Portrait studies using colour. Layering paint. Handling hair.

 

Frederick Varley and Vera Weatherbie

No Canadian Portrait course would be complete without a mention of Fred Varley.

Fred Varley’s 1931 portrait of Vera Weatherbie has become one of the iconic images in Canadian art – probably the best known portrait across the country. Although a member of the Group of Seven, Varley was always a figurative painter at heart.  This portrait shows why, a radiating and expressive  presence.

Vera Weatherbie was Varley’s student, muse and for a time, more. Varley painted her in 1931, the artist that she was, in an artist’s smock. It actually looks like studio lighting to me with light sources both left and right. The portrait is a masterclass in the use of expressive colour and if you look around the face, you see purples, greens, blues as well as warm tones. There’s basic layout or underpainting in raw sienna and black.  Colour has been added onto this base.

A fair number of my students have used this image as inspiration and versions in acrylic, watercolour and dry media invariably work out well. It’s the expressive nature that give us inspiration and the permission to innovate!

 

Handling Hair in Watercolour

Hair can perhaps pose some special challenges, at times requiring some trial and error and it’s easier to be loose and gestural before the face area is completed.

I don’t like to get lost in individual strands – hair is a complex combination of natural colour, reflections and importantly, shadows. Again, with any mass of hair, there are areas of extreme dark…even with light hair tones. That’s what I focus on, keeping the the following in mind:

1. Start with building the mass of hair in one or two tones. With modernist styles, this may well do the trick.
2. I always leave some white space, for highlights and equally, to allow myself some creative “wiggle room” for later.
3. Darks need to be cool, regardless of colour. Blue/blacks underlying brown tones, a little green (yes, green!) with blonde.Then, build lights onto the dark base, keeping the idea of reflections for more than strands of hair.
4. Always keep the brush moving in the direction of the hair. Brushstrokes, direct or subtle, matter greatly- the eye will then pick up the natural fall of the hair. Conversely, marks that go against the flow destroy the illusion. This is a great example of one of my mantras: it’s not important to be right, it’s the absence of wrong that creates the illusion. (this by the way, goes for skies, water and perspective).
5. The edges are often where all the action happens: look at sharp edges, diffused shadows and overlapping clumps of hair.

Interestingly, I have seen some highly realist processes that follow the same sort of idea – they just keep the detail going, adding individual hairs and highlights.

 

Layering colour onto a low-tone base in Watercolour

 

Adding colour onto an already-formed image, whether fairly developed or rudimentary, is helpful in a couple of ways: First, there is an image already there to guide you, so that you can focus more on colour than form and value – colour is a world unto itself and adding colour can now be accomplished without compromise. The earlier washes then “peek through” the layers and this gives a consistent feel which integrates the image.

Method

I generally use the following approach:

1. I use the formed low-tone image as a guide. Working the analogous colour over the existing tones is relatively safe and you can also move out into white space – without totally covering it up.
2. I build the colour into mid-tones and darks first, leaving highlight colours for later. I might typically use a touch of some complement in the light areas to bring them out – whilst again keeping some white space.
3. Regardless of whether I’m looking to be realistic or expressive, I start in a similar manner. The difference is in the degree (vibrancy) of colour and perhaps number of washes.
4. My approach to skin and tones is as simple as I can make it, so that I can concentrate on painting. I will typically use a warm tone from Alizarin and Hansa/lemon yellow, with a complementary blue, often Cerulean.
5. Selective lifting out works very well at modifying the effect of washes and forming contours. This can be accomplished at any stage, although best executed when the paper is dry. In the heat of painting, I don’t always take my own advice!
6. Finally, my mantra is “always be painting” meaning that regardless of the specific process, I am looking for effects to improve the painting, often seeing details to adjust and paint effects that I like, so I will make any changes as I go.

Exercise

1. Following the general process above, add colour onto your low-tone foundation (new or from Lesson 2).
2. Respond to the image as it develops…with most watercolours you need to stop and assess how the applied effect is working. When you see something that intrigues, perhaps look at extending it. Conversely, an effect that does not resonate can often be lifted out.
3. By all means evolve the image as you go….modifying forms and adding detail around features. If in doubt, keep it simple. Some suggestions for forming features follows next week!

A useful check:

A useful check to ensure that the layout is appropriate is to look at the relationship between the center of the eyes (the pupils) and the corner of the mouth. Everybody has a characteristic face layout, such as wide eyes and small mouth, long or short face:

This is worth a last check before you proceed to any detail with individual features. At the same time, this metric helps ensure that the face is appropriately positioned within the head shape itself.