore I added my
shadows. In this dim lighting situation, however, I
could have used the white paper at one to
indicate the light-struck areas. Notice that I hardly
stated the eye. There's just a subtle indicat ion to
show that it's there.
6
Basic
Head
Form
So far,you've been painting basic head f orms

with two major values: light and shadow, But
,when you softened an edge between light and
shadow, you created a third, or middle.value .
Becauseit's sup posed to be a value
somewhere between light and shadow,this
middle value is somet mes called "halftone."
Inthis demonstration. we're going to give more
emphasis to the middle value or halftone . l'd like
to stress,however,that the two originalvalues,
light and shadow,are still of prime importance.
if you conf use your shadows by makingthem
too light or too busy (with lots of small value
changes within these shadows) or if you clutter
your lights up with values that are too
dark,youIIdestroy the simple form of the head.
Keep this in mind, and as you wor k on your
middle tones,don't let 1hem destroy your simple
lights and darks.
Naturally, when you're working with a specif
ic
model.the shadows created willvary in width
and length, depending on the contours of the
head,as well asonyour lighting situation.You
won't always f indthe same pattern of hard
and soft edges. Here, we'lljust do avery
generalized head,but the prin ciples of halftone
we deal with in this exercise should be
adapted f or, and appliecl to, any head you
choose to paint.
This time,we'll assume that the light is
coming
from above and to the right of the head. You'll
needyour Number 8 watercolor brush,a
palette, a tube of ivory black, water jar and
clean water , pieces of watercolor paper,
pushpins.and drawing board. Always keep
tissues handy, to lighten, soften, or lift out wet
washes .
Basic Head:Step 1. Forthe sakeof variety,we'll doa

three-quarter-view head.Thisis really the same
basic oval. It's just a bit f latter on one side,a little
more curved onthe other. Mix your usuallght
washandblock inan oval5"' high, similar in shape to
the one illustrated. Don't worry too much about
making an exact copy of my oval.
Basic Head:Step2.Nowfor the neck. While the f irst

wash isstill good andwet,stan about 1
w in from
the
chin,andmake a rectangular shape about2"wide
and
2"long_
Basic Head:Step3.Mix upyour shadow value on

your palette.After gelling rid of excess moisture
with a shake of thebrush. start blocking ina dark
shadow strip about 1"wide along the left side of the
face.At what will bethe eyearea,make a slight jog to
the right and stop, toindicate the eye socket.
Then.with a much thinner
stroke (about V" wide), continue to follow the
left
boundary of the oval around to the neck.Notice
that thisstr p becomes very narrow below the eye
and then widens again at the neck.
Bas cHead:Step4.While this shadow strip is still

wet. drawitout to make the boltomplane of the
nose.Thisis asimple triangle shape, andone corner
of the triangle blends with the shadow strip.
BASIC HEAD FORM 39
Basic Head:Step 5. Now, reload your brush from

the shadow puddle, giveit a shake, and move on
to the mouth.Once again. star1at the shadow,
which should
still be wet. and brushthe shadow shapes out rnto
the
hght area.tnd1cate the upper lipw1th a general
shadow shape about 1'A'' long. The top plane of the
lower hp catches hght and creates a shadow under
1t; so don't realty touch the lower hpitsell.but make a
shadow un
der ot about :Y.H long The shadow under the lower top os
qu1tewode where 111oons the mainshadow. butit nar
rows as 11 proceeds out into the hght area.
40 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATER COLOR
Basic Head:Step 6.Your shadow should stilt be

wet when you do this step. Don't put o n any r ew
shadows now. but "connect"" the ones you havewith
your light areas. tomakea third.or middle. value.For
thisgeneral doagram.leave about 1 atthe topof the
shadow strip "hard." Rinse your brush, gove ot a
good. hard shake, andplace ot m the shadow above
the eye.Now.soilen the forehead by drawing your
brush outward-and slightly upward about I" 1nto the
hght area. Prepare your brush agaon,and soilen the
edge of the strc!<e you just made.Fepeat this
procedure untot you have a smooth gradat10r1 from
light to shadow .A l!Ssue is handy here to blot the
end of the slfoke-to make it light enough and to get
rid of excess water Now. use the same procedure
on the shadow of the cheek and the top section of
the nose.
H
Basic Head:Step 7. Al lhe mouth,you want lo

show that t11e lips curve around the dentalarch of
the teeth. One way todo this is tolighten andsoften
theedge of the lipsas I've done inmyiltuslfation.
Rinseyour brush, shake ot .and draw it right up
through the mouth in a diagonal stroke.Aga n. you
can blot th1s area wit hyour ussue.(You'll have to
experiment.All th1s takes prac tice.The forst few
hmesyou try,you probably won"t get the effect you
want .so be pat ent.) Finally, soften the shadow
under the mouth, using the same procedure.
Youshould nowsee avery definite combinahon of
hard and soft edges.
Basic Head:Step 8.Now for the right eye. In the

light
area. use yourshadow valueto paint an ovalabout
1 v,"
long and 1" high. Rinse and shake your brush and
lighten the middle section of the eyeto show the
round formof theeyebatlandgive the eye a feeling
of bulk. If necessary. blot thismid-section caref ully
with a tissue to lighten it. Note that there are hard
edges on either side of the eye andsoft edgesinthe
middle.Now.con tinue the middle, light area of the
right eye down through the top plane of thecheek.
This area is about '%"wide directly under
theeye,but itwidens as you ap proach the bottom
plane of the cheek.
Basic Head:Step9. To end your project, reload

your brush. shake it out Md. starting at the right
corner of themouth. makeaveryshort stroke
upward toward the cheek.Now. rinse your brush.
give it a very good shake,andallow Ihis dark area
to flow upward,to show thebottom planeof the
cheek.Work this middlevalue down into thelower
cheek.toward the upper lip,and intothe shadow
below the lower lip. Then.indicate the right ear very
s mply, with an oblong shape.Note that the ear in
this illustrationis quite light.because I've
blotteditwith my tissue to keepit fairly light and
unim portant. We'll worry more about the ears later.
BASIC HEAD FORM 41
The Features
Seated Model. 10"x10",

Fabriano paper. The very simple
lighting on this head created a very
nice feeling of bulk and form. The
modelhadvery fair complexion, and
the tones were extremely cool. The
shadows were mostly cerulean
blue. except for the nose, which
was quite warm. I actually
exaggerated the coolness of the
shadows inthe eyes and around
themouth,just as Iexaggerated the
warmth ot the nose, to make the
color in the head a bit more
interesting.
Eyes
The top two sketches of eyesareincorrect. The

upper and lower lids should never be drawn
as identical shapes. The three lower sketches
will give you an idea of the variations inshape
found between the upper and lower lids.
44
PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
In the previous demonstrations, as you studied

the overallconstruction of the head, Istressed
the im portance of showing that the head has
bulk and form-a lesson that you should always
keep in mind.Unfortunately, however, it's much
easier to think form when you're working on a
generalized head than when you're painting a
specific head. When it comes to painting the
head of a particular person, you'll have a strong
tendency to forget all about overall bulk and
mass and to concentrate in stead on the
particular features that you think will give you a
likeness.
However, a good likeness actually depends
more on the construction of the particular head
than itdoes on the small shape changes found
in an eyeor mouth. This is a vital point,and Iwish
I could somehow cement it solidly into your
mind: but it'sa very difficult concept to practice,
and only through experience, with its tears and
frustration, will you finally understand!
As you start painting particular features in
this
exercise,try to stick with the feeling of bulk
and massthat you've been practicing.
Although you'll be putting ineyelids and
eyebrows this time,con tinue to strive for a
general impression of form and threedimensional bulk.
In this demonstration. you'll be working on the
right eye(the eye on the right, from your point of
view). on athree-quarter view of the head. illumi-
natedby a single light source from slightly above

and to the right.
As you begin Step 1,note the shape of the
eye I'vedrawn.Noticethe rather angular shape of
the left sideof the upper lid. Remember that the
shape of the eyeisnever general. Itscurves
always have a specific shape, depending on the
particular model you're using and on the
position of the eye in relation toyou. An
eyeviewed from the front nat urally appears to
have a different shape than does an eye
inthree-quarter or sideview.And, most im
portant. remember that the upper and lower lids
never have identical shapes. They are never
identi cal almonds or ovals; the upper lid
normally over laps the iris, which usually seems
to be "sitting" onthe lower lid.Inthe sketch at
the left, I'vedrawn some "good" and "bad" eye
shapes.
You'llbe using the same materials: ivory black,
Number 8 watercolor brush, 6" x 8" watercolor
pa per,waterjar and clean water, pushpins and
draw ing board.This time, you'll be making
some light pencil indications again, so have
your 28 graphite pencil handy.
One final point before starting. For demonstra
tion purposes,you'llbedoing features by them
selves in the following projects. However,
when you're actually painting a complete
head, always consider the features in relation to
each other and to the head as a whole-never
by themselves .
..../
Eyes:Step 1. Lightlyske(ch inaneye about1Yz"

long
and
W'
highat
its
highest
point,usingtheshape inmy illustration as an
example.
Eyes:Step 2. Mix up a light wash, pass it over the

whole area of your drawing, and allow it to
dry.Then. mix up your shadow wash.
Eyes: Step 3.Starting about :W' above the upper

lid,In a line parallel to theleft boundary of theIris,
make a diagonal shadow stroke downward. Notice
that I've painted right over the left boundary of the
eye.
EYES 45
----
------- "')
Eyes:Step 4. While your dark strip is stillwet
,beginto softentheedges.A llow the wash to flow
out at the nose bridgeto indicate a f ront plane
between the top plane of thenose andthe top
plane of the forehead.Also,allow some darker
wash to flow out intothe eyeball and under the
lower lid.It'simportant that youdon't worry about
the actual boundaries of the eye, but,instead, try
to show the big planes of the eyeball and the
adjacent nose area.
Eyes:Step 5.Continue to draw your shadow 'out."

In dicate the shadow onthe upper
lidsimply,witha long strokethat runsthe entire
length of the upper lid.Blot thisstroke lightly just
above theiristolighten this area andto showthat
the eyeball and upper lid"come out at us" at this
point.
Eyes:Step 6. While the wash is still wet, blot and

lightenthe lower left, or inside corner of the eye.
After youblot, you might haveto draw more
shadow out into thelight and restate the specific
boundary of thecorner of the eye. Now comes the
important large oval plane onthe right side of
theeye (yourright). Again,make a
simple,diagonaldark stroke,beginning above the
up per lid and stopping just below the right corner
of the eye. Finally, softenthe upper boundary of this
diagonal stroke with adamp brush and blot it if
necessary You should now have thefeelingof the
contour of the eye ball.
Eyes: Step 7. Now for 1he eyebrow.Hopefully,

the darker wash is still damp, since you want to
put some soft edges on the eyebrow . Use almost
pure pigment here.and start at the left.thicker end
of the eyebrow. where the edges should be solt.
As the eyebrowcurves around the side plane of the
forehead,your stroke should becomelighter and
thinner. Here, you might try drybrush to suggest
the ightening and thinning,as well asto suggest
the texture of the eyebrow.Finally, block
ina simple oval for theiris,with the value you used
in theupper lid.(Inmanycases. you might want to
use the same value inallthree areas-iris, upper lid,
and eye brow.) I've lett a small dot untouched in
the iris, as a highlight. Remember-never make
highlights too large or important. Leave themout
rather thanoverdo them. Note that some
boundaries of the iris have blended with adjacent
areas and softened. Never fill in a hard oval here:
let the iris "bleed" out into the eye in places,
keeping the tissue handy to control the "bleed."
Eyes: Step 8. The iris should still be damp. Using

a touchof purepigment-almost
nowater-"drop"inthe dark pupil,stillleaving the
highlight untouched. Next. block in a darker
strip on the upper lid.As a rule. the upper lid is
always darker than thelower lid,since it forms a
bottom plane and casts a shadow on the eye ball.
(Eye make-upsthat women might use should not
concern you here.They are exceptions to a rule
that usually applies.)I've also madea simple
curving line as
a generalindicationof the fold
directly above the eye. When you paint a particular
eye,however, give special attentionto the shape of
this fold. Finally,restate some
of the darksaround the eye. For this finalstep,allow
the previous washes to dry. so you can see exactly
what needs more definition and restatement. Never
try to worka newwashoverone that is stilldamp.In
my f inal sketch,there aremany "lost"and "found"
edges, and the eye has definition without looking
hard.
EYES 47
Vicky. (Left) 8"xt0".Fabriano paper.This is one of

those paintings that turn out to bequite
agoodlikeness eventhoughI'mnot overly concerned
with a likeness.! didit in a sketch class, and a very
strong lght was shining on the model. This girl has
very definite features-lovelyeyes and a very
strong,aquiline nose. painted the head in two
values, washing in the light value first and-alter
this dried-blockingin the darker value very simply.
Finally, Iadded the dark accents around the eyes,
which are quite prominent. When a subject has
prominent eyes.it's very important to stress them
and to let other areas, such as the mouth in this
case, become secondary. Here, I let the eyes and
the hair dominate the painting.
Doris. (Right) 12"x12", Fabriano paper. This model
hadvery strong features, andIfoundit quite simple to
capture the likeness. She was sitting still, which
also helped a great deal. The strength of the
particular features-thevery characterist ic mouth
and the definite eyesand nose-inconnectionwith the
simple shadow shapes created by the strong
lighting situation made the head quite simpte to do.
Nose
Eachfeature hasitsown set of painting

problems, and the nose is no exception. As
portrait painter John Singer Sargent
oncecommented:"A defini tion of a portrait is
that there is something wrong with the nose."
Although describingshape accu rately with
light,dark,and middle valuesis a prob lem
common to paintingall the features. one as pect
of this problem is somewhat unique to painting
the nose:subtle value changes are also
necessary to indicate shape inthe part of the
nose that is in light .
Like the head,the nose is made up of specific
planes: those facing the tight are naturally the
lightest; those turned partially away from the
tight areabit darker ;and those planes turned
com pletely away from the light are inshadow.
As you'll see, the shadow area of the nose is
easy enough to block in. However, this dark
area does- 't com ptetetyexptain the nose. and
we must go out h1to the light area with middle
light values to develop the full construction .
As you do this,guard against making these
"light" indications too dark, or you'll destroy
the form of the nose, as well as the form of the
entire head.In this demonstrat ion, put in only
the most necessary middle values. No stroke
should be made that isn't vital. I'm not sure who
said it, but the statement. "'It's what you leave
out,not what you put in.that counts." certainly
applies here!
As you go along,you'llalso see ases in
which
highlights and accents are used.These are
atop posite ends of the value range: highlights
are the lightest lights. accents are the darkest
darks. How ever.they have one thing in
common:they should both be used sparingly and
with great discretion. It'slikeusing salt
incooking:just the right amount can be
marvelous;too much.and you've ruined the
dish.
50PORTRAITPAINTINGINWATERCOLOR
Again. we'll use a good, strong, single light

source that makes shadow shapes obvious.
We'll assume that the light is coming from
above and to the left. Hopefully, you've done
enough drawing to know what shapes to took
for.Each noseis differ ent, of course.and you'll
have to study specific subjects carefully to
observe the particular shapes of their
noses.Here, we have a three-quarter view of
the nose,above eye level, so we see some of
the major bottom planes.
Before you begin Step 1. notice that I've
sketched in the lower section of the nose as
a simple oval nmy illustration. Using this
basic oval as a foundat ion, Ithen describe
the specific shapes of the particular nose I'm
painting.Always start this way,with a general
shape, such as acyl inder or an oval; then
you'll have a point of depar ture for your
specific shapes.
Try th lolluwing experiment and Ithink you'll
see what Imean.Pretend you're looking down at
an umbrella.and try to draw the series of points
around the rim,just as you would see
them.Ithink you'll find it difficult to do this very
accurately. Now,draw a circle first, and using
this circle as a foundation, draw the series of
points. Do you see that this technique makes it
much easter to draw a
respectable-looking umbrella?
Back to the nose. Note the variety of shapes
in the illustration for Step 1.There areangles.
curves, and straight lines.Always took lor-and
draw-a variety of shapes.No form ismade of
curves atone; there are almost always some
angles and straight lines, too!
You'll need your Number 8 watercolor brush,
your tube of ivory black paint, a palette. water
jar and clean water ,pieces of 6" x 8"
watercolor pa per,adrawing board and
pushpins.and a Number 2 pencil.
.............
,- .
. .-.... ..
./ /".J
...
'.
..
1...
Nose: Step 1. Sketch in the nose , using the

method I just discussed. nmysketch,I've Included
some of the surrounding features. but don't worry
about these sur roundingareas-they merely
helptogive usan idea or the position or the nose on
the lace. Note that I've sketched in the boundaries
of the bottom plane ot the nose.This willgive youa
guide when you block inthis area with your darker
values.
Nose:Step2. Now. laya wash over the nose and the

surrounding areas.I've left one smalldot of white
paper untouched on the front plane ot the nose.
This will be the highlight Remember that highlights
shouldalways be very smalland that one or two
highlightson a head are plenty.
Nose: Step 3. Now,yourshadow shapes.Inthis

case, the bottom planeof the nose and the cast
shadow un der the nose are the most important
dark areas.After mixingupashadow puddle on your
palette. toadyour brush and giveit a good shake.
(The first light wash shouldbe dry by
now).First,blockinthe left eye, which silhouettes the
light-struck nose. Watch your pencil
guidesandmake your shadow shape carefully, noting
the outer boundaries ot the lett eyebrow and cheek
and, more important,making surethe boundary ot
the front planeot the nose is right It'svery important
that you catch the subtle angles and curves of any
shape you'redrawing or painting, andthis iscertainly
truein the case of the nose! Stop the stroke just
short of the nose tip,
NOSE 51
Nose: Step 4. Now for the bottom plane of the

nose. The entire underside of the nose can
bedescribed with a simp e. oblong shadow
stroke.Then with the same wash,paint the cast
shadows under the nose. These cast shadows
continue right down and connec t with the mouth.
(Always tie in as many of your shadow shapes as
you can: avoid leaving bits and pieces ol shadows
spread aimlessly about.) Finally,give the briefest
indication of the right eye socket, to make the nose
"project" out from the face.
Nose:Step 5.1've carried the bottom plane shadow

of the nose a bit further,articulating the definite
small shapes on either side of the nose tip.
Normally, I'd do this when Ifirst putin the bottom
plane (Step 4), but here, I want to stress the
importance of starting with big, simple shapes
before getting involved with small forms. I've also
carried the mouth a bit further.just to show how
much mi eage we can get out of the cast shadow
under the nose.You can also use the same
shadow wash to describe the mouth and the
shadow under the left cheek.
Nose: Step 6. Now, the right nostril.Indicate

thiswith a bitof pigment that's almost pure black.
(Remember that shadows almost always have
some rellected lght in them; so never make them
black. The nostril, on the
other hand, is an accent: almost no rellected light
reachesintoareas like the nostril.) Notice that the
origi nal shadow seems lighter by comparison.
Notice also that some of the edges aroundthe
nostrilaresottened and lost where they blend with
the adjacent shadows. Thismakes the nostril seem
to be part of its surround ings.whereas a hardedged,dark area would appear isolated and
unconnected.
Nose:Step 7.To compietethisexercise.add the very

subtle middle valueson thelight side ol the nose.Re
member not to make them toodark.or they 'lllook like
shadows. and the nose will''llatten out." (Compare the
sketch on the right to the ollustratoon tor thos step. and
you'll see that the middle values onthe sketchare really
toodark.) Middlevalues descrobe the specific construe
lionol the noseareas that are inthe light,andthey are
very important and necessary on painting a finished
head. However, there is a danger that if youtrytomake
allthe subtle value changesyou see he result will be an
overworked and tired area. So. for now, concentrat eon
simple toghts andsimple darks and put inonly a min
imum ot necessary middle hghts.
The middle values are too dark here. The nose

has "flallened out," and the result looks
overworked.
NOSE 53
Anne.(Lelt) 8"x10". Fabriano paper.The

subteclhere was a very prelly girl,but I'matraid that
doesn't show up inthis sketch. Rather than trying
10 doa nice picture olmy subject, Iwas more
interested in painting what happens when a strong
light shines down and bnngs t11e planes into very
harsh reliel. The lightness of t he shadows helps
create the feeling of lumonosity that I hke. On the
other hand, the high key in both the loght and
shadow areas is more typical of sunlight than of
ar1ohcoal nighttnne lighting. Shadows 1n sunlight are
always much higher on key than shadows inan ondoor
SituatiOn,sompty because outside reflected hght os
much more obvious than inside reflected hght.
Model In Profile.(Righi) 12"x12".Fabnano paper. In
paonhng a prohle-whoch iscertaonty the easoest way
to pa1nt ahead-tl'svery important to articulate the
ma1or Shapes, and very careful draw1ng os
necessary .Of course. 11's also omportant to capture
the character ol themodel.andItned to describe the
rather hard quahty '" this partocular face. Compare
the blurred edges around the eyes and under the
nose with the very delinotehard edge inthe torehead
and along the nose. Always try to create acontrast
of hard andsolt edges. and never let allof your
edgesbe equal in hardness or soltness.If all of
youredges aretoo hard. the headwill look "cut out
and pasted down'' and.if they're too solt, you'll lose
the definition of the head.
9
Mouth
Now. to the mouth. The painting problems here

are the same as those of painting the other
features: shape is still oneof the first
considerations,and the planes are important in
showing the structure ol the mouth.Also,be
sure you have a good variety
of hardand soft, or "lost and found," edges.
One way to achieve a "lost " edge is to put
two areas of similar value next to each other.
The boundary be
tween two similar values will obviously be much
less noticeable than an edge between a light and a
dark value.
Take a look at the illustration f or Step 6,
and I think you'll see what Imean.In the upper
lip, we have a fairly dark value. and above it
we have much lighter skin tones. Compare this
fa rly large value contrast or "found" edge, with
the contrast between the lower lip and t11e
skin tone below it.
The lighter tower lip is very close in value to
the sk1n tones next to 11. and a "lost"edge or
bound ary 1s created between the two areas.
InStep 6, as you describe the area of the
mouth
aroundthe dental arch of the teeth. try to give
the lips and the entire mouth a f eeling of
roundness and form. Always remember that the
line of the teeth produce a rounded form and
that the lips must indicate this by appearing to
go around it.
The sketch at the right illustrates t his point.
When you mix your washes f or this
exercise.re
member that there is no harm 1n making your
shadow values fa rly dark. As you've seen.
washes dry lighter,and, when you draw
shadow areas out into light areas to make
middle values. you auto matically lighten the
shadow.
This time,the light source is somewhere above
the model. This means that you'll have shadows
on your bollom planes, middle lights on your
front
56 POAlRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR
planes,and light areas on your top planes.

Your materials remain the same:your
Number 8 watercolor brush, a tube of ivory
black (or Payne's gray). a water jar and clean
water .pushpins and draw1ng board. palelle.
and watercolor paper.
---
The dentalarch.or tone of the teeth, Is a

rounded form, and the structure of the entire
mouth should 1ndicate thos roundness.
Mouth:Step 1.Sketch 1nt11e mouth. We're do1ng

more or tess a front vew here, and I've !ned to draw
an "aver age mouth." (Naturally,t here s no such
thmg!) Pay part1cular allenlonto shape .Never
assume you know the sl1ape ot t11e mouthor of any
other feature. Come to tlledraw ng boardwlt11a
clear mnd and an observant eye. Always ask
yourself : how cloes the upper hpcom pare to the
lower hp? Is 1t h1nner or latter? See 11ow much
curvature there S to the upper 11p.As a general
rule.ti1C upper hp ISa much more Involved shape
tl1an the tower hp.
Mouth: Step 2.Nowcomes your lirst tight wash.

Mix a wash JUSt asyou've done belore. and cover
the entire mouth area and some olthe surrounding
areas, too. I've lefl a small sect1on of untouched
paper onthe tower hp to indicate a possible
highligl1t. You won 't always have higl1ligl1!s, but,
wllen you do, make sure they're not too big! This
one seems too b1g, so I'll make it smaller as we
go along.
Mouth:Step 3.Now tor your shadow

shapes.Onyour palelle, mix upa fa rly dark washbetter too dark at this stage than too lght.Aller
loading your brush, start at eilhcrcomer olthe
mouth.Usually,ther e is a crease In the sk111 at
the moLIh corner.so start your stroke off wider
here and 111en narrowitimmediately at t he begin
nmgolthellps (111isdepends. olcourse,onthe
shape of thepartiCular mouthyou're painting).
Make the stroke wider agatn as you approach the
middleof the mouth. Asyoucan see. l'vestopped
my stroke short olthe cen ter oilhe upper hpand
repeated the procedure on the other side. leavingan
untouchedmiddlesection to ind cate roundness
around the dentalarch.
MOUTH 57
Mouth:Step 4.Rinse your brush and give It a good

shake. Workmg Quickly (you don't want the shadow
wash you did m Step3todry'). connect the two
sodes of the mouth at the middle. allowong Ihe
shadow to flow onto the areayou lei!untouched inS!
ep 3.Notice that the rriddtearea is stilltighter
thanthe twosodes.Notoce also that the two Sides
have become lighter because theor washes
havebeendrawnout into the ltght. Next. draw your
shadow down onto the lower lip from either corner
of the mouth. leaving the middle section un
touched.
Mouth:Step 5. Now.draw the valueson either side of

thelower lipinto the middle area. repeating the
process you used for the upper lip.Notice that I've
allowed someof the darker areas of !helips to flow out
into sur roundongskon areas. (Never allow the
mouthto appear osolated and unconnected toits
surroundings.) One of these soft edges occurs under
the lower lip,and is the beginning indicatioo of a
bottom plane underIhe lower lip.
Mouth:Step 6. Now. Ihe f inal touches.The main

th1ng to do here is restate areas that need emphasis
and darkenmg.To darken the upper lip, repeat more
or less the procedures youused inSteps 3 and 4.On
the nght side. I'veallowed some of the dark upper
lipshadow to
travel down into the lower lip,to avoid leavong a hard.
cootinuouSdlll sion betweenthe upper and lower
hps. Remember to keepthe feeling of connection and
onter retationshop between areas by using "lost"
and "lound" edges.The hard division between the
lops in themiddle area is lost as you soften the
edges and you can make the left side even more
indistinct than the
right side.If you makean area too vague.always waot
for it todry. or almost dry, and then add a final
touch ol darker value to the edge.
Cast Shadow. (Right) 10"x10".Fabriano paper.
Inthis overheadlighting situation. 1 generalized the
cast shadow created by the head. As a general
rule.you should be sure that cast shadows express
the panicutar torm oo whoch they he.
Here.however.there
is such specihc form in the face that the
generalized cast shadow seems to work. Notice
that Icarelulty arltculated the planes of the face.
although 1usedonly one value inlhe shadows. You
can see thatl wasvery carefulto capture the Quality
of this particular models lace.
10
Ears
The ears are very important features and

should never be carelessly drawn or painted. A
poorly drawn ear is often the mark of an
amateur. You should take just as many pains
with the ear's shape andconstruction asyou
take with any other feature.Always observe
carefully,and try to cap ture.the particular
construction of this rather com plicated f orm.
One common mistakeis to make the inner f
old at
the top of the ear the same shape as the top of
the outer boundary. I've drawn the sketch below
toil lustrate this error .In the correctly drawn ear
on the right. notice that the top of the inner fold
is quite straight ,while the outer boundary is
curved.Thisis a general rule. although you
might sometimes be hard-pressed to see a
difference between these two shapes. Evenif
the two shapes look exactly the same. I'd vary
/h em. since Idon't f eel there ever shouldbe
two parallellines,equalcurves. or similar angles.
on the human form.
It'sprobably safe to say that nothing in
nature is
exactly symmetrical. Th1s is avery important
point to remember. When you draw a
curve.look lor an angle to contrast withit;when
you have a straight line. looklor a curve or an
angle for contrast.
For this demonstration, we' ll do the ear in
side view,sowe can see as much of its 1ormas
pos sible. We'll assume that the light is coming
f rom the front and also from slightly behind the
When you're painling a particular

ear.study the outer contours and the 1nner
head.
areas unhl you see their exact structure.

Inthis exercise. hardand soft edges willbe
vital
in showing the construction of the ear, and I'll
keep mentioning them. because I want you to
see all they do tor the ear you paint!
Remember. too.that your wash has to be damp
when you soften an
edge.so always soften edges as you go

along, rather than completing the whole area
and then soltening.
InStep 6.I'lluse two techniques:wet-in-wet
and
dry-brush.Wet-in-wet isextremely useful inmak
ingsoft.lost edges. It consists of adding a
second. wet wash to the wash that is already on
your paper. before the t1rst washis dry.When
you use wet-in wet. be sure that neither washis
too wet ,or you'll destroy the effect. When
drybrush is indicated. simply load your brush
straight from the paint tube. mixingit with little
ornowater. and apply your dry strokes to plain
paper or dried washes .
The ear on the left is drawno ncorrectly.The

outer boundary at the top of the ear should
never be thesame s11ape as the inner told. In
the correctly drawn ear at the right. theinner f
old is straight. whi e the outer boundary is c
urved.
_J _,.. ;/
,.
."'"""
./
_ ....)\
/
.l
_,:._
-/ '
Ears: Step 1. Look first at tt1e outer shape of the

ear. Notice that the top is a simple curve thai
becomes straighter asit starts downat the
back.Some ears can be described by a simplecurve
along the backedges, others by almost s1raigl1t
lines.and still others by a muc11 more complicated
system of curves and angles
(like the one were drawing here).Sketch in the

inner
shapes very lghtly.You want only alight

"blueprint" as a guide when you blockin the inner
shadow shapes.
Ears: Step 2. Lay a light wash over your

drawing and allow it to dry.
Ears: Step 3.Begm blocking in the inner shadow
shape under the foldthat runs along thetopof the

ear.There
is usually more distance between the top Iold and
the inside of the ear near the skull, so start with a f
at shadow shape on the left. and narrowit as your
stroke reaches this large inner space.(This
largeinner lorm c;Joesnt always goc;Jirectly upto
thetop of the ear liap
as 1ve indicated here, but thereis always some
form which makes up the inner ear area.) Back to
your shadow shape. Notice t11at it widens then
gradually thins again asit starts down the right side
of the ear.
EARS 6t
Ears:Step 4.Now for some edge-softening. Rinse

out your brush. g1ve 1t a good sllake. and soften
the tower . 1nsideedge of the largeshadow shape
before 11nar rows.The soli edge describes the
crev1ce inthe inner
ear form. I've also softened the outer edge of the
shadowslripon the roght. afler paont1ng thiS strip
almost three-fourt11sof the way down the ear. Now
back to t11e front of the ear. Wolh your shadow
wash.o nd1cate a very narrow spot on the left. under
the original shadow shape.then the very
largeo ndentahon Ihalos typ cal of almosl all ears.In
thos case. I'veshown the 1ndentalt0n
as a "teardrop" shape.
62 PORffiA!T PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
Ears: Step s. More softening takes place as you

use your damp brush to lighlen and soften the inner
edge of Ill!> dark teardrop shape.Darken thearea
above Ihe ear
to 1nd1ca1e haor and to create some background hat
w1ll offset the lighler sections ofthe ear. It doeso't
mauer if the softened area on the right side of the ear
IS still wet and you get a soft. '"lost." edge between
thiS shadow sectionand the background.See how the
hard and soli edges. both within the ear and around
the outs1de. help to show the pariiCular construction
on the roght sideof the ear.
Ears:Step 6.Below Ihe lobe. which is quitelight.

add the surrounding dark tones.Don't work into
ligl11 or la1r1y light areas.and don't add loo much
delail.or you'lldestroy the feel ngof your light
area.After you"ve established your surrounding
darks. leisome of lhe darker values llow out into lhe
light bottom lobe as subtle middle values. Bioithese
middle values so t hey don't become toodark or too
large.Now use your dark est dark to indicate
thecenler section of the ear. using wet-m-wel to
keep the edges soft. Finally. add some drybrush for
haor.anda middle value along the head.10 contrast
with the light "'flapbelow andalong the front edge
oflhe ear.
Bert. 1O"x 10". Fabriano paper. This is one ol

the artists Iwork with.He was very involved with his
own drawing when I painted this, and he was
moving around a great deal. In such a situation. the
trick is lo establishthe posilion the head will be
painted in. Don't expecl your subject to slay
inthesame posilion as you progress with the
painting-irs very unlikely. I eslablished the
relationshipolthe ear to the eyes and nose, making
surelhaltheear was higher thanthe eye because the
head was tipped back and awayIromme. It's very
important to be accurate about this relationship,so
besureIhat you notice it when the head istipped
thisway.The very sketchy quality olthis head
creates the feeling ol motion, and we do have the
impression that the subject isn't standing still.
EARS 63
Bob. (lett) S"x 14".Fabriano paper.This os a

paintingol a friend ol mine who was workong at
his easel at the time.Hes quite proud ot t1is buo
d. whict1 is really excellent. so it was tun to
catch him on this rather
unheroocpose.Notocehow1paint edthestripesinth
e trousers.Iused diflerent values and made some
stnpes darker than others. 1 also bt oued some ol t11e
stropes to
relieve the monotony.Iused nw stupes to helpdescube
the torm olthe tegs.Notice the darker value on the
back of the upper leg.
Light and Shadow. (right) 1 O"x t 4". Fabriano paper.
This modelwas sitting agains1a white wall. Aller I
washed inmy lights. 1 started btockong on 111e
shadows on thelace and thenwent on to t11e hair.t
arhcutated the t orm in t11e lace quite carefully. and 1
really tried 10 capt ure a good feeling of the mooers
cha racterist ic features.As 1 blocked in the shadows
on the figure.I allowed them to bleed out onto lhe
background to creale the same colors andvalues
o nboth areas.Aiter allowong lhese areas to set foo a
lew moments.Iadded a very small dark area
welonwel 10 separate the neck lrom the
background.A clark separato on hke this should
bevery salt and unimportant. so don" t wai t too tong
to add ot. Be sure you get a good blur in lhis kind ol
st 1adow area. Remember t hat details on shadow
should always be much tess defu1ote and much less
distinct than detaot s in light.
Old Man.(tell) 8"x10".Fabriano paper.This head

had avery interest ingpanern.withthe lght working
across the nose and catching the right eye. The
right eyeis actually thelightest section inthe
head.Iusually keep the tight areas that are
surrounded by shadow darker than lght areas that
are in the main.tight section of a head:but I'm
always willing to break a rule to help a
painting.This time.by making the light area
withinthe shadow the lightest section ol this
painting,Imadethis area the center of interest.
Martini. (right) 8"x t 0".Fabriano paper.I did this
painting from a pencil drawing that I'd made on the
spot. Ididn't worry about my colors here. I was
more interested in captur ing the feeling of this
rather stark andlonely figureemerging f rom a
murky background. Although some artists do very
involved paintings from sketches,f don't often work
from them because Idon't feel sketches give me
enough information to do a satisfactory painting.
But so much of this picture was understated and
unsaid that thesketch certainly made an adequate
reference.
66
Blonde Model.(left) S"x 14", Fabriano paper.

Here, the front of the face is inlight and. beyond
the light struck areas of the face.thereis a much
darker background. 1 usually paint the background
very dark, but here Iused verysublle values
adjacent to the light struck sections of lhe face to
bring out those lighl areas.llhink il's avery good
idea to pain!what you see, bulyou should also
bewilling lo make any changes that might
strengthen your picture.
Resting. (right) 12"x14", Bristol paper. This
painting doesn'tseem particularly successfulto me.
Ithink the problemwas that it'sdifficult to paint a
head that's not upright. As wilha reclining f gure,
the proportions and forms of the head seem to
change when it's held at such an angle. Some
areas ltatten out while olhers lenglhen.
PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR 69
Eddie.(lefl) 1O"xl0", Fabriano paper.This isa

picture ot one of the artists who works in our
sketch group. Here, to capturethe feelingof
strong lght shiningdown on the subject. I used
definite shadows and lett the background high in
key-actually hgher in key than seemed right at
lhe time. Adding dark values to a background can
destroy the feeling of light and atmosphere ina
painting. Try to f ind a value that's just
darkenoughtooffset yourlight values. but not so
dark that it will destroy the feeling of light and
atmosphere that's so important in any painting.
Karen. (right), 12"x14", Fabriano paper This
model was quite nervous,and she was sitling very
slillly.Her headwas held back, andthe tendons in
ler neck came into sharp relef . Ilike to lind the
particular aspect of each painting that makes it
worthwhile.Ialways look for theoffbeat gesture.f
eature.color.etc..that separates one paint ng from
another and adds some particular interest to
it.This girlhad very blonde hair .and Iused a
combination of cadmium yellow pale and a tiny bit
of yellow ochre to wash inthelight sections.Then
Iblotted thearea with my tissue.Blonde half is
ditficult to paint because it's oftendarker lhan it
appears. Even in this very blonde hair.there were
some very dark areas. It's also importani nol to
overwork the light areas in a painting such as this
Try to keep lhe very high-keyed sections-in this
case. the very blonde hair uncluttered by small
valuechanges. Too many small value changes ina
tight area willdestroy the feelingof light.
Sarah.(lelt) 10"x10".Bristol paper. Painting children

isextremely dillicult for the obvious reason-they won't
stay still. Because of this, I think waterco lor is an
excellent medium to use in painting children. It
allows you to make statements muchmore directly
and Quickly than oil does. Of course, this is a
generalization. and some artists who arevery adept
at sketching inoilwill probably disagree with me.It's
also important-and helpful-to make a good drawing
first, as well as to accept the fact that your model
probably won'Ireturnto exaclly the same position
whenyou get to the painting stage. If your drawing is
good enough. and you study your subject well, you
can certainly do an acceptable painting even when
the subject isn't absolutely stationary. For
thispainting, Iused the televisionset to
keepmydaughter as stillas possible.Although
achild's expression may be rather vacant when you
use this trick.it's agood way to keep your subject in
one pl<: ce.
Gabrielle. (right), 1O"x 14", Fabriano paper . This
model was in a more difficult lighting situation than
most ot those in this book. Notice the very light
strip alongthe far side ot the face. This is the
mainlight .area and white paper-or a very lght
preliminary wash-can beused todescribe sucha
light section The reflected light that we see in the
side of the head facing us created a problem. You
should always show the dillerence between
reflected lght and your mainlight: the reflectedlight
should never be as light as your main light. Intl1is
painting, Ifirst covered the whole head with avery
light wash and allowed it to dry. Next, leavingthe
stripdown the far side of the head untouched,
Iblocked inthe rest of the head with a fairly light
shadow value. Again,Iallowed the wash to dry and
finally,Iadded my darkest darks. As a rule, Itry to
avoid this "sl1acJow
withinshadow" situation.Shadows should be simple in
value-that is, there should be as few value
changesas possible inshadow areas. In this
case.however.Ihad no choice,and the shadow
side of the head is fa irly involved.
ModelIn Red Background.(left). 8"xt0",

Fabriano paper.rve always had trouble painllng red
backgrounds. probably because Ipreter the cooler
colors.The shadow on the lace bled more than it
should have because Iused too much water in the
shadow wash. You can see this In the area where
the nosemeets thebackground. The balloon was
created because therewas too much water inthe
shadow wash under the nose.and the water spread
out into the background. Usually I'd restate the
background. but 1 liked the glossed edge
here.Notice. however. that Idid restate the darker
hair near the mouth and that t tell dehnite
boundanes in some areas white I sottened other
boundaries.It's not necessary to state an entire
boundary-you can merely articulate certain sections
oflt .It'svery important not toseparate eacharea ot a
paint1ng from the adjacent areas.Of course. some
separationis important but,when areas are similar in
value.irs a good idea to soften the div1sion between
Ihem.
VIolinist. (right) tO"x12". Fabriano paper. This
was done from aphotograph of a boyintent on
playing his violin.1 was mainly interested In the
pallern that the light made on his white shirt.I also
tried to catch the rakinglight striking the violin and
the small area around the ear.There was also a
suggestion ot light on the nose.To me.such a
painting isaninteresting study ol the effect ollight
on a subject. and the business ot
catchingthisettect isone otthe most intriguing parts
ot painting.
Tuesday Night. (left) 10"x14", Fabriano paper. The

modelhadverysharp features,enhanced bythe
strong single light source.Note the carefully
developed shapes in the nose, lor example. The
nose is actually the most important feature inthis
particular sketch, and Igave the shapes withinit
particular attention. Ileft the lightsvery high
inkey,but suggested a slightly darker value on the
light side of the nose.Th s value change was
necessary to show the construction, but Iwas very

caref ul not to let it become too dark, or I would
have destroyed the feeling of light and form in the
head.
Eye Shadow. (right) tO"x14", Fabriano paper.This
girl had a very sensitive and delicate lace. Itried
to enhance it bysurrounding her with darkvalues,
framing thelight-struck lacewith the dark
backgroundand hair. There are really no value
changes in the face , but the definite shadows and
cast shadows around the eyes, nose, and mouth
create all the form necessary.
Rim Lighting. (left) 8"XI4", Fabriano paper. Here.

I wanted to catch the lights f licking across the
edge of the nose, beard and forehead. Notice also
the light struck sections in the top ol the head and
around the collar of the shirt. I did thiS painting
without my usual init al light wash. usingwhite paper
tor my light-struck areas. I started right o11 w1th my
shadows in the lace and, while they were shll wet ,
Iadded the ha1r and beard areas wet-1n-wet. Not ce
that Ididn't point the hair and beard as one solid
dark. Istarted off with
slightly lighter darks 1n the hatr and beard and then
addedmore dark pigment tn certain sections.allowing
that dark pigment to blendmw1th the surrounding
wet areas. The subject was wearing steel-rimmed
glasses, which Ipicked upincertainareas with my
razor blade after the lace was dry.
Relaxed.(right). 6"x1 ". Fabriano paper. Most of
this model's head was in shadow and. as you can
see, I treated these shadowsvery broadty.Iused
wet-in-wet inthe hair and beardwhere they recede
intoshadow to keepthe edges very soft and
indistinct. Notice how the beardand the hair seemto
be "lost " as they enter the shadow.Eyesinshadow
should also bevery md1stinct. without any
hardedges or dehntte detail.Here.Iwent to the
extreme and tell one eye out altogether.
The Hair
Debbie. 14"x 14". Fabrlano

paper. This painting was done
rom a slide and Imust admit it's
overworked. I don't like to use
slides or photographs because
Ifind myself worl<mg too hard.
Ihave too much llmetotryto
fixupbadareas .Here, f added
indications and value changes in
areas that really should have been
left alone. The subject was
sittingin very strong sunlight,
whichwas coming
throughawindow behind 11er. The
slide was tolled with luminosty
and Iwould have loved to have
captured it in the painung.
11
Light Hair
The two tricks to painting hair successfully are
un derstatement and soft edges. In painting

hair.the desire to keep working-try ingto capture
the illu sive texture-is always there. And there
is also the difficult business of making some
soft.lost edges. However,it's much better to
make a broad state ment.indicating only the
major planes you see in the hair, and then to
go on to the rest of the f ace without any further
work on the hair.When the head isalmost f
inished, you'll have a better idea of what
finishing touches the hair needs.When your hair
washesaredry,you can add a few judicious
drybrush strokes.as well as any necessary re
statement of shadows.
Remember that hair has a soft 1exture and
that softeningedges isone way to describe this
texture accurately. Be particularly careful not to
make a hard. precise linewhere the hair meets
the f ace.A hard edge makes the hair look like
a wig.You should have a subtle.irregular
transition between hair and skin. This transition
is easiest to make
when you're painting blonde hair.It's more

difficult withdark hair andlight skin. but the
transition must still be made as soft and
subtle as possible.
Inthis demonstration.we'll deal specifically with
paintingshon,light hair,but the principleswe
dis cuss will apply toany areas of hair you
paint.The only technique that will change is the
particular one you use to describe different hair
textures: shor1, coarse hair needs more
drybrush, while long,f ine-textured hair should
be handled with more overwashes and a bit
less drybrush. Dry brush,however,isimportant
in light-struck areas. as you'll see in the next
demonstration .
Formaterials,useivory black,a Number 8 wa
tercolor brush.water jar and clean water, water
color paper cut into 6" x 8" pieces. a drawing
board, pushpins, and a Number 2 office pencil.
We'll assume that thelight iscoming Irom the
right andabove, so we'll have a shadow on
theleft side of the face and hair.
Light Hair: Step 1. Concentrate on good outside

shapes asyou sketch int11e boundaries of the top
part of the head.Draw lghtly,and be ready to
restate a shape without erasingif youcan make it
moredescrip tive of thehair andhead. Mix up a
middle wash-not as light as your usualfirst valueand startwashing inthe hair and the left side of the
lace. Naturally,some light areas must beleft
untouched,but asa generalrule. re member not to
separate shadow areas according to lighter and
darker values in tile beginning.
Light Hair:Step 2.Who le this wash os stillwet

,draw it out into the right,or lght ,side ot thehair
and face . No tice that I've lelt some areas of the
hair untouchedand that thewhite paperisvisible.
Note< Iso the hard edge inthe middle section of
the hair,with sof t,lost edges on either side.Where
you leave white paper and llard edges naturally
depends on the particular hair you're painting.
Light Hair: Step 3. Before this wash dries.scratch

out some lght strands wit11 your fingernail. (Inmy
illustra tion.notice that the darker .hard edge
Imentioned has softened.This was unintentional,and
I'II have to restate thisarea whenthe wasl1dries.)
Don't do anythingmore until the whole area is dry.(If
you were doing a portrait , you would now go onto
wor k on the rest of the f ace and come back to the
hair later.)The only thingyou might
do nowis blot some areas that 11ave become too
dark;
but remember that all of your washes will dry hghter,
so
don't blot too much.
LIGHT HAIR 83
Light Hair: Step4. Wheneverything isdry.put in

your darkerdarks.The blonde haor we're painting
here has some areas m shadow next to the
sl<inon the left side. so state that darker side
plane of the face.
Light Hair:Step 5.Now. wor king quiCkly.allow

the shadow on thes1de plane to mergeinto the hair
. Noth ing is precious here:1f you lose the light
section of the ha r on the shadow side, don't
worry:you can always lift itout with a tissue. Reload
your brush and,working toward the nght,add more
darks. Leave as muchwhite paper as possible. buf
,again,don't worry if you cover
some ofit up withyour strokes.Use more and more
dry
brushas youwork here.Blot some of t he darker
areas on the right :don't let this sectionbecome
darker than the shadow side.
Light Hair: Step 6. Now,thelinat-andreally the

most diff icult-step. The difficulty arises with that
desire to "over-finish."What you needis some
judicious dry brush work! You don' t want the
drybrush to be black. but it shouldbe n1ce
anddark. Leave the light areasal most untouched,
with just the barest amount of dry brush
work.Don't go into your shadows except to
restate the darkswhere necessary. For this restate
ment ,use overwashand, whenthis isdry, add one
or two strokes of drybrush. Now add some
background toneto offset thelighter hair values
.While the back ground IS still wet. scratchinto it to
suggest the short hair strands. You can use a
razor blade, brush tip or your f ingernail. Don't
overdo this scratching into wet areas;too much
can ruinyour picture.Notice thesoft edges
bothonthe inner and the outer boundaries of the
hair.
Smiling Model. 12"x 16", Fabriano paper. Tt11s

particular modelseemed to have a perpetual sm1le.
Uut Ithinkit wasn't actually a smile-it was just the woy
ller
face was made. Her eyes were very heav ly made
up and t couldn 't really see iris or the whites of the
eyes.To show the eye. I merely made a dark
indication and blottedit slghtly so it wouldn't be too
dark.She hac! very bleached blonde hair that was
almost as white as her very high-keyed f lesh
tones.I used the same color and values both in the
shadows and in the hair , using wet-in-wet for some
of the darker indicationsat t he top andsides ol the
head. Notice that Iscratched out w it h my
hngerna11 to mdicate some of the light-struck
strands of the hair.
LIGHT HAIR
85
12
Dark Hair
Now, for dark hair.As Imentioned in the

previous demonstration, the principles ol
painting hair are the same, no matter whatthe
color,value, or tex ture.This tome. you'll be
painting long. dark hair, andyou should try to
indicatea f ne. smooth tex ture_ In the
illustratoon for Step 4.notice the soft edges
around the hairline.where the ha1r meets the
skin. I'drather see you achieve this effect than
create a flashy texture in the hair.
You' ll be usingdrybrush againin this
exercise, aswell asscratchmg out light strands
w1th your f in gernail, brush tip, or razor blade.
Remember that you can only "scratch out" in
areas that are still damp: be sure not to overdo
the scratch1ng. or your result will be too
"busy."You could also use opaque white to
suggest strands, but I'drather that you avoid
opaque color until you've mastered transparent
color. Opaque white can become the
"answer " to every mistake. and when it's

used as a crutch, it seldom results in good
pictures.
As you block inthe hair mass,you might want to
simulate the ends with a technique called
"feather ing." To do thiS, lift your brush
gradually, as you end each stroke.
When you'rewaiting fora wash to dry, try to do
something besides fiddle with your picture. Get
up, stretch your legs, read a book.You'll come
back with a fresh perspective, and the stage
you're at might look fine to your fresh eye.
Since you're painting long hair.sketch in the
whole head.Sketch inthe face generally. with
just the barest indiCation of the features. Iwant
you to concentrate on the hair, not the face.
The light here is coming from the right. slightly
behind the head.
Dark Hair: Step 1. There are severalappronches

to take.onceyou've sketched inyour sub1ect .You
couro wastr injust the face and wait for it todry; or
youcoulcl wash in the whole headand t11e hair
area and wait for both to dry before going any f
urther.It doesn't malter which approach you
choose:1t1e results will be the same.
Inthiscase.I'velaid a fairly light wash over both the
hair and laceandallowed it to dry. For the tightest
areas,you can leave somewhile paper
untouched.and you can also blot themwith a t ssue
to tilt out the lights.
DARK HAIR 87
Dark Hair:Step 2. Since the hairis black. start

right off withblack paint.Have just enoughwater in
your mix tur eto makethe paint move.This dark
washshould not be drybrush. and there should be
no buld-up of pig ment. The washshould be
dark.but always trans parent-not opaque.lt"s
important that you try to arrive
at the right value asearry aspossib e. You can correct
mistakes nwatercolor. but youshouldn"t rely on
over washes to co rect your values.
'
88 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLO R
Dark Hair:Step 3. Conllnue to wash on your darks as

youwork down the left side. Feather the ends ol the
half mass.(My first wash wasn't absolutely dry in the
neck area, so some softening took place on theleft
wl1en I painted in t11e hair. This was accidental. but
ot work s well!)On the right,wash inthesame dark
wash. bulblot it witha tossue tolighten
thearea.because otis effected byhght. AIthe topof the
head,use some drybrush,but don't overdo it-just a
few strokes.Now. wait for Ihe whole thing to dry.
DARK HAIR 89
Dark Hair:Step 4 . Now, restate your darks.If you

startedwith a good.nch,dark wash this willbe just an
emphasisof your darkest accents.t t o ked the soil
edge on thelett side of the neck, so Idodn'tlet thos
area gel toohard. Fonally,scratch out alew light
strands. Use a lottie dark background to make
loghtcr strands stand out.Around theoutsode of the
head.youcan use dry brushto suggest softness.
Notoce that Ihaven't outlined thelace woth my
darkest darks. some half areas roght next to thelace
are slightly lighter.Thos allows the lace to "breathe.
Hardboundanes all the way around the lace would
have osolated ot
90 POATRAIT PAINnNG IN WATERCOLOR
Chris. 8"x10", Fabriano paper. Th1s I S" very

qu1ck sketch.Compare the very soft edges 111 the
huot on the lar side olthe head to the much harder
edges where the hair meets the lght-struck sections
ol the cheel< and forehead.This isa good example
of usong harder edges
to bring an area torward and usingsalter.more
blut red edges to make anot11er area appear to
recede .
DARK HAtR 91
The Hands
John. 1O"x12".Fabriano paper.
This was done ina sketch class

while the subject was working on
a paintingof hisown. Most of
thehead was actuallyins11adow
.and only the nose and a lillie bit ol
the forehead wereaf fected bytl1e
overheadlight. I wanted to create
the impression of
theheadinshadow incontrast to
the white shirt. Notice that
Iscratched out t11e rims of his
glasses with a razor blade and ett
some of the white paper in the
hair to show the effect of t11e light.
13
Basic Hands
94
PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
Drawing hands has always been difficult for

me, and Istillget into trouble when Ido it.
Because of my own diff iculties. Ifeelthat hands
are the hard est part of the figure to draw.
Istrongly suggest that you f nd a good book
specifically on drawing hands. I'veincluded
titles of several such books in the Bibliography
in the back of this book.
Since the principles of drawing are beyond the
scope of this book. Iwon't go into detail as you
sketch a hand tor
thisdemonstra1ion.However,I'd like you to keep
in mind that the top boundary of the arm.the
wrist,and the first f inger can usually be
described by one long, curving line (see Step 4).
Obviously,this principle won't always work .but
there isusually some way to 1ndicate the
relation ship between the f ingers and the armso watch for it.
ForStep 1.1 suggest that you use a 28 graphite
pencil. Try not to use an eraser: erasing tends
to disturb the sur1ace of soft papers. and you
can never completely "lose" a line when you
correct with an eraser. Try drawing lightly at first
and don't worry about restating boundar ies.
Basic Hands:Step 1. Beginwith a single line to
- or_)
de scribethe arm, the wrist. and the outer

boundary of the first inger. Retraceand extend this
linetoindicate the secondfinger_ Then continue
thesame line around the tips of the second and
third fingers. showing only the
indentation between these two fingers.Now ,go back
to
thefirst finger and continueyourlinearound the tip
and along the inside boundary untiit meets the
boundary of thesecond f inger.Make a small dot to
indicate the out side boundary of the lourth finger.
Then go back and extend tl1elower boundary of
the t ower wrist upto meet thos dot and continue
the line around to complete the
fourth finger. Finally.sketch a simple oval
toindicute the back of the hand.and draw another
lght ovalalong the line where tl1e knuckles woll
be.
Basic Hands: Step 2. Washinyour sketch of the

hanell with your light wash. Notice that I've tried to
improve the shapes a bit withthis wash.The drawing
we j ust did isvery general.tacking the particular
small shapesIhal are normallyimportant in drawing
the hand. But Idon't want you to worry too
muchabout these smallshapes, since this exercise is
really just a beginning stage in learning to paint
hands.
BASIC HANDS 95
Basic Hands:Step 3. In this case. the wrist Is bent

downward and the loghi is comong from the right
side: the area below the wrist os bent away from
the tigt1tand is actually in shadow. Mix up a dark
gray on your palette. toad your brush wit h the dark
wash.and give it a good shake. Then block in a
simple. rectangular shape onthe tower wr st
area.Notoce that the boundary
of your shadow next to 111e hand should llave
an out ward-curving. not an angular. shape.
Basic Hands:Step 4.Whilethos washis stillwet.goon
to
Iaway
the
back
of
from the light. Use a middle vatue here_

Starting
along the curvong lrne your drew earlier to show
the knuckles at thetop ot the hand. wash ina
value that's lighter than your shadow wash-but
not too much

lighter! You want dehnite. obvoous planes on this
basic hand.It would be better for this wash to be
too dark thantoo light. I've madea rather wavy
boundary along the knuCkle tine to suggest the
bones on the knuckles.
96
PORTRAIT
INWATERCOlOR
PAINTING
the
hand.
which
os
turned
only
slightly
Basic Hands: Step 5. Theback of the handis a

wedge likeform.and the lingers are anached to
the wider end. Sincethelightis comingfrom the
right,this wider area. wherethe fingers meet the
mainpart of the handis tt1e lightest area. Don't
touchthis section with your midcite
wash;instead,goon to the fingers.The lingers
are at most parallel to the back of the hand,
so they don't catch much tight. Starting with the
first linger,block in a middlewash betweenthe f
irst .t ower,joint and the base of the knuckle on
each finger. Then draw some of the washtoward
theback of the hand.almost connecting it to the
shadow shape there. (Be caref ulnot to destroy
the light front plane of the knuckles.) 'file whole
wash seems a bit dark on my illustration.so I'll
blot it with a tissue.
Basic Hands:Step 6. Now you have a very basic

hand thaihas form and mass.Add a f ew
thinshadow indica tionsat the bot omplanesof the
f ingers and at the tips of the second and t11ird
lingers.Make these shadow in dications very
casual.leaving them broken here and there and
varying nwir thickness. Finally, make a
simple thumb silhouette.first with your light wash and
thenwith someshadow wash.Thisisn't really neces
sary, but it helps make the hand took a bit better.
BASIC HANDS 97
14
Hands 1n
Detail
In this demonstration,we'll continue to paint

simple light and dark shapes; but we'll also go
a bit further and concentrate not only on the
large planes that give the hand form but also
upon the smaller shapes that give the hand
characrer. How ever. as you've seen in
earlierdemonst rations, the student usually has
todecide whether to concen trate on the
big,simple shapes that indicate mass and
volume or on the small planes and wrinkles
that give the subject personality and character.
My advice is sli/1 to make your devel-opment
of big, simple forms first on your list. A
generalized head or handthat has
overalldimension will always be a valid form
whereas a head or hand that lacks gen
eralform andis merely a confused jumble of
de tails wilt almost always be a failure.
The handI've drawn for this demonstration is
a bit more complicated than the sketch we
didlor the previous exercise: I've indicated more
relation ship between the f ingers,the wrist .
and the arm.
But Ithink you'll manage if you recognize these

relationships and continue to think of the f
ingers as an extension ofthe wrist .As you
sketch,re member that hands are very gracef
ul,and use gracef ul, flowing lines. It's important
not to start out with a tightly clutched pencil
and a tortuous. stilted line.
In Step 4,I've added more accents than we
used inthe previous exercise, but I've
continued to un derstate the small forms. As
you complete this step, see how much detail
you can add without losingthe simplicity that's
so important. If you're a "detailperson,"add wr
inkles to your heart's con tent-but be sure
they don't overcome the sim pie form and
graceful action of the hand.
We'll assume that the light is coming from
above. so the major shadow shape willbe on the
underside of the hand.Continue with the same
materials you've been using all along.
\\
\'
Hands in Detail:Step 1. Draw t11e !land. using t11e

same method outlinedin Demonstration 13. l"ve left
t his step incomplete toshow youthat thewrist
linesextend to formthe outer boundariesof the forst
andf ourthfin gers. Beginwitha flowing line that will
give you a f oun dation for thespecif ic f orms you" ll
develop later. Dont star t out with the specific
shapes.
Hands in Detail:Step 2. Now complete the
drawing. l"ve developed more def inite shapes. but
the flow ing lines are still very important. In your
usual light value. wash inthehand andtry to
develop some of the impor tant small forms of t11is
particular hand. Notice that I haven"!stayed
religiously within my boundary lines. Notice too
how formless the handlooks at th1s stage. without
shadow shapes.
'
......
....._
"
......
'
HANDS IN DETAIL 99
Hands in Detail:Step 3. Mix up your dark

wash.and simply block in the shadow on the
underside of the hand. Try to get asmuch mileage
as you can out of this shadow shape. Let it go into
areas which are not quite inshadow but are still
darker thanmiddle tights. Inother words,
generalize as much as you can with the many
areas inthe vicinity of the shadow that are close to
the shadow invalue. Before your wash dries, soften
some areas where the boundary between tight and
shadow is subtle. at the forward edgeof theshadow.
Notice how this soli edge descnbes the "fleshy"
areas in the
thumb, leaving the more 'bony' ' areas to be descr ibed
by a harder edge.
Hands in Detail: Step 4. Now for the shadow

under the first finger and the f leshy area at the base
of that finger. A very hard edge separates the
topplane of the thumb from the underside of the first
finger area. The first joint of the thumb is bent. so
the top knuckle is in shadow. Once again.
generalizewithyour shadow shape, allow ing some
Shadow to flow onto the top knuckle of the thumb.
This valuediff erence between the two sections of
the thumbshows that the thumbis bent-anobvious
statement. but a good example of how planes of
light and shade can show the relative positions of
forms. Leavea small light are.aat the end of the
thumb to indi cate that part of thefingernailis inlight.
Don't t ry to be too accurate here.Now.youcanadd
more detailwith small shadow shapes.but
remember-keep it simple'
\
\
Peter. 8"x t 0",Fabnano paper. My son lisl1ingfrom

our boat. Although there are no distinct f eatures
1nthis head.it stilllooks a great deal like Peter.
Icarefully delineated the profileand tried to makethe
shape of the headas accurateas possible. 1wasquite
mtriguedw1th the chance todevelop form mavery
simple way.usong the light-struck seclions of the
back.Nouce the suggeslion 01fight just above the
trousers on the nght Sideandthe very subtle
reflectedlight on the tell Stde.I blocked1n the enttre
shadow usingseveral colors. then biOIIed the front
of the torso with tissue to lighten the area and
suggest reflected hghl.The trouserswere very dark
blue but. if I made them as dark as they actually
were. they would have completely dommated the
ptclure. and the head and upper torso would have
become seconda ry.Be sure-and be w1lling-to
understatecolorsandvaluesinareas which you don't
want to be particularly rnportant.
Portraits
1n Black
and White
Shirt with Pattern.8"x8",
Fabriano paper.This pictureis

very stark,with light hitting only
certainareas in the head and
shirt. The rest of the
areas-the hair and the shadows of
the face and shirt-are completely
lost. To relieveIhe monotony of
this rather stark picture,Iquickly
developed some of the patterns in
the shirl. Although this was a very
quick sketch and Ireally didn't
get very involved withthe pattern.
It11ink something like this could
be carried much further, with
farge, simple areas used
inconjunct on with much more
involved pattern areas.
Remember not to paint all ot a
picturethe same way.When you
use detailin a pattern. try to
relieve that detailand patternwith
broad, simple sections.
15
Child
,./
Preliminary Sketch.
In this exercise. we'll start using the ideas

we've explored in earlier demonstratiOII1S.
Much of the materialwill be repetitious. but If eel
that repetition is one of the keystolearning. so
bear with me if I've covered some of this
before.
My daughter posed for this demonstratiOn
and
she worked hard at it. If you have children.
you'll probably find them reluctant subjects.The
novelty of posing will soon wear thin for them,
especially if youpaint alot-sodon't feel guilty if
you use pho tographs for reference.
Iusedsome PolarOid shots myself for this
project.
One point about using photographs:at least
for me,they don't give lifeto the subJect. and
Itend to
labor ewer my painting when Iwork from a
photo.
You can avoid theseproblems it you use photos
as a reference but try to work from life as much
as possible. (You might also try painting children
whenthey're watching television.They might
look a bit v<tcant, but they usually stay still as
statues it they'reinvolved ina program.) Using
photographs as your only reference is very
difficult, so if you do paint a good portrait
completely from a photo,be proud of it!
This time,as always, I've tried to use a natur
al, "unposed" pose. Ithink the most
commonplace posesare usually the most
interesting. Try to make your subject look just as
he or she would if he were just sittingand
thinking. As you get into the busi ness of
painting people,you:llstart to think about
gestures and to watch the way people sit and
stand. As you get nto the habit of recording

poses . a sketchbook will come in handy. Even
if your drawings don't mean anything to
anyone else, they can be a good source of
ideas for poses and gestures for you. If you
learn to paint people as they really are-and not
as they look when they're posing-you'll be in
good shape.
I'vedecided to paint thearms and hands. as
well as the head. this time. This makes the
problem a little more difficult but also more
interesting. The light is coming from the
right.sothe felt side of the
figure will bein shadow .The materials for this
demonstration will be the same as those
we've been using right along.
In my preliminary sketch.notice that,although
my drawing seems spontaneous and sketchy
.I've considered two important elements:shape
and form. I'vedrawn elipses. or ovals , around
the head to help create the feeling of threedimensional
form.Remember that the head is a rounded f
orm and that the f eatures should describe this
round ness.When you draw features . never
place t hem on a straight line opposite each
other without first establishing the form and
mass of the head with your elipses.As I've said,
drawing is very impor tant, and this will be
especially t rue in the following
demonstrations;so please borrow or buy a
good book on drawing. (Check the Bibliography
in the back of this book.) The time you spend on
drawing will pay off !
Child:Step 1.After you've complered your basic

ske ch. cover 111e skin areas. !he hair,and some
back groundwi h a lighlwash .andallowit to dry.
Now, mix
upa dark wash-andmake sure il'sdark enough!You 'II
use!his wash lor many of your shadow areas, and
you should avoid res a ing il; so it's better to
makeiltoo dark than too light. Although !he hair is
blond,it's quite dark on many areas; so cover
moslof it wi hthis wash and leaveonly a f ew tight
areas untouched.Godireclly to!he shadow side of
the hair,lhe shirl,and the arms. Be carelul ot
contours here.andlry to make !he shadowdesc
riplive of the shapes on whic hit lies.Don't
get too involved with lolds. bulblock in some of the
folds of !he st1irr 1t1at are in shadow .
Moreimportanl, notice that all 1M shadows.
regardless of hOw lighlor dark the area. are
blocked in wilh the same wash lor now.
CHILD 105
Child: Step 2. Before this wash has a chance to

dry. soften some edges and make some middle
values. Starting with the hair, lighten the top section
with a damp, clean brush.(Remember to give your
brush a goodshake after you rinseit! Inth1s case.
there was a
bit too muchwater inmy brush. and the shadow on the
foreheadwas disturbed.)Without going back to the wa
ter supply, use the paint you picked up on your last
stroke to add some middle tones tothe lght side of the
hair. State the m1ddle tones on the front planes of the
left cheek andsotten thefront of t_he nose.Even with all
thissoften.ng,many hard edgesw111 remainand some
new ones will becreated. Don't worry about
this.Soft eningevery edge will just make your
watercolor look Ia bored-overand "flabby." Nohce
how dark the left arm seems. I've used the same
value 10 this armthat Iused inmy shadow area.
Beforeit dries.I'll blot it with a tis sue to bring it up to
a lighter value.
Child:Step 3. A lot has happened' I think the

picture looks too washed out with light.subtle
skintones anda light shirt.So let"s throw caution to
the winds and make adark shirtand add some
darker background. NowIhe skin tones will be a
light silhouetle againsl fairly dark
surroundings.Add some darks inIhe hair on the
shadow sideof Ihe head 10 makeIheleft side of the
face lighter bycomparison and create a feeling of
reflected lght in Ihe shadows.The eyes are looking
down; he right eye is hardly noliceable.since il"s
completely in shadow . From experience. I know
il"s harder to paint an eye in shadow. so let"s
merely sta e a darker sockel area and put olllhe
problem of pain ingit untillater.Any feature
inshadow muslbe more subtle andless
importanllhan afeaturethat isinthe lght. Ifeelit's
often beller 10 leave out or barely indicate features
lhal are inshadow, bul ellen lhis isn'l possibleildepends on lhe lighting
si uation and how delailed and "finished"" the piclure
is going lobe.Notice how fluidIhe painting is at
this stage.
CHILD
107
Child: Step 4. With the finishing touches. we'll be

done.Add thebarest rndicafbn for theeye in
shadow JUSt enough toshow it's there.(Ihad to blot
thiseye out severaltimes.wait tor the paper to dry
each time.and try again.untilI gotrt rightI)
Now.harden some areas and try to make some f
eatures more definite.Liltout a lew areas of the ha1r
in shadow to suggest reflected light. Some dry
brushstrokes and some tolds added to the shirt-and
were finished' I'm always afr aid I've gone too tar.
overhardening and over-def ining. It's better to
leave a pr cture understated thanto work at it
toolong,or the result might bea haggard, tired paint
ing'
t08 PORTRAIT PAINTINGIN WATERCOLOR
16
Young
Woman
In this demonstration.we'll have

twoimportant lights shining on the subject. As
you know , I've been stressing the
importance of using a single light sourceto
create one simple shadow and one
simple light area. This lighting situation is
always validandis always the easiest way to
show form. On the other hand, it's not always
the most inter esting way to illuminate the
subject. By now, you should be ready to try
someth1ng a b1t more adven turous.
Inthiscase.we'llstill have some definite
shadow shapes to work with, because one light
w1ll come from either Side of the head to create
a shadow shape almost nthe middle of the
lace.Th1s light ingsituation issimilar to the one
1n the demonstra tionon Rimlighting,p.34.
except that the shadow won't cover the entire
tront of the face th1s time. The main light will
come from the left s1de: the sec ondary light
will come from the right and sligh11y behind the
head. This secondary light creates a smaller
area of light on fhe right s1de of the face than
the main light does on the left. The lett side
w111 be almost completely out in the light .while
the right side will be partially inlight and
partially .n shadow.
We'll concentrate on structure here, and
I'll try
to show you how light and shade can create
the three-dimensional form of the head. We'll
try to createthe feelingof the skull beneat h the
surface detai s-such asthe eyes and mouththat we nor mally see. 01 course. in some
lighting Situations it's impossible to see this
structure.This is true. lor
example,when we have a dif f used hght coming
from the front .Inthis case, we see practically
none of the bonestructure but only the
features.There's
nothingwrong
withthis
situation.and some pa.nt-
ers handle it very well: but unless you know

the structure,the features you paint willoften
appear to be floating 1n a void. In this
demonstration. we' ll
almost forget about the featuresin an attempt
toin
terest you in structure.
As you make your preliminary sketch, keep
it loose and spontaneous; the features
arego.ng to be vague. Concentrate only on
their positions m retat1on to each other and to
the head asa whole
'
\
Preliminary Sketch.
YOUNG v.QMAN 109
Young Woman :Step 1. Washin the entire llead.in
cluding the neck. witt1 alight wash.Allow this to dry.
Young Woman:Step 2.Now mix up a much darker

tone.You'll bedrawing parts of thisdark washout
into the light. so s1ar1with a darker wash than you
t11ink is necessary . (Remember that your wash will
dry lighter thanit seems whenyoufirst apply it.)
Loadyour brush. give it a good shake, and start
washing inthe hair. Con tinuethe shadow on to the
right side of the face without interruption. and don't
make adistinction betweenthe hair
andtheskininthisshadow area.Beconscious of
theplanes here.This darker wash st1ould go around
the area above the lip.stopping about threequartersoi he way aroundlothe Ieli.The denialarch
causes this area above thelip 10for ma side plane
thaicatches the light on thelell.II your wash is too
dark, be ready to go back 10your water jar and rinse
out some of t he darker color. Blot or shake the
brush to get rod of excess moisture. then go back to
the paper.
YOUNG WOMAN
Ill
Young Woman: Step 3. Allow this second wash to

dry. trs possible to continue working on some
areas without a pause. but Ithink it would be
easier to take a break and allow everything to
dry.Now.the lett eyeis quite dark.so mixup
anevendarker wash thanyou mixed lor
Step 2 and block it in. Thenrestate the shadow on the
r ght sideof the face.usingoneconnected
stroke.Your brush shouldn't leave the paper as it f
ollows the front plane of the cheek down around the
contour of the tip andback to the under section of the
mouth. This wash should be your final large,dark
wash, although you'll need a few smaller. darker
accents.Try to make this large shadow area dark
enough and as accurate in contour as possible.
1 12
Young Woman:Step 4. Now brush the dark shadow

shape ina few places.working itdown to the chinline
and the neck with a damp brush. Notice that l"ve re
stated the hair and allowedit to blend with the
middle valueinthe right side of the forehead.I've
alsodrawn m a shadow shape under the nose to
indicate the cast shadow which willhelpmake the
noseproject from the face.lthonkyou cansee that
the main shadow onthe right side of the face has
become t ghter as Iworkedit out
intotheseareas.lfyoudidn'tstart out with adark
enough Shadow, this process of lighteningwill
destroy any feeling ol shadow, and you'll have to
restate it. If
you did start woth adark enough wash,there'sno prob
lem; lUSt besure the race isdry beforeyou makeyour
restatement.
YOUNG WOMAN
113
Young Woman:Sle-p 5. Now, for the final

step.The right eye is quite dark, so give this
another wash.Be carefulto show the formof the
eyeballhere.The dark est dark should be near the
nose bridge; theeye area becomessfigntfy tighter
across the eyeball, then quite darkagain just
beforeyoureach the smallhght-struck area on the far
right side ot the face.Now harden up someedges
andsoftenothers. You cansee a good ex ample of
edge variety ontheleft side of the face on this
illustration.Restate thedark accent on the cheekbone
onthe right side of the lace to shOw the bony
structure of the face. Notice that, except tor the
eye area. this small accent is the darkest shadow
area.The edge of this accent should be quite hard
bef oreit meets the smallt ight-struck sectionof
thecheek.Restate more ot the background and
add a tew minor details. Now we have a face
that's quite feature ess:but try to think of this
demonstration as an exercise. rather than as a
guide to a finished painting.
114 PORTRAIT PAINTINGINWATERCOLOR
17
Young
Man
.... _...--
'
/ '
Preliminary Sketch.
Inthisdemonstration. we'll use a slightly different

approach:this time,lighting will beamajor factor
aswe begin painting the head. Ifeel that painting
light is as important as painting a likeness or a
characterization ,and Ialways strive for a feeling
of light in my paintings. The effect of sunlight on
a head or f igure never f ailsto "grab" me.The
large and small patterns that result from sunlight
striking acheek or an ear can be the whole point
of a paint ingfor me.In this exercise, we'lltry to
capture the feelingof sunlight using only light
and dark values. Color is also very
important,but here. let's see what we can do
with black and white!.
Our subject will be a young man, looking to the
right(the painter's right),with the sun behind
him. Most of his face will be in shadow,but
there'll be some light striking his ear,cheek,
and hair, afld we'll leave the white paper
untouched in these light sections. InStep 3,
f\Otice where I've placed my darkest shadow
areas.As a rule,you'll f indthe shadow is darkest
alongthe linewhere it meets the light
area,because this strip is usually on a plane
that does not catch either reflected or direct
light.
In this case, for example,the shadow Of\ the
front plane of the face is catching reflected
light, the sideplaneis indirect light,and the strip
be tween is darkest. This strip does not face
the source of the reflected light, nor is it turned
to catch the direct light.
Inthis view, withso much of the head in
shadow ,
it's very important that you don't allow your
darker darks and your lighter areas of
reflected light to
liceinSteps 4 and 5 that we still have the

overall feelingof shadow on the front of the
face. and that no shadow areais as light as the
main light area . (We'll make this very
important distinction be tween light and
shadow by covering all the shadow areas
witha mediumwash in Step 1;we'llleave the
white paper under the main light areas un
touched.)
Notice also the features that I'veadded in Step
5. They're subtle: they must not be too dark,
or they'll look more like holes in the head
than like eyes, nostrils,or mouth. The features
must be just dark enough and no darker.I'd
strongly advise that you make the features
hardly noticeable, rather than take a chance
that they'll betoo dark. If you study many
heads in shadow.as Ihave for this book,you'll
see what Imean.
When you paint teeth in shadow. remember to
paint right over them with your shadow wash .In
some cases,you might blot them a bit to make
them slightly lighter than their surroundings,but
never use opaque white or leave the while
paper
under them untouched. The same goes for
the whites of the eyes. In both cases, you can
offset these features by adding a few darker
accents. In Step 5,for example.I've added
some subtle darks on each end of the mouth.
Your materials will be the same as usual. Be
sure
your brush is still in good shape, after all the
dem onstrations (I hope) you've been doiflg! It
should still point nicely. You can test it by
giving it a shake and running it along the palm
of your hand.
confuse the overallvalue of the shadow area. No-
YOUNG MAN 115
Young Man:Step 1.On your patene, mix up a

fairly dark value-darker than the first washes you
normally mix,but not as dark as your usual shadow
value. Load your brush, shake out the excess
moisture, and blockin the big dark areas.1 ollen
establish my final shadow value in this first
wash:this involves some very subtle work, using
both wet -In-wet and lifting out lighter areas
whilethey're stillwet. For thts demonstration,we'll
es tablish the lighter values now and add the darker
areas when this shadow wash dries.The hatr is also
quite in volved,so for now.don't do much to it.
Remember to leave the light-struck section of the
cheek and ear un touched, aswell as the lightstruck sectionof the neck.
t16 PORlRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOlOR
--
Young Man:Step 2.Nowsoften the edge that sepa

rates tight and shadow on the cheek to show the
rounded form of the cheek. Notice that the edges on
the cast shadow
remainharder.Then.ontodrybrushto show the hair.It's
important not to overdo this dry brush,so don't get
tooinvolved-just makea start and save the finishing
touches for tater.
YOUNG MAN
117
Young Man:Step 3. Put in some darker hair values

near the ear and lorehead and,while they're still
wet, scratchout somelighter strands.With adarker
stnp ot wash. restate the edge plane thai runs up
the cheek.
Try tomakethiS strip quite dark. Since It Will be dluted
and lightened asyou softenedges and make the
neces sary gradations on e1ther side of the edge
plane. I've started addng some background to offset
the light struck sechons n the hair and back of the
neck.The SUbject s Sllllling.so the dentalarchiS
turned back slightly to form a partial Side plane.Add
a little darker wash here and along the nose-another
plane that's turned slightly away from the reflected
light. Establish thelarge constructionol themouth
area belore you put
10 the lips, and developthe planes of lighter and
darker values around the eyes belore you putIn
thelds.
It6 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
Young Man: Step4.11's difficult to shOw you a

gradual tr ansitioninto thisstep and the finalstep.We
did the ba sic work inStep 3.but the tinishing
touchesinthese fi nalsteps willbring the picture
together and giveit real
ity. Up to this point , we've
been interested only in establishing the structure and
simple planes of Ihe head.In this slep, don't let
anything destroy these simple planes as you add
more detailto the eyes. nose, and mouth.As I've said
before,thegreatest danger is that you'llallow
yourinterest m detailand character
izat onto destroy the simple planes and the form of the
head.
YOUNG MAN
119
Y oung Man:Step 5.Createa feeling of teeth by

adding some subtle darks on each end ot the
mouth. The whitesof theeyes don"t really show up
inthis particular head.so dont worry abOut
them.Scratchout some hair strands and add more
drybrush.bOth on the haor and skin.After your basic
values andedges are established. youcan addvery
careful drybrush work 10 suggest tex ture and to
darken afew areas that needhe p.Oryblush isalso
helptut to softenedges.butoont overdo ot. l"ve
useda littledryblush on the edge olthe cheek.where
it emergesinto the light .This step hasmore of
animpres soonol detail.since rve used
moredrybrush. but it"s slill quite broad and simple.
lt"s not the detaol that makes this head elfective;it"s
the simple planes ot tight and shadow that make it
work.
120
PORTRAIT PAINTINGINWATERCOLOR
18
Older Man
with Beard
-
......
--
Preliminary Sketch.
Inthisdemonstration,our subject willbe an older

man withlight hair and abeard, with a simple
direct light shining on the front of his f ace. This
light will bring out the many smallplanes that
describe and give character to the features of
older people. In the proper lighting situation,
these planes make painting older people both
fun and easier than painting most younger
people.(One exception to thisis men from their
twenties on: t heir strong, salient features make
them relatively easy to paint)Children are
moredifficult to paint because they have
smoother laces.and their features are not as
developed or apparent as those of older
people.And problems also arise in painting
women of all ages! Obvious planes of light and
shadow can make their features appear
'craggy. anda much more delicate and less
obvious ap proach is desirable-with more subtle
light and dark planes indicating the smaller
features.
Older men. however ,provide the painter
with an excellent opportunity to develop the
small planes that give the head
"character,"and their obvious features are
really quite easy to paint. Because of this, Ithink
this demonst ration will be fun-and a bit
simpler than some of the preceding exercises!
For this demonstration.you' ll be softening
many of yourshadow edges before they dry. to
show the rounded shapes of the cheeks,
forehead,etc.Re-
member never to soften all of your hard edges

sys tematically. Try to retain some of the
prominent , definite structure in this subject's
face.Some "blurs" willbean asset to the
painting, of course. but don'tlet too many
areas of your shadow wash blend with the wet
background. If you over-soften, the structure
will be lost and the face willlook like a
marshmallow. Remember also to make your
shadowsha pesdarkenough.Tryvery hard not
to
be timidabout your shadow washes,or your shad
ows will be too light!
I'veheard painters say that the background of
a paintingismore difficult to paint than-and cer
tainly as important as-the head itself,and Ithink
these aretwo good points for you to keep
inmind. Painting the background in the right
value isas im portant as painting the lace in
the right value: a background that's too
uniform or too dark "kills" theatmosphere-the
feeling of "air"-inthe pic ture; and a
background that's too light won 't offset the
subject properly. So.as you complete the head in
this exercise.try to work in on both areas-head
and background-at the same time. with equal
thought and effort.
Continueto useihe same materials you've
been
using right along.Sketch in the head, using
your 2Bpencil.We have a profile here,and the
features are quite easy to "catch hold" of .
OlDER MAN WITH BEARD 121
Older Man:Step 1.Mixupa normal light to fairly

light wash.Loadyour brush, give it agood shake,and
wash Inthe face and background. Don't work on the
areas of the hair andbeard that areeffected by the
direct light. Inthe illustration,notice that the side
and back sections of the hair are included in this
light wash.
122 PORTRAIT PAINTING IN WATERCO LOR
Older Man: Step 2. Now for some darks.Mix up adark

wash on your palette. load your brush, and giveit
the customary hardshake. Start out with some very
del nite. "blocky" shadow shapes on the
forehead . Don't paint over what will bethe hair area
around the temple andabove the ear. Restate the
background adjacent to theface to offset the light
silhouetteof the faceagainst thedarker
background.State some very definite darks
aroundthe eyes and nose. keepingthe painting fluid
as you control the areas where the wet background
and the wet shadow wash blend. I've lett most of the
<'lark statements on the forehead and around the
eye and cheek as Ioriginally stated them. doing no
softening here. so you can see exactly how directly
you should work. On the nose, however. I've
startedsoftening the mid-section,where the nose
normally flares out a bit toward the cheeks.
OLDER MAN WITH BEARD
123
Older Man:Step3.Now,work back and

forthbetween backgroundand head,asyoufinish
''washingin' both. Inmy illustration,notice the areas
in the hair, the eye brows, and the lower cheeks
that I've blotted with a tis sue. Idid this to create
the lighter values in the hair areas and also to
make soft transitions between skin. hair,and
background. Soflen many ollhe hard edges in your
shadow shapes,but remember to leave some of
them hard.You can see the contrast of hard and
soft edges quite clearly in this illustration.
Older Man: Step 4. barken the background and
""tightenup the head.Scratch out the rimof light that

runsdown the front of the nose. I've addedglasses
.but noticethat Ihaven't rendered the
rimscompletely:I've just suggested them. I've also
scratched out some highlightsonthe glasses with my
razor blade. aswell as some strands of hair, which
catch the light. Again,don't overdo it withyour razor
blade! Consider shapes care fully here. For
example, the nose isn't just any nose,it's a specific
nose. The hardening and softening of the boundary
between the light-struck rim and the side plane
shadow shows the conformation of this particular
nose.l hope you're aware of the subtlety inan area
like this. It really makes a difference!
OLDER MAN WITH BEARD
125
19
Dark
Complexion
126 PORTRA IT PAINTING IN WATERCOLOR
In this demonstration, we'll paint a subject

with a dark complexion, under a fairly strong
light source. Our problems here won 'I differ
greatly from those we've had in previous
exercises: the only important difference will be
in the contrasts between light and middle
values. In a light com plexion,the light values
are quite close to the middle values, with the
major contrasts occurring between the light and
the shadows. However, ina dark complexion,
the middle values tend to be much darker
than the light areas and are usually
closertothe shadow invalue. In other words, the
greatest contrasts in a light complexion occur
be tween the shadows and the lights,while, in a
dark complexion, the greatest contrasts occur
between the lights and the middle values.
As you block in your light.middle.and shadow
values, be sure you understand the reason for
giv ing a particular area a shadow,middle, or
light value: the value of the area depends on
the posi tion andsuength of the light source-or
sources aswellas on the structure of the head.
Never drop in lights or darks without a reason.
I've included the sketch on p. 127 to show you
why certain areas of this particular head should
be light in value. The very light areas on the
head will indicate where the "corners" of the
planes (the edges where one plane
meetsanother) are catchingthe light. Ina light
complexion,we might simply high light these
corners: and, since we should under play
highlights, it's very likely that we'd make these
corners only slightly lighter than the adjacent
plane of light. However. in a dark complexion,
these lighter corners are much more obviousand we'llmakethem significantly lighter than the
adja cent light plane.
Remember also that an abrupt transition f rom
skin to hair will make the hair look like a

wig. In Step 4,when you restate the areas of
the hair in light,don 'Ipaint right down tothe
point where the hair meets the skin.Keepyour
darks in the central hair areas,sothat you
develop a gradual transition from skinto
hair.lnthe illustration for Step4, no tice that
I've worked my dark wash around fromthe light
sideof the hair to the shadow side of the face
and then worked it into the side plane of the
head that is in shadow.
As you restate your shadow areas, harden ing
and softening edges. try to avoid any sense
of hardness or a metallic look-and be sure
your boundaries are as accurate as you can
make them.Move slowly asyou "find" your
boundaries, and take your time deciding
where they'll be. In Step 4,for example, notice
that I'veadded a dark valuewitha more definite
edge under the chinto give this area more
definition. Near the right eye. you can see a
much less obvious example of find ingedges,
where I'vestarted to def ine the bound ary of
the head in shadow.
In the same illustration,notice that I've
picked upthe beginning of the jawline under the
right ear. The trick here isto avoid working with
one contin uousdark outline around the face.
Instead, pick up adark here andthere.and
gradually work indark areas around the
face.You'll eventually connect these areas as
you finish the head.
I'vealready stressed the importance of
develop ingthe structure of and area before
adding the de tails.InStep 4 again,notice that
Ihaven't worr ied about the whites of the eyes:
I've painted right over the area they'll be inand
stressed the form of the eyeballs and sockets.
Use this principle as you work on the mouth,
too:keep the form of the curve ofthe teeth in
mind, and don't draw the lips with a
straight, dark line.This model has a prominent

looth line, and the upper lip doesn't project
very much; sothere's no dark shadow below
the upper lip (although this lighting situation
could create such a shadow, if the upper lip
projecledlar enough).
When you completeStep 4,the formof the
head
should bewell established,andyour job in Step
5 will be tocomplete the headwithout doing
damage to the three-dimensionalform you've
developed. f:.s you add more darks to the hair
and continue to define the boundaries, try to
create the impression of very dark hairwithout
painting it as aflat, dark mass.ln my illustration
for Step 5, take a look at the soft edges and
the value variations in the hair. The lighter
areas among the darks are subtle, but if you
look closely,Ithink you'll see them.
Inthis final step, yotJ'II also add detail to the
eyes. Again, work slowly and remember that
the iris must always appear to bepart of the
eye as a whole. Never indicate an iris withjust
a big, black circle.(Notice that I've added soft
edges around the iris of each eye.) As a rule,
you should try to add a bit more detailto the
eye that's out in the light,or closer to you.
whichever the case may be. You'llalso see that
I'vescratched out some high lights onthe nose
and around the right eye in Step
5. Usethistechnique very carefully: try not to
dig
into the paper, but gently remove the paint from
the surtace.
Thiswillbeourlastdemonstrationusinggrays.
I hopeyou'velearned something about using
val ues and handling paint. Inthe following
demon strations. we'lladd another dimension to
our paint ing by using color; but the principles
you've
learned so far will still be extremely important.
COlltvers"
1 -Jd e,.ta..J
verr
OuR ltqhvst.
l<. t!-h
(#
..f,.,...,d
"CORNers'--
OIJ
dARk
lurnt5
litves
Wtlf
5ome of Y..he;e
I've indicated the "corners" ' o1planes here with very dark lines.These will be the
lightest areas of the face. They're catching thelight and, inadark complexion, they 're
lighter than the adjacent planes of light.
DARK COMPLEXION
127
Dark.Complexion
S
drawong and
: tep
1.Mak
dealingwith
nt witha lightw!:u
prelminary
beJust about the skcomplexion.your ;r lthough
we're for a light compi amevalue asthe fir st
wash should val ethat stand
; Naturally, ther!
sw:shyou'd mix
we re generalizin
ght sections onall
osonglelight
workin most st uagto.hoenrse. to find a light
vcaolumeptlheaxit ownisll:
1
128
PORTRAIT
WATERCOLOR
PAINTING
IN
DarkComplexion:Step 2. The light iscoming f rom

the right. so mix up a dark shadow wash and block
in the shadow shapes on the left side of the face,
washing in the darker hairat the same
time.Besurethese shadow shapesarequite
dark.They'll have todo a major part of theworkasyou
develop the head.So far,this is just the same
procedure you've used right along.
DARK COMPLEXION 129
Dark Complexion:Step 3.While your shadow

shapes and hair areas are still damp. allow your
darks to f low out into some of the areas that you
left untouched in Step 2.Continue to leave
untouched the areas that will beyour
lightestlights:the nose.the area above the up
perlip.the top plane of the right cheek. a spot on
the forehead. and the lower lip.Form the bottom
plane of the lower lip by extending the shadow
that runs down the left side ol the face.Allow these
middle values to dry.
Dark Complexion: Step 4. In these

finalsteps.you' ll do more work on both your lights
and middlE> lights;but, by now. they should be
generally the way you'll want themin the finalstage.
Back to your palelte:mix up a rich, darkvalueand
restate the shadow shapes and the darker
valuesinthe hair.On the mouth, add a few dark
accentstoindicatethe divisionbetween the lips.
Begin withthedarker accent at the right corner
.Then,in the center of the mouth, add anaccent
that's not quite as dark as the one youused at the
corner. Leave the lower lip as a lighter
value.Indicate the form of the eyeballs and
sockets with dark accents at the corners.
DARK COMPLEXION
131
Daft!Complexion:Step 5.Now that you've

indicated theformof the eyes.allyou have to do
isaddIhe eye lidsand Irises.Begin byfilling
Intheentire right iriswith amiddle value.Then.
whilethiswashis still wet, add a very small black dot
a! the top. using wet-in-wet. Next. indicate the
lowerlid witha lighter strip.(You might also scratch this
out or dampen the paper andlft it out with your
brushto create a lighter value.)Now. darken the
bottom planeof the right eye, to help keep the feeling
of the rounded form within the socket. Use the same
procedureonthe tell eye.but adda bit lessdetailhere.
Notice thai I've softened the cast shadow under the
noseand added adark accent lor the nostril.I'vealso
used adarker wash onthe right side plane ot the lace,
leavingthe right ear and the front plane ot the
cheek as alight value.Finally. darken the plane
underthe lower lipto make the mouth appear lo
project.
Portraits
in Color
20
Selecting
Color
We've finished with grays,thank goodness !

We'll do the remaining demonstrations in color,
and they should be more f un.
Inaddition to beingfun to work with, color also
provides us with another tool to use in
creating three-dimensionalform. As you may
already know,cool colors-blues, blue-greens,
and pur ples-tend to "go back" or recede,
making the cooler areas of a painting appear
distant. On the
otherhand.warmcolors-'reds,oranges,andyel
lows-tend to "come forward," making the
warmer areas of a painting appear closer to
the viewer.This means that we can use
coolcolors in areas that we want to appear
distant, and warm colors in areas that we
want to come forward.
Naturally,this is a simplified explanation of
the
use of color.Sometimes, we'llfind a warm area
in a distant spot and a cool area close to us.For
ex ample, the ears tend to be warm, while the
area around the mouth is usually rather
cool.We'll get intothe specif ics of where to use
what color as we go through the following color
demonst rations.
For now,I'll list a variety of tube watercolor
paints Ithink you should try. These are my per
sonal preferences: if you've developed a
palette you like. you should certainly stiick with
it. Color selection is personal,and we all have
different ideas of what makes good color.
However, the colors Ilist here may appeal to
you,so do try them!I've suggested them with
ease of handling in mind:you' ll find tllat
many colors are hard to work with when you'
re mixing flesh tones, and that other colors
may be simple enough to handle, but don't
result in very exciting flesh
tones. It will also be easier for you to follow the

color demonstrationsif you use the same colors
I'II be talking about to mix your washes.
Cadmium red light.My "basic" red. It's really
the only red Iuseto mix flesh tones.I've used
cad mium red medium and cadmium red dark
a few times without good results.In all
honesty,Iprob ably didn't give these darker
reds a fair chance, but, asfar as I'mconcerned,
they just didn't result in good flesh tones.
Alizarin crimson.This color is very strong . It
has a very great tinting power and tends to
dominate a mixture if the other colorsaren't
also very stron.g. Alizarinis a must for mixing
rich darks in darker complexions,clothing,hair,
and backgrounds. Haveit on your palette, but
be careful when you use it in lighter
complexions.
Cadmium orange. Idon't use this color very
often and I rarely use it as an important part
of a f lesh combination. But a touch of orange
can be useful in pepping up a light area
that's too cool and washed-out, andit can
sometimes breathe life rinto a light f lesh tone.
Cadmium yellow lemon or cadmium yellow
pale. Bothexcellent yellows. They're the only
cadmium yellows you really need.l find
cadmium yellow me diumtoo "hot," but many
artists like it very much.
Hooker 'sgreen.Th most useful green.Some
art ists prefer to mix up their own greens with
blue and yellow,andyou can get bywithout a
tubeof green. Personally, Ilike to have it readymixed, and Ial-
ways have Hooker's green on my palette.

Sap green. This is weaker than Hooker's
green. Again,you can get by easilywithout this
color, but Iuseit quite often.
Viridian green. This is a very basic green in

oil painting,bullfind it too cool and metallic
for wa tercolor .
Cerulean blue. This is avery usefulcolor and

one that f indsits way into all of my
complexions .Ilike its subtle, delicate
mixingqualities. It'svery easy to handle and it
doesn't dominate a mixture.
Phthalo(phyhalocyanine) blue. This is the
oppo site of cerulean blue.It's much darker,
richer. and stronger . Likealizarin crimson, it
hasgreat tinting powers and will dominate any
combination if It's not used carefully. It's
necessary for mixing rich dark colors. Iuse it
often with alizarin crimson; these twostrong
colors areaneven match.As you gain
experience, you can use Phthalo blue in
placeof cerulean blue invery subtle,lighter
areas. It's a beautif ul blue when it's used
well.
Ullramarlne blue. I always used this as my

dark blue until Idiscovered Phthalo blue. lfs
east er to handle,since it's not as strong as
Phthalo; but, on the other hand, it has a
certain harshness that I don't care for.
Yellow ochre. t use this color a great deal to mix

flesh tones,andIinterchange it with my light cad
mium yellows. Yellow ochreis a weak and subtle
yellow thatmixeseasily.This and the siennas and
umbers listed below are the earth colors.As far as
I'm concerned,these colors are necessary to any

watercolor palette.
Raw sienna. This is a darker version of yellow

ochre. It'svery useful inthe shadow areas of
flesh cones.
Burnt sienna. Idon't use this color in flesh

tones, butIdouseit agreat deal inother
areas.It mixes well with blues and greens and
can make some fine darks, as well as some
handsome grays.
Raw umber. This is a darker version of raw
sienna, and you can get along without it.
Burnt umber. This color is a must. It's the

darkest earthcolor: it comes out of the tube
just a bitlighter than black. 1use it agreat
dealin my darkest areas when Ipaint a head. It
mixes well with blues and greens: burnt
umber and any of the bluesmakea very nice
gray.
Black. Idon't use black much,but Ialways have
it handy.Idon't agree with the idea that one
shouldn't use black, but do feel that it can be
over used ina dark.It seemsthat, when
students want to make something darker, they
automatically think of using black.
Unfortunately, black doesn't mix well with
many colors and, unless you know what
you'redoing,I'dsuggest you use burnt um
berasyourbasic dark. As you'llsee. Iusually
sug gest mixing Phthalo blue with alizarin
crimson, burnt sienna,or burnt umber to make
the darkest darks. Experiment with black,and
observe its characteristics for yourself .
SELECTING COLOR 135
21
Mixing
Color
Now that I'vesuggested a paletteof colors, I'lldis

cuss the various mixtures of those colors I'll be
us ingfor the following full color portraits.
I'lldiscuss mixing only flesh tones here. because
Ithink that's the area that troubles students most.
Naturally,there's no single way to pa nt flesh
tones: complexions differ from one subject to
an other . But it's certainly possible to
generalize to some extent,so I'lloutline some
generalcombina tions you can use to paint
light and dark com plexions.Idon't say these
are the only mixtures to use-the colors you
use will be your mark as an artist-butstart by
using these colors and then ex periment with
your own mixtures.
Igenerally use these basic colors for mixing
flesh tones:cadmium yellow pale,cadmium
yellow light, cadmium yellow lemon, yellow
ochre, raw sienna, Hooker's green, sap green,
Phthalo blue, and cerulean blue. For the
lightest complexions, I usecadmium redlight
mixed with cadmium yellow pale or cadmium
yellow light. Ioccasionally mix yellow ochre with
my cadmium red light lor light
136 POfiTRAIT PAINTINGIN WATERCOLOR
complexions. Whether you use a cadmium

yellow or yellow ochre depends on your own f
eeling about the complexion.!think the
cadmiumyellow creates a fresher complexion
tone. but yellow ochre is easier to handle.
Just remember that alittle bit of any yellow goes
a long way when you're mixing it with red:start
with avery small amount of yellow, and see what
happens. Remember also that the combination
on your palettewill look different when it's
applied to whitepaper. so besure to test each
new mixture. The first result probably won't be
satisfactory and you'll have to continue mixing.
It's impossible for me to give you any more
specific instructions on mixing:Ican'Itell you
exactly how much redyou should mix with
exactly how muchyellow.Mixing . takes a great
deal of experience,so just experi ment with
various ratios of red to yellow. (When you
finishaddingone color,besure to rinse your
brush before you add another color.)
Now.let'strysome of the various combinations
you can mix forlight and dark complexions.
Cadmium Yellow Lemon and Cadmium Red

Light.
Here. 1 m1x cadmium yellow lemon w1th
cadm1um red llgtll.Notice !hot I place these colors
atlOlll on 1nc11 apart. Then Igo back to the water
supply, nnso my
brush, and. w1th a damp brush. come back and
d1ow tile two colors together to create a fa1rty llgtlt
com plextOn tone Actually.I'veusedatln too
muchwater tn thiS p:lrtocutar swatch and the result
IS a bn too ltgllt
Cadmium Yellow Light. Cadmium Red Light,and

Sap Green.Instead ot usmgcerulean blue tlloS tome,
1 substotU1o sap green. The result rs qu1te d1ffer
cnt ttus comblnatoorus muchmellower. The
green1Smuch bet ter 1nacomplcx1on that'son the
yellow Stde.wll1to blue ISmuchbOner tn a
tallcomplex<on.
Yellow Ochre and Cadmium RedLight. Inth1S case. I

subslttute yellow ochrelor thecadmtum yellow,The
re suit is verys1mila r to the first swatch.ondI'm sure
It's lmposs1ble to tell the dtllerence botwoon t he two
bl<lndedareas.lt'squite safe to saythOt youcan use a
cadmoum yellow or yellow ochre Interchangeably
Raw Sienna,Cadmium RedLight,and Phthato

Blue. Now weregeamg 1nt0 dark comp!cx1ons
Here. Iuse phthaiOblue 1nstead of cerulean blue.
ra'1s1cnna tn stead 0: cadmrum yello.v.and less
water to m1x these colors together .The
resulnsmuch darker than the pre VIOUS swatches.
Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Red Light. and Cerulean

Blue.Now 1 ad<!a thtrd color-cerulean blue-to my
comb1na11on.ll's usually necessary 10cullhe
inlens1ty of the yellow-red combonalion and. as
you'llsee on he following demonsrratons. many
areas oi lhe lace are very cool
Notlcewllatllappenshere when the blue 1S mixedwth
the yellow-red combnatoon We cansee the warm
color slowly ct1ang1ng and t>ccomng much cooter.
Raw Sienna,Cadmium Red Light, and Hooker's

Green.f1natly, IsubStitute Hooker 's g1een tor the
phthaloblue tst1U usccadmtum redand raws1enna
tor mytwowarrne1colOrs wc dusethese last two mix
lures tor darkcomplccted people and lor shadows 1n
hght complex1ons.
MIXING COLOR
t37
22
Girl with
Headband
Now I'llcombine the principles and

techniques of usingandmixing colorto show
you how to paint a full color portrait. My
subject will be a girl,mostly in shadow, withthe
light coming from behind and to theright.
This is a good lighting situation to work
with when you're using color. As a rule in this
back lighting situation, the shadow areas have
many color changes but few value changes
while the light areas have fewer color and
more value changes. Keep this rule in mind.
Although you'll find many exceptions to it, I
think it's saf e to say that shadows inthis
lighting situation aresimple in terms of
value,without a jumble of value changes.
Of course, other lighting situations do create
ex
citingcolor changes in the areas in light.But
inthis exercise,there aren't many color
changes in the light areas,and most of the
action-as far as color isconcerned-will take
place intheshadow areas. Whenever you
paint a color portrait,try to cap turethe
particular complexion of your subject. Re
member that colorsvary f rom one face to
another: some complex ions are very cool
and seem quite
gray. with very little red or yellow in them.
while other complexions arewarm and
appearvery red or very yellow. Generally, I've
also found that the middlesection of the
head-the ears, cheeks,and nose-tend to be
warmer than the forehead and the chin.
The pfocedureI'lluse hereIs the one
Igenerally usein paintingcolor portraits, with
minor vari ations that depend on the lighting
situation.the
subject. and my desire to experiment. I'll take

some time to make my sketch fairly
accurate.I'll use a basic oval as my foundation
and I'll use el lipses to indicate form and the
placement of the features. I'llusethe same
materialswe've used all along, and the palette
of colors Isuggested in Demonstration 20.
Preliminary Sketch.
Girl:Step 1.Im1x my 1n111a1wash wilh lhreecolors:cadm1um redhght. cadm1um

yel lowpale(youcould use yellow ochre). and atouch of cerulean blue (or sap
green). Theresullof addinglhis third, cool color to the wash w11l be a rather subtle
trans1lion
betweenthe warm and coolareas onthe face. Iblock In the left side of tne
nose, the
Iell cheek, and bolh eye
areas.
Girl:Step 2.1extend my hrst wash locover the left side of the face
andneck,paying atlention to thecontours of the nose.the upper and lower hps.
the ch.n. and the neck. (Noticethai a "balloon" has developed 10 the neck and
that an area of the lefl cheek
is too dark.I'll ignorelhese bothersome m1stakes for now.They'll probably be
l1ardly noticeable on the limshed 11ead.)Now Imix a puddle of cerulean blue
on my palette, load my brushand shake 11,and start wasl1ingm shadows wetin-wet. Iwork upward
!romthe warm wash, drawmg the cooler color toIhe Iell temple,across tile f
orehead. and around to the right eye socket. Ileave a small linger of light
JUtting into th1s shadow. as the beginn1ng of a tight nm on the top plane of
the nose.
GIRL WITH IEAD6ANO
139
Girl Step 3. Without pausing. Iwork the cool wash down into the lower cheeks.
the moutharea, tilechin,andthe neck.Then Imix some coot color into my basic
warm waShand blockon the shadow onthe roghlside ol the face.This area is
not as close to usastheleftsodeof the face. soit should be cooler than the
closer areas.When the waShes on the face arejust damp.Istan blockong on the
hair,usong burnt umber and but Illsoenna moxedwith cerulean blue.Then Iuse
undiluted cadmium red to begin blocking in the headband.(Noticethat. evenwtth
purepigment. some olthe red has bledinto the hair.I'lllix it tater.)
Girl:Step 4.t complete the headband,haor. and shirt. occasionally blotting

lllOse areas woth atissue to lighten them.to suggest texture. andto
softenedges.Now Itry to suggest the eyes while Ikeep them soft and indistinct.
Ibegon with light brown waShes and slowlywork toward the area where 1"11place
mydarkest dark.For thos very dark accent. Iusepure burnt umber with a touch
of cerulean blue. and Imake only a very small dot. Idarken the complexion by
restating the dark rom along the noseand suggestingshadow on the front
plane ol the face.Then 1add a dark accent at the t ight corner of the mouth.
While the headbandisstillwet,1scratch out some highlights. When thewashes
on the f ace are dry,Idarken them to make theplanes more definit e.
23
Oriental
Child
Preliminary Sketch.
My subject this time is a Japanese boy,under

a rather strong side light. The right half of his
faceis in shadow, while the left half is in the
light.
I'll use the same colors here that I've used all
along: the only real difference in my procedure
will be that I'll use the colors in different
proportions. Myfirst wash will be darker than
one I'dmix fora light complexion, because I'll
need alower range
of values inthe shadow areas. However ,the
areas of the face that are inthelight won't really
be much darker than those of a light
complexion. To me,the complexionof Oriental
people doesn't seem much darker than that of
white people: I think the more obvious dif
ference between the two races is in the
construction of the features.
There aresome interesting shapes in this
head.
For example.the right ear is quite prominent,
and I've tried to develop the interesting shape
in my preliminary sketch.Notice also the
difference be tween the shapes of the right and
left sides of the head. The lower right cheek is
def initely angular. while the left side is
described by a gentle curve.
The nose,which is rather flat,also needs a lot
of attention. Take a look at the sketch below
and you'll see what Imean. The "wings" above
the nostrils are important and should be
carefully de lineated. When Ipaint in the
nose,I"llfirst coverit with adark overwash to
describe the side plane of the tip of the nose
on the shadow side. Then, I"ll lighten the front
plane of the wing on the shadow
!?ide and add the darker nostrils to bring the
whole nose areainto focus. The nostrils
shouldn't be as dark as theeyes, orthey'll look
like two holes inthe face,so I'lluse burnt sienna
and bumt umber for the nostrils-not black or
Payne's gray.
Inmy finished painting,I'dlike you to notice
that
there are more value changes in the light areas
than in the shadows, which are painted with

just one value. The shadows here aren't really
more colortul than the light areas, although I've
added some rather strong red (probably too
strong) un derthe nose and inthe right ear.
Ithink it's a good practice to goalittle overboard
in some areas and make a good.strong
statement of color. Even if you do thisina very
small area,it might help you to get out of the
habit of using bland color.
When you work wet-in-wet,as IWilltor this
paint ing,remember to use enough pigment.
Even if you usetoomuch and strong color
contrasts show up, it's all right. The contrasts
may look too obvious at first,but they'llprobably
blendwiththe rest of the wash asit dries-and
color contrasts will add ex citement toyour
painti gs!It's much better to use strong color in
your first steps than to have a weak, washedout look.
The "wings" above each nostrilare catching

light and shouldbelighter invaluethan
theside planes of the tip of the nose.
ORIENTAL CHILD
141
Oriental Child: Step1.1 mix up a rich wash olcadm1um redlighl, raw sienna,
avery httle btlof ceruleanblue.and sap green (Icould also have used Hooker's
green)_ l want only avery small amount.of coot color 1nIhiSfirsIwash.
smceIwant i O have an overall teeling ol warmth_ You can see thai redis the
dominanl color .As Iwork oul
towardlheboundanes.IaddmoreceruleanblueonlherightsideofIhehead.and
moresap green on lhe left (Aga1n.lcould have used Hooker's green )Iwork
qu1ckly.
.,..<et ln wet. usmgmore p.gment asIaddcool colors to my puddle The hghl
1Scom1ng
from the upper left.so.before myfirst wash dnes. Iblot the upper leftside olthe
lace hghlly w1th a tissue.
Oriental Child:Step 2.Imass in the hair. using almost pure burnlsienna and
Payne'sgray. withalillie phthalo blue. The face has already dried, anda hard
edge is developing as Iadd the hair. This Is hne on the left side,bullwant a soft
edge .n Ihe shadow; so Iclean andshake my brush and work it upintothe hair to
soilenand I111
out the hardedge. Iuse almost the same m1x1ure on my shadow shapes. but
Isubsh luteHooker'sgreen for sapgreen to makeaneven darker
wash.Work1ng down the rT'IIddle ol the head. Iwash in my shadows
broadly,develop1ng the shapes ol 1he eyes. nose. mouth, and chin.NowIadd
morecool color-primarily cerulean blue-to mypuddle andwash inIhe right side
of he lace.Rellected light makes lh1sarea a bll hghl"!r lhan thecen1er or lhe
race .bulnot as lighl asthe main lighlareas. While my shaclowwashisslill very
wet, Irun aclean.damp brush down the right s1de plane 10 soften the division
belween the shadow and the areas of rellected ligl1t.
Oriental Child:Step 3.Starling at the lelt eye.Isoften the edge of the st1adow
across theeye form.leaving the hard edge at the nose bridge.Then.Idraw t he
wash down into the cheek andcontinue af lthe way down to the chintoshow the
lront plane of the cheek and to describe the highcheeK bones.Quickly, 1 go
back to the nose and soften the border betweenlight and shadow.Iwor kdown
to the tip ofthe nose.leav ingthe 11ardedge of Ihecast st1adow under it. Isolten
andlighten the inside area of the lips,bullleave a hardedge on the top border
ot Ule section of upper lip thai'sout
in 111e light.This subtect hasa
pronounced "flap" of skm a11t1e corner ot his mouth, so Idraw thedark wash
downand joinit upwitll lhe middle valueson theleft to indi
cate this. Iadd
some background, usingred to mellow my Hooker's green, and then
addingsome raw sienna and burnt sienna to 1he greenishwash. Before the eye
areas aredry-when they're just damp-Iadd the suggestion olthe eyelids and
irises. us ing plenty of pigment
Oriental Child: Step 4. Now I try to give more def inition to some areas
and some features. while Iretain the soft. "lost" quality in other areas.(First.
If inishthe back ground,to keepthe whole ptcture gomg at the same pace.)
Ipaint the boy's wtlite
T-shirt.whic 1gives the picture a pattern and design by contrastingstrongly wtth the
darker valuesol tr1ehead and background. Irestate 1t1e hair.addingdarker
valuesin some areas and scratching out some strands.Next, Iwork mto the
eyes with awet brust1. lfting out aligt1t strip wllere tilelowerlid iscatching
some lght. Idevelop the moutti,leaving lt1< darkest areaat the Iell corner and
breakingthe division between the llps at several places. I work qu1te hard to
def ine the chin and the darker area below the towerlip, putting indarks and
blottingthem witha tissue until the values areright. Finall,,Iadd some shadow
areas tothe T-shirt .using lighter shadows here because the shirtitsell is tight.
ORIENTAL CHILD
143
24
Bearded
Lobsterman
Preliminary Sketch.
144
In this demonstration, I'll use transparent

washes initially;
when
they
dry,l'llgo
intodrybrush,apply ing pure pigment over
the dried washes .
Thefirst principle Ihope you'll keep inmind
here is this: after you've established yourlarge
masses of light and shadow,solved your
drawing prob lems, and developed some good
color, you can carry a picture just as far as you
wish in terms of texture and detail. To many
people, detail is the most impressive part of a
good representational painting,but this
hasalways seemed wrong to me.
Even amateur artists can develop marvelous
detail! Ithink thetrick really lies in the
preliminary consid erations: good drawing,good
values and pattern, and good color. When
you've solved these basic problems, the sky's
the limit on the amount of "f in ish" you can
add. (Remember, of course,that de tailmust
always be developedwith the wholepic ture in
mind. Detail must never take over and destroy
the good pattern and vaii!Je range you've
developed.)
Thesecond point Ihope you'll rememberis
that
you must not finisha picture to the same degree
in all areas.To make some detail wor k,other
areas must be generalized and only
suggested.Andrew Wyethisa master at handling
highly finished paint ings beautifully.lf you have
an opportunity to see an original by Mr. Wyeth,
Ithink you'll see what I mean. At f irst,the whole
paintingwill appear de tailed,with every blade of
grass rendered care fully, but if you really
examine the painting,you'll
find many generalized "lost" areas, where

there is no detail. The finished areas work so
beautifully with the lost, generalized areas that
we have the impression that the whole pictureis
highly ren dered.
My friendHenley,who'salobsterman on Mon
hegan Island, Maine, isthe subject of this
demon stration,and I'm using photographs as
reference. I took these picturesof Henley while
hewas pulling traps on what /thought was
avery cold day in Feb ruary. (I'm sure he
found it quite mild.) I wish I couldsay that
Ididthe painting from life,but it was far too
cold for me,and there's no room on a lob ster
boat for painting. Iwas especially interested in
the raking light that's comingfrom the left.
It'shard to fake aspecific light like this without
a great deal of experience, so this is a case
where I think it's pertectlylegitimate to use a
photograph.Besides,
if Winslow Homer worked from photographs, so
can I!
The lightiscomingfrom the left,behind the
sub ject, and most of the head is in shadow;
so I'llstart right out withmy shadow wash in
Step 1.As a rule, Itry to go overboard with
color when Ibegin to block in my shadow
washes .When Iblock in my light wash inStep
2. I'llbe ready to wipe it out with atissue if it
looks toodarkor too strong. Don't be afraidto
useatissue liberally for blotting and wip ing
out. I use one often in a painting like this. I'm
not after a spontaneous,wet waterco lor look
here, and Iwon't worry about overworkingthe
painting.
Bearded Lobsterman:Step 1.Iuse moslly red, wilh a touch of raw s1enna. behind
the hair. Skipping the ear itself, Iuse the same colors until Iapproach the eye area.
Here. Irinse my brush and dP ot .nto cerulean blue moxed woth rust a bot of water
S.nce I'mgoong to usewet-on-wetlater .1 brush almost pure pogment onto the eye
area. 1 add more redandraw soenna to the orogonal shadow puddle on my palette
and brush 1n some warmer color on the cheek. I'm working quickly, to make sure
1 get good blends.Now. Iadd more coolcolor around Ihe mouth area.Slnco
I'mgoing to restate these shadows. Idon' t worry too much if the warmcoolcontrasts are too great at thos point.
Bearded Lobsterman :Step 2.The background at the front of the face isvery close
invalue tomanyoflhe shadows on the face.So Ipaont1n the background along
thos area andallow otto blend with the shadows on the nose and in the beard
area .I'm careful to keepa faorly firm edge around the eye. sonce th1s area is
more obv1ousty separated from the background.I'll wait for the eye area to dry
before 1 put 1n the
background here. Iwork into the beard, using wet-in-wet. Some of the beard near
the jawline is st ruck by light. so I'm caretuf to leave most of this area untouched. 1
use somedrybrush in the beard.being careful not to overdo it. Ibegin to wash In
the light struck area ot t he skin.This iswhere a litlle cadmium orange comes in
handy: 1addit to my very hght wash lor avery hght area that still needsstrength.
(You mo ght also try some cadm1um yellow.) t start the hat.usong cadm1um red
moxed with a htlle cadmourn Olar1Q6 and burnt soenna.The red atone would be a
htlle too raw.
BEARDED LOBSTERMAN
145
Bearded Lobsterman: Step 3. Now, I begin to bring things together. Iallow

my washes todry so Ican see where Istand.Iadd more background and start to
define t11e nose andbeard.Idarkenthe beardwithwet-in-wet,using cerulean
blue,some burnt umber, and burnt sienna. It's hard to be exact here. I add
the yellow lout weather jacket, and Iplacesome of theimportant shadow shapes
on the jacket when the first yellow wash is dry, using cadmium yellow
light, mixed with a little orange. (Cadmiumyellow meclium might a so work
wellhere.) For the shadows ,Iuse some raw sienna,some raw umber,and a
touch ol cerulean blue.
Bearded Lobsterman: Step 4. Iadd my finishing touches now. As Isaidearl
er,you can carryyour final stepjust astar asyou wish(but there is a stage at
which-de pendingupon your abilities-you can reach a peak and start back
downhill: so you should be ready towipe out!) Don't let your picture hardenas
you approach theend. Keepsome big blurs,like the areas I'm leaving in the
hat and beard.As youstart to scratcnout inyourlinalsteps, don't
indiscriminately pickawaywith your razor blade. Notice that the light-struck
sectionsol this beard have a particular placement, which gives the beard
lorm.Always be sure that your cast shadows descr ibe the lorm on whichthey
lie.For example,the cast shadow on the neckdescribes the round cylin derlkelorm olthe necK.Notice thevalues inthe shadows and inthe cast shadows.
They'redark enoughto show that they'reshadows. but lght enough to
appearlu minous and airy.
25
Child in
Sunlight
Inthisdemonstration, I'lldiscuss sketching a

child with watercolor. The subject is my son
Peter. Again, I'lluse sunlight to helpme create
a feeli ng of the structure of Peter's head.
Without strong lightandshade to help1ndicate
form,a sketchhke this wouldn't be possible.
A picture like this can succeed or failon
several different levels.It doesn't have to bea
perfect like ness intheliteralsense:I'd consider
a sketchsuc cessfulifit caught evena f leeting
impression of the particular subject.whether
that were accom plished intheoverall shapes
and construction or in a particular stance or
gesture.
As you can see 1nthe Illustration for Step
3,this
painting is much broader than the one Idid for
the previous demonstration.I'mnot theleast
con cerned with detailhere.Instead,Iwant to
create a feelingof light and atmosphere: Iwant
an impres sion of this boy and the sunlight
shining on him. In thelast demonst
ration,wewere concernedwit ha completely
different k1nd or watercolor,and fresh
ness wasn't really as1mportant as the character
of the particular subject. Ihopeyoucan see the
dif ference between these two approaches.
Don't feel locked into using the colors
Iuse in
these demonstrations:experiment with these
and other colors on your own.You might f ind
that the colors l'vesuggested are line. but
Ihope you'lltry some others.too.
Preliminary Sketch.
CHILD IN SUNLIGHT 147
ChildIn Sunlight:Step 1.1wash inthe light values.covering thewhole face.l

want a freshcomplexion. so 1mix quite a bit of caomiumyellow lemon with
mycadmium reo. Although Idon't often usecaOmium orange.Idotryit
occasionally ina light.lresh complexionsuchas this.and1"11 adda bot of ot
here.The mainlight iscomingIrom the roght,so Ilighten the area around the left
eye byblotting ot lightly with my tissue.Al thOugh rm putting wet washes next to
one another. rm not too worried about the bleeding lhat will lake place.
ChildinSunlight: Step 2. When myfirst washes aredry,l start adding some

browns tothe fr ont section of the hair,using burnt umber.Then Imix upawarm
shadow wash o1cadmium red light andyellow ochre.lwant this wash to
be quote dark.so Iusevery littlewater.(Youcould useraw sienna onstead of the
ochre.) t start blockonginthe shadows. and Iindicate the cooler .reflected light
byadding ceruleanblue wet-in-wet to make a good blend.
ChildinSunlight: Step 3.As Iwork, Ihold off on addingthe background areas

adja cent to the light sections of the f ace untilthose sections are dry.Iwant
crisp edges on the boundaries that face thelight, but the boundaries in the
shadow areas should blendand blur.My boundar ieson theleft side aren't
correct. so Iwipe them out witha tissue. As areasinthe tight become dry.Irestate
edges and forms.These are def inite shadowsonthe left sideol the f ace. so Iadd
a darker wash. Ithink youcan see how fluidmy paintingis at thisstage.This is
really why Idon't do a more caretul prelimi
nary drawing' Ilike thefeelingtl1at l'm not bound by exact outlines.This ismy
way ol
work ng, however,and you might well preler to work with more caretul
guidelines.
Child in Sunlight:Step 4. I'm concerned here that the head is not

resolved.Tt1e shadows really need to bedarker and more definite-but I've
destroyedso many pic tures by adding another shadow wash! Imight gainmore
delinition if Iadd one t1ere, but t also might lose the f reshness that's so
important. Although some watercolor paintings can becorrected and reworked
without being damaged-intact. correc tions and reworkings might occasionally
be assets-some paintings demand that "premier coup" look that you can only
get with just one or two fresh transparent washes.In this sketch, I've managed
to leave the head alone,but I've overworked the jacket. Can you see that the
jacket looks "tired" in comparison to the face?
CHILO IN SUNLIGHT t 4!)
26
Full Figure
r{\
Preliminary Sketch.
For this f inaldemonstration. !had planned to

do a very finished, nvolved figure,but I must
admit that finished. involved figures aren't
really my style. And there's actually no point in
doing something very involved for a
demonstration, because finish
ingtoucheswouldmake up most of the work,
and these are extremely difficult to
demonstrate.So thisfinalpaintingwill be like
most of the paintings in this book: in a sense
"unfinished ." But Ihope that byseeing
paintings inthis state, you'llobserve
and learn more of what goes into painting
portraits.
This will be apainting of mywife Judy,sitting
in strong sunlight I've always had a great deal
of trouble painting members of my family
,because I'vealways tried to get a par11cu1arly
good likeness. Ithink the more a painter worries
about likenesses, the harder they areto come
by.When I'mpainting a model or one of my
friends,Irelax and don't worry about a
likeness,and the likeness seems to happen
anyway! So I can cenainly say that you
shouldnever worry about likeness-just concen
trate on doing a good painting!
In this case, however, the f inal painting does
look like Judy.Notice in Step 4 that I've tried
to create a feeling of strong sunlight and that
I've concentrated on the form of the head,
rather than on the specif ic details. Ithink a
good likeness de pends more upon the
development of the overall
formof a particular headthan on the small

details. In the finalpainting,there aren't realty
any details intheface. but the painting looks
like the subject because the structure has been
caref ully observed and blocked in.(Of course.
it's much easier to de scnbe structurewhen the
subject is under a strong tight source.It'smuch
harder to make these broad decisions when
the tight is very subtle or when several sources
of light confuse the simple planes.)
Inmy preliminary drawing,as inall of my draw
Ings,I'llconcentrate on gesture. rather than on
the spec1fic features, and try to describe the
par1icular way thiS model issilting. I'lltry to
place the features accurately-to correctly
1ndicate the relat1ve diS tances from the
forehead to the eyes, the eyes to the nose,
andthe nosetothechin. etc.-but ,more
important, I'lltry to describe the relativesizes
and shapes of the features and the head as a
whole, w1thout pinning down the specific
details of a par ticular area.
Ithink some areasof the final painting are
over
worked.But Iwant you to see that mistakes don't
really ruin a painting. and some of the blurs and
poor areas actually create a feeling of
involvement that a beautifully done, flawless
watercolor might lack.EtJgar Degas said that a
painting looks like a battle-but a battle that the
artist has won!
'
.-.-- --'----
FullFigure: Step 1.At this stage. r11massin the basic colors and establ sh the
colors that woll dorrnnate the paintong.Ibeginwolh the face.which os quite light
because it's instrong sunlight. Then Iwash inthe hair with burnt sienna
andcerulean blue. using agreat dealof pogment. (The face wash wasn't quo te
dry. and some of the hair color raninto ot. I'llblot this with a tissue.) Whit e the
neck isstoll damp. Iwash inthesweater with pht11alo blue.alzarin crimson, and
burnt sienn;;,;;Itowing the colors to blendon the'fJaper. IIdoesn't really
matterwhichcolors Iuse here.as long as they'r e dark.
FullFigure:Step 2..The sweater isstillwet as Iadd the background, andyou

cansee that the two areas blendtogether (Thosis avery gOOd idea when you
placetwo very similarvalues next to eachother.Just use plenty of pogment and
keepshaking the excess moisture out ol your brush to keep such areas richand
dark.) Iusea tissue to wipe out andsolien some areas, including the tightstruck lower right portion of the ligure.Notice the number ol soil edges at t his
stage; the painting is very fluid and
lOOse
FULL FIGURE
151
Full Figure:Step 3.Icomplete the background.keeping a great deal of

softness throughoutthe picture.Ileave the area ol the hands untouched for
now,along with anarea ontheground. because these will be the lghtest
areas of the picture.(Iused abit toomuchwaterinmyclothingmixtures,and
thesweater has become too light. I'llrestate it at a later stage.) Icaref
ullyarticulate the more definite shadow shapes in theface, trying to indicatethe
major planes oflight andshadows and not worrying abcut the details.
Full Figure:Step 4. Ibring the face intofocus. adding a minimumof detail

around the eyes and mouth,andallowing the eyes to play a secondary roleto
the lights and shadows. I_ add some light wash to the hands and restate the
clothing,leavingIt
slightly higher inkey thanIwouldnormally makeilloindicate that the figure is
bathed
in light. I scratch out some details onIhe clothing wolh my fingernail and a brush
hand eanduse a tissue to wipe out some highl ghts onthe light-struck sections
of the knees and upper legs.1 restate the grass using greens. mixed with blue
and raw sienna. scratch out some texture With my lingernail and a brush
handle. and add more texture by spattering.
Bibliography
Blake, Wendon, Acrylic Watercolor. New York :

Watson-Gupt ill, 1970.
Barcsay, Jeno. Drapery and the Human
Form.
Budapest. Hungary: Corvina Publishers, 1958.

Bridgman,George B., The Seven Laws of
Folds.
New York: Bridgman Publishers, 1942.
Foster,Joseph K..Raphael Soyer: Drawmgs &

Watercolors. New York: Crown.
Hogarth, Paul, Creative Pencil Drawing.
New York: Watson-Gupt ill. 1964.
Hogarth. Paul. Drawing People. New York:
Watson-Guptill, 1970.
Hoopes, Donelson F.. Eakins Watercolors.
New York :Watson-Guptill, 1971.
Kaupelis, Robert. Learning to Draw. New

York: Watson-Guptill, 1969.
Kent, Norman, 100 Watercolor Techniques.
ed. by Susan E. Meyer, New York:
Watson Guptill, 1966.
McCord. David, Andrew Wyeth.(Pub. by Boston
Arts Museum) NYGS, 1970.
Mongan,Agnes. Andrew Wyeth: Dry Brush &
Pencil Drawings. New York: NYGS. 1966.
Moses Soyer. tntro.by Alfred Werner.
Cranbury, New Jersey: A S. Barnes. 1970.
Pellew. John C.. Painting in Watercolor. New
York :Watson-Guptill, 1970.
Werner.Alfred,DegasPastels.NewYork:
Watson-Guptill. 1969. London: Barrie &
Jenkins, 1969.
Hoopes, Donelson F.. The American

Impression
ists. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1972.

Hoopes. Donelson F.. Winslow Homer Water
color. New York : Watson-Guptill, 1969.
London: Barrie & Jenkins. 1969.
IllBLIOGRAPHY 153
Charles Reid was bominCambridge,New York.He

stud ied art at the University of Vermont at Montpelier
and the Art Students League of New York. His
paintings have won prizes from the National Academy
of Design,The Institute of Arts and Letters, The
American Watercolor Society,
Allied Artists,and The Society of Illustrators. In 1983 he
was elected amember of the NationalAcademy of
Design. Mr.Reid's other books include Figure Painting
in Water color, Flower Painting in Watercolor, Painting
What You (Want to) See, and Pulling Your Paintings
Together. His paintings reflect the same search for new
and better ways
of presenting ideas that is evident in his books.
Charles Reid livesin Connect cut with his
wife,Judith, and their two children.
Jacket design by James Creig and Robert Fitlle
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PORTRAIT

In this book, Charles Reid guideS the reader through a

WATSON-GUPTILL PUBLICATIONS / NEW YORK

This book is for Judy and Peggy

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Reid,Charles, 1937Portrait painting in

If this book is good,it's due to the efforts of

Head in Three-Quarter Lighting, 16

Portraits in Black and White

Head in Side Lighting, 20

Head in Front Lighting, 24

15. Child. 104

paper. Thisis a very quick

Selecting Color, 134

10 PORTRAIT PAJNTING INWATERCOLOR

For me.watercolor isa spontaneous and

how to draw before youlearn how topaint por

Sketch Class, 8"x14 "', Fabriano paper. This 1s

working in our sketch group.There are mistakes

About the only unpleasant aspect of

There are two main types of brushes,oxhair

PORTRAIT PAINTINGIN WATERCOLOR

Ithink good watercolor paper isvery important.

more punishment .The 300 lb. paper

Since you'll probably do most of your

I've never used an easelfor my watercolo r

when I'm carting arounda drawing board,

I'll go into a complete discussion of color in

Texture. 4"x6", Bristol paper. I took advantage of

bullthink you'll find it much easier to put the

14 PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR

though they make very nice lighllines. Ithink

Standing Girl. 4"x8".

16 PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR

Inthe five demonstrations that follow. you'll

sions. you can dampen it with water to make

Three-quarter L ghting:Step 1.Woth your pencil,

Three-quarter Lighting:Step 2.Allow the hrst wash

Three-quarter Lighting:Step 3. Now lor a very

I'> IN THREE-QUARTER LIGHTING 17

Three-quarter Lighting:Step 4. Next is the

PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR

Three-quarter Lighting:Step 5. Reload your brush

Three-quarter Lighting: Step 6. The mouth is just

Three-quarter Lighting: Step 7. Now comes the

Three-quarter Lighting:Step 8. To wrap this up,

HEAD IN THREE-QUARTER LIGHTING 19

Our first demonstration was concerned with the

Step t .You might also find it helpf ul to mark

In thisdemonstration we'll deal with side light

exercises.but here. with very simple ovals. they

S deLighting: Step 1.Allermoxing the paont andwater

Side Lighting: Step 2.Now,prepare a shadow

Side Lighting:Step 3.Now comes the

HEAD IN SIDE LIGHTING

22 PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR

Side Ughting: Step 5.The tower hp comes next. II

S de Ughllng:Step 6. For your lrnishrng touches.

Side Lighting. 8"x10".Fabriano paper. This

Front lighting is di1ficult to represent,

Front Ughtlng: Step 1. By now you should

be more adept at painting simple ovals, so a

PORTRAIT PAINTING INWATERCOLOR

Front Lighting:Step 3.Now, repeat the same