Painting eyes and beginning a value study

Preparing a drawing for a value study

The next step to doing a portrait is to do a value study. This has several advantages:

    1. You get practice softening edges and creating soft transitions with just one color.

    2. You get more familiar with the face.

Here is the picture I am going to demo.  First I printed off both a 3 value from Notanizer and a black and white photo. I will use both to help me find major shapes and more subtle shapes.

If you are not confident enough to draw the face on your own, do this:

ON THE B&W PHOTO, I used a fine point Sharpie to outline the important shapes: eyes, lips, nose, etc.

I made dotted lines where there will be gentle shading. I copied it onto regular paper and made adjustments where needed. (This prevents me from having to erase or make too many marks on my watercolor paper, thus damaging the paper.) The Sharpie will show up better on  a light box, and you won't accidentally trace shadows instead of correct shapes. When you are happy with your picture, trace it onto your watercolor paper.

When I am DRAWING my face instead of tracing, I draw a rough sketch on regular paper. I use tracing paper (transparent) and redraw just the lines I want. Only after I like the sketch do I transfer it to my watercolor paper.

Everybody has a scale they feel comfortable with drawing. You can draw your portrait on the scale you are comfortable with, then ENLARGE your final drawing to the size you want to paint.

Gently erase lines that seem too dark, leaving enough mark that you can see it. I like to roll a kneaded eraser over the entire picture, which picks up some of the loose graphite from the pencil.

I masked off the highlight in the eyes and a few strands of hair. Using a 1" flat brush, I wet the entire face. Then I put a pale wash of burnt sienna wet into wet over the entire face and some hair. I used a flat brush because the wash goes on smoother, and I can apply more paint at one time, avoiding getting back-runs. I dried that, then put in the next value on the face under the hat, chin, and neck. Notice that I covered the white of the eyes with a light value also. We'll continue this next week.

PAINTING EYES

Here is the blog from May, 2017 on how to draw and paint eyes. I really haven't changed how I do it in the past 8 years. 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8812132386157895665/2620890659995623982

Here is a video on proportions of the face, including a few things about eyes we discussed: The face is about 5 eye widths wide and 7 eye widths long. the distance between eyes is an eye width; the side of the nose comes to the inside of the eye; the width of the mouth comes about at your pupils. And if you drew a line from your right nostril through your pupil, you could find where the arch of the brow is. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz3xK-8cF_E

Knowing general proportions of the face helps you to see what may be different about a face....a narrower nose, eyes closer together, etc.

GETTING A LIFTING BRUSH/ MAKING ONE

You will eventually need a stiff brush for lifting highlights. For faces, I generally use a Monarch #4

flat or filbert. They make "scrubbing" brushes, which cost about $5 for a pack of 3 different sizes. Those are stiffer bristle brushes, useful but not gentle. You can make your own by taking an old used brush. I wrap the bristles in tape, then cut them with a razor blade to make a shorter bristled, stiffer brush for lifting. You can also get inexpensive flat brushes that are nylon but a bit stiffer than your normal brush. I think they are by Simply Simmons.

A 6 min video on lifting: She used a regular brush, but it can be hard on my good brushes, so I use special ones for lifting dried paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmbmEu0rC7Q