I like my watercolour portrait studies to be loose and expressive. However, I generally start with the beginnings of a likeness in dry media and then model the form in a very limited palette.
I often begin by drawing in charcoal, although I do use pencil at times as well. For the initial painting, I frequently use only burnt sienna and ultramarine blue:
Burnt sienna and ultramarine blue… a great pairing because they give a nice range of warm and cool tones. Don’t be frightened of blues in the shadows and features, you need them! Notice that I leave quite a bit of white space. That’s because I’m defining my shadow areas with the initial washes and I want to leave myself plenty of bare paper for some chromatic washes later on.
Only now do I think of adding more colour. In this case, just some warmer tones and a splash of background:
Here’s a second study, started with the same mid-tone wash in burnt sienna, dulled with a bit of ultramarine blue. I followed this with a darker mix using the same two colours – but more potent and perhaps a touch bluer…..I go really dark and bluish to define my “darkest darks” typically around the features:
The foundation of the original blocking is still very evident in the final piece, through the screens of some warm tones (alizarin crimson and Hansa yellow) and cool accents (cobalt blue), applied judiciously:
I find this approach works well in many cases. Studies can be a good opportunity to go expressive with hair and experiment a bit…..well, it is a study and should be spontaneous! A student commented that their work looked lifeless and I asked “so what’s your favorite colour?” – and just adding a partial wash…yellow in this case…was all that was needed.
Personally, I’m often drawn to using a last minute wash of cerulean blue, a colour I find really integrates the work:
Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Here’s a Watercolour portrait workshop moment: http://www.breakabrush.com/2018/04/20/workshop-moments-painting-a-portrait-study-in-watercolour/