elly, watercolored 8.15.2019

Here’s a painting a finished last month. It’s a watercolor portrait of my second child, daughter Elly Anne. I start with a photo that includes a lot of shadow, or light and dark, then print it out in b/w and color to 8.5×11. I use the b/w copy to trace the image and shadow areas on to watercolor paper, and I use both copies for visual reference.

Here’s the traced portrait, outlining facial features and shadow areas.

This is the first two coats: gamboge yellow, then yellow-red.

More yellow, and an addition of rose red.

Added aquamarine blue, and went back over the painting as needed with all 4 colors: yellow, yellow-red, rose-red, and blue.

It’s pretty amazing what colors I can get from simply mixing the three primary colors. More of these to come!

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