• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submit Question
  • Submit Your Artwork
  • You Asked!
  • Subscribe
  • Art Supplies

Art Instruction For Beginners - Online Art Lessons

  • Lessons By Medium
    • Painting
      • Acrylic Painting
      • Oil Painting
      • Watercolor Painting
      • Genesis Heat Set Paints
      • Mixed Media
      • Egg Tempera
      • Encaustic
      • GOUACHE
    • Crafts
    • Digital Art
    • Drawing
      • Colored Pencil
      • Crayon
      • Pencil & Charcoal
      • Pastels
      • Pen & Ink
      • Perspective
  • Lessons By Subject
    • Animal & Wildlife
    • Color Theory
    • Composition
    • Figure Drawing & Painting
    • How To Draw Cartoons
    • Landscape/Plein Air
    • Painting & Drawing Flowers
    • Chinese Brush Painting
    • Portrait Painting & Drawing
    • Seascape
    • Still Life
  • Artist Spotlight
  • Artist Interviews
  • Lessons by Style
    • Abstract Art
  • Resources
    • Art Instruction Videos
    • Art Supplies
    • Books/Ebooks
    • Home Study Courses
    • Software
Home » Watercolor Portrait Demonstration
Disclosure: Please note, that when you click certain links and purchase certain items through my Website , I will receive a referral commission. You can learn more by following this link. Thanks for your support!

Watercolor Portrait Demonstration

About Sandrine Pelissier

I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for the last 12 years, I am currently located in North Vancouver and work from a studio on Pemberton Avenue.

Watercolor is my medium of choice because of the unique way it allows me to render light. The transparency of this medium can make it look like the painting is lit from behind and the light is shining through the paper In my portraits, I like to tell stories about the people around me. I am very interested in childhood fantasy or fairy tales (I wish it would snow Flowers, Hair Balloon, Georgia, the Spanish dress and the Eclectus Parrot). I also like to induce a dialogue with the viewer in some paintings dealing more with introspection and mood (Mixed, In the studio).

Those portraits are not about likeness or knowing the people that are being painted, as I see my models as actors in a movie, they are the faces that will allow me to tell a story or to show emotions. Those faces are a source of endless fascination and I find the subtlety that can be achieved with watercolor well suited to the complexity of the human face.

My technique involves the accumulation of many transparent layers of watercolor. Then I like to incorporate mixed media in the background, work sometimes with some contouring. I also sometimes like to add some drawing on top of the painting or some graphic elements…

Sandrine’s Website

Sandrine’s Blog

Visit Sandrine’s Print Shop by Clicking the Banner Below:


Art Prints


I wish it would snow flowers selected for Splash 13 : Alternative Approaches – Watercolor Portrait Demonstration

(Click Images for Larger Views)

I was very happy to learn that my watercolor and mixed media painting : I wish it would snow Flowers was selected for the #13 of this great collection.

I found some pictures that show some of the process I used to paint this watercolor.

This is the picture I used as a reference, I modified in on paint shop pro to remove the background. I would love to work from life but unfortunately it is difficult to find that kind of time with children 🙂

This is my drawing, the paper is Arches cold process. I am using some liquid frisket to reserve the white in some part of the hat and the tiny highlight in the eyes.

This is my first layers of yellow, mainly with Yellow ocher for painting the face.

On the background I used Cadmium Yellow.

Here I start to add the red, I use black and white pictures of split colors channel to do so, see post here for details

Here I start adding some blue, I am careful to have a “light hand” with blue as it can quickly overpower the other colors.

Adding other colors to adjust. I mixed some gouache with blue watercolor on the background. I try to show some texture on purpose on the background as well. I also leave some backruns on purpose in some dark areas of the hat.

Here is a closeup of the face.

I work on the background with watercolor pencils dipped in water.

The finished watercolor portrait painting.

Related Posts

  • Beautiful Watercolor Portrait Painting Demonstration by Artist Yong Chen

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoo7xK8MP0 Watch artist Yong Chen create this beautiful portrait painting of a little boy in…

  • Acrylic Portrait Painting Demonstration

    This is a really cool 6 part acrylic portrait painting demonstration by artist ERIC T.…

  • Watercolor Portrait Painting Tutorial

    About Sandrine Pelissier I grew up in France but have been living in Canada for…

Filed Under: Portrait Painting & Drawing, Watercolor Painting

Comments

  1. Laurie Vaughan says

    December 4, 2011 at 1:36 am

    Love the subject, loved the colors. You make it look easy, but its not.

  2. bud says

    February 29, 2012 at 9:09 pm

    i also am a wash artist,,,i can appreciate this portrait and ur work,,extremely excellent in my opinion,,,impressive is an understatement,,,thanks for sharing ur work and ur instruction.

  3. Aileen says

    March 1, 2012 at 10:01 pm

    Love your technique.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Join Us!
Free Art Lessons, Updates, Deals and More!

We respect your email privacy

Creative Catalyst Art Instruction DVD’s

Creative Catalyst Art Instruction DVD's

More Free Watercolor Lessons

Watercolor Fundamentals: How Much Water Should I use?

Step by Step Portrait Study Walk Through in Watercolor

Advanced Watercolor Texture Techniques

More Posts from this Category

© Copyright 2017 ArtInstructionBlog.com · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions of Use ·